HealthCare

Introduction

United States health care system is represented by independent services at three main levels, a family medicine, hospital care and public health. Medical services in the U.S. are private individuals and legal entities. Various commercial, charitable and government organizations offer patients both outpatient and inpatient services. About 47% of all U.S. health care costs are the costs of hospital care, about 2% - home care, 10% - medication and 10% - for the maintenance of nursing homes. The remaining 11% cover services of dentists, ophthalmologists and other specialists (Belmartino, 221-240).

United States - has the most expensive health care system in the world. U.S. spends on health system more than any other industrialized country - both in absolute terms and relative to gross domestic product (GDP) per capita (Wesson, 97-120). Thus, only in 2007, U.S. spent on health care 2.26 trillion dollars, which amounts to 7,439 dollars per person. According to recent estimates in the U.S. for medical care consumes about 16% of GDP. It is expected that the share of GDP devoted to health in the U.S., will increase and by 2017 will amount to 19.5% (Sultz & Young, 98-126). However, over the past 30 years, increased spending on this sector is mainly due to government programs that could seriously undermine the financial stability of the country (Patel & Rushefsky, 56-74).

1. Should healthcare be an individual right such as education, police protection, and legal counsel?

The right to health care means that the disease, disability, and in other cases, citizens are entitled to medical and social assistance, which includes preventive, curative and diagnostic, rehabilitation, orthopedic and dental care, and social measures to care for the sick, disabled and handicapped, and the payment of temporary disability. It also includes medical and social assistance medical, social workers and other professionals in health care and social welfare. Citizens are entitled to free medical care in state and municipal health care systems.

In the last couple of years, there have been two major problems with U.S. healthcare. First, we had almost 50 million uninsured people who were essentially unable to access healthcare, according to a December 2010 brief from the Kaiser Foundation and the Census Bureau. Studies confirmed that these uninsured did not receive preventive care and often didn't get urgent care when needed. When they did get care, society paid-either through higher premiums or special taxes for uncompensated care. According to authors of healthcare legislation, this problem was largely solved by health reform (Wesson, 97-120).

The second problem remains, however. Evidence shows we, as a country, spend too much money on healthcare. The fraction of GDP spent on healthcare has been rising consistently at a rate above inflation and now stands at about 17 percent, calculated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Medicare alone is on track to consume 100 percent of the federal budget (David, 154-177).

Any way you measure it, we spend more than any other country and sometimes get less actual care. In fact, one study suggests that Americans paid “40 percent ...