National Healthcare Analysis

Introduction

This paper is an exploration of some of the suggestions and debates that have surrounded the issue of national health care in the United States over the past few decades. In particular, this paper will be an attempt to clarify some of the most common positions (both pro and con) surrounding the potential for a national health care system in the United States. Every effort will be made to present data from an objective point of view in order to allow readers to evaluate the strength of the arguments made. In the interest of concision and brevity this paper will divide this complex issue into two distinct domains of discussion: moral, ethical and philosophical positions, and economic challenges.

Analysis

According to US Census data, the number of Americans without any form of health insurance was 41.2 million or 14.2% of the population. This number rose by 1.4 million from the previous year. Alarmingly, nearly 11.2% of children (8.5 million) under the age of 18 were without health coverage in the United States. While these data in their aggregate form seem to point to something of a crisis in health insurance coverage for millions of Americans, a closer look at some seemingly paradoxical demographics of the uninsured adds another layer to the picture. Among the entire population 18 to 64 years old, workers (both full- and part-time) were more likely to have health insurance (83.0 percent) than nonworkers (75.3 percent), but among the poor, workers were less likely to be covered (51.3 percent) than nonworkers (63.2 percent) (www.drhurd.com).

As poor workers become ineligible for governmental insurance programs (such as medicaid) due to income limitations, they are still likely to be working in jobs that do not provide insurance benefits. This same document reports that, among the poor, the overall rate of those without health insurance was 30.7 percent, more than double the rate for the population as a whole. The uninsured face numerous threats to their health and are at increased risk for mortality and morbidity (www.ilo.org).

Few would argue that these rates of persons without health insurance are acceptable. However, a sometimes acrimonious debate has surrounded this issue and its potential solutions. One such heavily debated suggestion to deal with the nations uninsured and underinsured has been some form of a national health care system. But before beginning a discussion of some of the various proposals that have been made and the arguments that surround them, it may be useful to examine a number of key ethical, moral and philosophical positions which underlie these arguments (Himmelstein, D., and Steffe Woolhandler, pp 45-289).

Ethical, Moral And Philosophical Grounds

Though the discussion surrounding a national health care system in the United States can quickly turn into one that is dominated by political and economic considerations of feasibility and implementation, the issue itself is grounded in a set of ethical, moral and philosophical considerations. Various experts and pundits have weighed in on the debate surrounding calls for a national health care system precisely because ...