Healthcare of United States of America

Healthcare of United States of America

Introduction

In the U.S., the healthcare system is very different from the system of many European countries. The United States of America is the owner of the most expensive health care system in the world. Unlike other developed countries, the United States has a system of universal coverage. With the exception of those aged 65 years and those with low incomes, who have access to a government health system, each citizen has a responsibility to seek their own medical coverage. Many Americans get through their employers and other private health insurance contract. U.S. spends on health system more than any other country in both in absolute terms and in relation to gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. We can take an example of expenditure in 2007 in which U.S. spent about 2.26 trillion, on health which amounts to 7439 dollars per person. According to recent estimates in the U.S. health care consumes nearly 16% of GDP (Schuster, 2008). It is expected that the share of GDP allocated to healthcare in the U.S. will increase to 2017 will amount to 19.5%. However, over the past 30 years, an increase of this sector is mainly due to government programs that could seriously undermine the financial stability of the country.

The health system in the United States is characterized by contradictions and complexity. On one hand, USA has a large amount of the latest technology, including many of the top business schools medicine, clinics, hospitals and research centers worldwide. Without But many American health resources are never the provision of much of the population. The great American contradiction is to have one of the large, expensive and complicated systems healths of the world, while that over 42 million Americans have minimal access to health resources. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate decline of US healthcare system and its consequences for elder and retired citizens. This paper purely talks about the future of retired and elder citizen of United States.

Discussion

When we assess needs of elder and retired citizens we need to consider these four factors

Health status that includes lifestyle behaviors diseases, and disabilities,

Social factors that includes culture, religious, and social values

Access to healthcare services including healthcare providers hospitals, nursing, and clinics

Economic status that consists assets, insurance, and income of elders and retired citizens

Old and retired people are mostly based on their social network that it why it is important for them to stay connected to their friends and families. As our cultural and social system is changing, it is affecting out old and retired citizens. Economy has an impact on everyone and old and retired citizen's healthcare is also affected by this factor. From the statistics of health care expenditure on health care we can say that government has started to spend too much on Medicaid and Medicare and because of economic downturn, these high spending has put the healthcare facility of Elders and retired people into huge risk (Kleinman, ...