The Overview
Unlike most countries, the US doesn’t have a uniformed health care system; neither does it have a universal health care coverage, and has only recently passed a legislation that mandates this. Because of this, the system is viable to a great number of possible loss and shady profit as well. It is widely known that back in 2009, the US lost seventy five billion dollars ($75,000,000,000) on fraud alone, fifty five million dollars ($55,000,000) in missed opportunities of prevention and one hundred and ninety billion dollars ($190,000,000,000) in paperwork and administrative cost that nobody seemed to need .
While most Americans do have health insurance, this still doesn’t make up for the fact that this seven hundred and fifty billion dollars loss in one year is almost as large as the Pentagon’s spending in the Iraqi War for eight years. With a loss as huge as this, it is only to be expected that patient’s health care will drop as well . As expected, this drop will mostly affect low to no income wage earners, the elderly, and people with disabilities.
Another explanation for this event is the fact that the US has more elderly than before with the baby boom generation entering retirement thus needing more in health cost. This of course may not really be the case as the population may be getting older; the US still has a relatively young population. Statistics show that only thirteen percent of the US’s population is over sixty five years old .
Another reason why health care is expensive in the US is the fact that there is more expensive medical technology available in the US. The procedures for a knee replacement alone require two different operations . Even if this is the case, studies have shown that compared to other countries, the US has neither the best nor the worst overall health care conditions for its citizens. If so, then what was the purpose of all of that expensive equipment?
The Elderly
With all of this going on, what does it mean for the layman? Let us first take a look at the elderly. Out of three thousand people in the report that appeared in Journal of Internal Medicine covered by health care. Seventy five percent (75%) of this control group is said to have a cost of around ten thousand dollars per household ($10,000) for the elderly back in 2002 to 2008, the total being thirty eight thousand six hundred and eighty eight dollars ($38, 688) while the other twenty five percent (25%) had an average of one hundred and one thousand, seven hundred and ninety one dollars ($101,791) for the elderly in their household. A quarter of them said that they spent more in healthcare than the rest of their expenses combined .
The cost of this is even expected to rise by the year 2030, adding a total of twenty five percent (25%) to the nation’s total expenditure in that year. It is even expected that eighty percent (80%) of the elderly that are over sixty five (65) in the county will have at least one chronic illness . How will the country survive then? The answer will come later.
Low Income Workers
With a lower possibility of being covered by their employers, low income workers are more likely to not have health care insurance than their employers. Since the year 2000, sixty eight percent (68%) of small companies, only three in every two hundred workers were offered with health care, with the rate dropping all the way into 2007 when fifty nine percent (59%) offered health benefits. In 2000, ninety nine percent (99%) of larger firms with at least two hundred (200) workers offered health care benefit and unlike smaller companies, did not drop in 2007. Considering the number of firms of employees in 2000, sixty nine percent (69%) offered health insurance. That number has dropped drastically to only sixty percent (60%) by 2007 .
In a study made by the Kaiser Family Foundation back in 2009, it was seen that forty five percent (45%) of low income adults didn’t have any health care insurance and are thus more likely to have poor health . From the same study, it is estimated that thirty one percent (31%) of these low income adults come from families below the poverty line.
The Disabled
Thankfully, in the hope of preserving life, as of 2010, health care companies can no longer refuse to cover for children with pre-existing medical conditions. Unfortunately however, the same cannot be said for adults, at least not until 2014 . Regardless, the implementation of the affordable health care act back in 2010 has helped ease the expenses of people with disabilities and their families .
This
The Debt to Be Paid
While health care is all good for anyone covered by its umbrella, the world, unfortunately, will not give anything for free. So the question remains, who will be paying for all this? The obvious answer is the people of course, especially those whom the umbrella covers. Those who can afford it won’t really have a problem, those who can’t however, is a different story. In a recent study by the Commonwealth Fund, the US could save up to two trillion dollars ($2,000,000,000,000) in health care expenses for the next decade if they adopted cost effective care such as Medicare, Medicaid and other government and private programs .
Because of the lack of funds, people without health insurance tend to delay or even for forgo proper medical attention. This has led to scenarios as lethal as death itself. In a study by the American Journal of Public Health published back in 2009, it was seen that the lack of health care insurance lead to the death of forty five thousand (45,000) deaths that could have been avoided to begin with. From a number of forty six million (46,000,000) people without health care back in 2009, the rise did not stop even into 2012 where the number of people without health care insurance was estimated to be at around forty eight million and six hundred thousand people (48,600,000). It is now estimated that forty eight thousand (48,000) people die from preventable deaths every year because of the lack of health insurance .
Because of the avoidance of proper medical attention due to the lack of an insurance, sickness that could have been treated earlier tend to get more severe before it can be treated, not only does this actually increase the cost of treatment, this also increases the risk of death. A study done in 2008 by the American Cancer Society showed that individuals who lacked medical insurance were more likely diagnosed with late stage cancer than those with insurance . Also, those without insurance were more likely unable to get follow up treatment.
The Uninitiated
For someone without any knowledge about the statistics of health care programs in the country (as improbable as it might be) all of this doesn’t really affect their lives much. Either they have the resources to pay for the possibility of extending their lives or they do not. If they do, then the only thing that an average American will look for in the bill is ‘what can I get from paying this?’ and ‘should I actually pay it?’ This sense of nonchalance can be found in the fact that, while a person’s health is important, more often than not, the price to pay is too steep. Thus a person will most likely think on a short term problem, over one that is considered long term and inevitable: death.
References
Health Care Cost: Expenses Hurt Elderly The Most. (2012, September 6). Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/health-care-cost-elderly_n_1858944.html
Center for Disease Control and Prevention; The Merck Company Foundation. (2007). The State of Aging and Health in America 2007.
Docteur, E., & Bereson, R. A. (2009). How Does the Quality of US Health Care Compare Internationally?
Longley, R. (2010, September). Health Care Reform: Disabled and Older Persons. Retrieved from http://usgovinfo.about.com: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/healthcare/a/hrefdisabled.htm
Lowrey, A. (2012, September 11). Study of US Health Care System Finds Both Waste and Opportunity to Improve. Retrieved from www.nytimes.com.
Morgan, D. (2013, January 10). Health Care Spending Target Could Save US $2 Trillion Over the Next Decade, Study Finds. Retrieved from www.huffingtonpost.com: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/10/health-care-spending-target_n_2444763.html
Sack, K. (2008, February 18). Study Finds Cancer Diagonsis Linked to Insurance. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/health/18cancer.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1203443524-1XOu0YisWP8MKgZnPMWtbQ
Squires, D. A. (2012). Explaining High Heath Care Spending in the United States: An International Comparison of Supply, Utilization, Prices and Quality. The Commonwealth Fund.
The Kaiser Family Foundation. (2007). Employer Health Benefits Annual Survey.
The Kaiser FAmily Foundation. (2007). Low Income Adults Under Age 65: Many Are Poor, Sick and Uninsured.
US Government. (2010). Health Care Reform For Americans with Diasbilities.
Wilper, A. P., Woolhandler, S., Lasser, K. E., McCormick, D., Bor, D. H., & Himmelstein, D. U. (2009). Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults.
Woolhandler, S., Himmelstein, D., Adams, G., & Almberg, M. (2012, September 12). Despite slight drop in uninsured, last year’s figure points to 48,000 preventable deaths: health expert. Retrieved from http://www.pnhp.org: http://www.pnhp.org/news/2012/september/despite-slight-drop-in-uninsured-last-year%E2%80%99s-figure-points-to-48000-preventable-
