Healthcare of any nation is paramount to its success, growth and development. In the past 2 years, the healthcare has become a subject of debate in the United States. The recent “Obama-Care” plan has come into question with analysts and specialists looking for better and cheaper methods of handling health care. The Single-Payer system has been broadly discussed. In this paper I will seek to critically analyse this healthcare system or plan with reference to personal healthcare coverage.
The single-payer system is pegged on the fact that government, instead of private health insurers, should pay for the health care costs of all the citizens. This healthcare plan allows for the government to contract private organizations to handle the system, as is done in Canada, or it may choose to hire its own personnel and employ its own healthcare resources, as is done in the United Kingdom.
- The single-payer system has many advantages some of which include:
- The system attempts to cover all the legal citizens of the country
- The system aims to provide near-universal healthcare for all the legal citizens
- The system will attract huge savings on the amount spent on healthcare by savings through the eradication of hospital billing costs and insurance company overhead. Also through the provision of prevent universal healthcare to the citizens. The immediate savings are estimated to be $350 billion per year and the long-term savings are estimated to be 40% of the current healthcare expenditure.
The only weakness with this system that has been omitted would be the disparity between doctors’ profession in terms of income would reduce. This means some doctors will have their income increase while others’ will not change. The satisfaction of doctors is vital for the success of this plan. I therefore strongly suggest that this omission be dealt with. The only manner to solve this is to increase the pay for doctors through a portion of the funds that will be saved as a result of implementing this healthcare system. However, this will have to be a long-term process.
I am currently insured under a parent’s policy. This healthcare system would greatly improve my access to healthcare services due to the coverage of all legal citizens under the single-payer system. The reduced premiums would make healthcare cheaper but may lower the quality of healthcare.
In conclusion, I believe the single-payer healthcare system would be advantageous to both the citizens and the American government. It would save both a great deal of finances to be directed to other important issues such as global warming.
Works Cited
Hunnicutt, S. (2010). Universal helath care. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
LeBow, R. H. (2003). Health care meltdown: Confronting the myths and fixing our failing system. Chambersburg: A.C. Hood.
Merino, N. (2011). Health care. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.
Montana Health Care Authority. (1994). tatewide universal health care access plans for single payer system & regulated multiple payer system. Helena: The Authority.
