Health care is the major concern in any nation that cares for its people aside from economic growth. Without a healthy nation, all activities would slowly depreciate and there would be no adequate human resource to run the economy. For this reason, every country seeks to find the most suitable means of ensuring availability and affordability of health care (Lawson 31). Based on the provided links, there is minimal question regarding the need to restructure the America’s health care system which is in tartars. At the moment the healthcare system is faced with several drastic issues that require to be reviewed competently in order to improve the system. Such healthcare issues include lack of proper insurance coverage, lack of funding for the medical education, the shortage of doctors, physicians, and nurses, and training the wrong kind of doctors. The other important and pronounced problem with the country is with the age of medical practitioners (McLaughlin & Arnold 21).
Debate on health care reform in US generally includes the question of privileges to health care, fairness, quality, sustainability and the amount of money spent by the federal government.
Majority of people spends large sums of money on healthcare despite the government providing huge sums of money as subsidies. Based on the article, “In OECD Countries, Universal Healthcare Gets High Marks” by Ian T. Brown and Christopher Khoury, most countries in the world tends to support national rather than local healthcare because it instills confidence among the people .Such a system ensures quality healthcare for all enabling every member of the public to obtain healthcare without discrimination. There are a number of advantages which come with the universal healthcare system. For instance, the system is binding such that all the insurance companies are able to be held responsible for all the insurances given (Ian & Christopher 1). Also, the systems as advocated by president Obama has seen the country’s healthcare advancing so that people can be able to get free health care and insurance plans. Currently, the politics of the country have been aimed in improving the health care in the country by coming up with policies which shall play a bigger role in promoting the country’s health. Research has also been proliferated in the country towards coming up with new technologies and medicine to provide the best health care. Outcome measurements have also been assured and patient satisfaction surveys and other quality management initiatives, which have been done to promote health care in the country (McLaughlin & Arnold 54).Critics of the universal health care such as Marcia Angell regard the system as non cost effective, based on the capability of federal government to increase current tax rates to pay for healthcare. Such taxes lay burden to taxpayers, making the entire process non effective.
Specifically about 68 per cent of doctors in the US are specialists, 32 per cent generalists such as Family Practitioners and Pediatricians. Health system experts are in agreement that the mix should be much closer to 50 per cent specialists and 50 per cent generalists. With these kinds of statistics, it thus appears that the above goals of training must have been misplaced because it has never been able to solve the shortage of doctors and the reason it should be necessary to come up with ways through which the issue can be addressed. The other important and pronounced problem with the country is with the age of medical practitioners. As the population continues to age, the remaining doctors in the practice continue to age thus placing their ages higher so that the young Kildare doctor is no longer young. As the older generation continues to retire in the country, more and more individuals continue to lack health care, and hence it would be necessary that all the policies brought forth in this country are aimed in seeing more and more individuals joining the field and being able to provide the appropriate health care to the population, and thus be able to realize the American dream (Lawson 41).
Works Cited
Ian, Brown & Christopher, Khoury. In OECD Countries, Universal Healthcare Gets High
Marks. 2009. Retrieved from < http://www.gallup.com/poll/122393/OECD-Countries-
Universal-Healthcare-Gets-High-Marks.aspx>
Lawson, Peter. ‘National Health Care in the United States: Exploring the Options and Possibilities.’ Journal of Health. 2008:2(2), 34-41.
McLaughlin, Curtis & Arnold, Keith. Continuous quality improvement in healthcare. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.2006. Print.
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