Satvat Healthcare: The Truth Behind Universal Healthcare
So What Is Universal Healthcare Anyway? Does America Have It? (Read: NO!)
From Wikipedia, With Several Additions from Amir and Jessica
Universal Healthcare is healthcare coverage for all eligible residents of a political region and often covers medical, dental and mental healthcare. These programs vary in their structure and funding mechanisms. Typically, most costs are met via a single-payer healthcare system or national health insurance, or else by compulsory regulated pluralist insurance (public, private or mutual) meeting certain regulated standards.
Universal Healthcare is implemented in all but one of the industrialized countries, with the one exception being the United States. In America, the government directly covers 27.8% of the population through health care programs for the elderly, disabled, military service families and veterans, children, and some of the poor, through Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and TRICARE. Federal law ensures public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay. However, this unfunded mandate has contributed to a health care safety net that some analyses say is increasingly strained. Certain types of medical spending and particularly health insurance benefit from significant tax subsidies; in particular, employer-sponsored health insurance is a non-taxable benefit. In all, government spending accounted for 45.1% of total health spending in the U.S. in 2005.
Current estimates put spending on health care in the US at approximately 16% of GDP. In 2007, an estimated $2.26 trillion was spent on health care in the United States, or $7,439 per person. Health care costs are rising faster than wages or inflation, and the health share of GDP is expected to continue its historical upward trend, reaching 19.5 percent of GDP by 2017. On top of that, there is substantial expenditure paid from private insurance. A recent study found that medical expenditure was the cause for 60% of all personal bankruptcy in the United States. According to Dr. David Himmelstein of Harvard University who helped author the study, "Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy...for middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection..."
The US spends more on health care per capita than any other UN member nation. It also spends a greater fraction of its national budget on health care than Canada, Germany, France, or Japan. Even with these ridiculous expenses, the World Health Organization found that:
"The U.S. healthcare system is the highest in cost, (yet) 37th in overall performance, and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations included in the study)"
In 2004 the US spent $6,102USD per person on health care, 92.7% more than any other G7 country, and 19.9% more than Luxembourg, which, after the US, had the highest spending in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Although the US Medicare coverage of prescription drugs began in 2006, most patented prescription drugs are significantly more costly in the US than in most other countries. Factors involved are the absence of government price controls, enforcement of intellectual property rights limiting the availability of generic drugs until after patent expiration, and the monopoly purchasing power seen in national single-payer systems. Some US citizens obtain their medications, directly or indirectly, from foreign sources, to take advantage of lower prices.
The US system already has substantial public components. Of every dollar spent on health care in the US, 45 cents comes from some level of government. The federal Medicare program covers the elderly and some people with disabilities, the federal-state Medicaid program provides coverage to some of the poor, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) extends coverage to low-income families with children, Native Americans are covered while on the reservation, merchant seamen are covered by the Public Health System, and retired railway workers and military veterans are also covered by the government. Government also affects private sector medicine through licensing and regulatory barriers to entry into health professions.
Health care spending in the U.S. is also highly concentrated. In 1996, 5% of the population accounted for more than half of all costs.
People in the US without health insurance coverage at some time during 2007 totaled 15.3% of the population, or 45.7 million people. The current economic downturn and rising unemployment rate caused the number of uninsured to grow by several million in 2008 and 2009.
The cost and quality of care in the United States are frequently the two major issues of discussion. While cost comparisons are relatively easy, the reasons for higher costs in the US and quality measures are frequently subject to debate.
Universal Healthcare is healthcare coverage for all eligible residents of a political region and often covers medical, dental and mental healthcare. These programs vary in their structure and funding mechanisms. Typically, most costs are met via a single-payer healthcare system or national health insurance, or else by compulsory regulated pluralist insurance (public, private or mutual) meeting certain regulated standards.
Universal Healthcare is implemented in all but one of the industrialized countries, with the one exception being the United States. In America, the government directly covers 27.8% of the population through health care programs for the elderly, disabled, military service families and veterans, children, and some of the poor, through Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and TRICARE. Federal law ensures public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay. However, this unfunded mandate has contributed to a health care safety net that some analyses say is increasingly strained. Certain types of medical spending and particularly health insurance benefit from significant tax subsidies; in particular, employer-sponsored health insurance is a non-taxable benefit. In all, government spending accounted for 45.1% of total health spending in the U.S. in 2005.
Current estimates put spending on health care in the US at approximately 16% of GDP. In 2007, an estimated $2.26 trillion was spent on health care in the United States, or $7,439 per person. Health care costs are rising faster than wages or inflation, and the health share of GDP is expected to continue its historical upward trend, reaching 19.5 percent of GDP by 2017. On top of that, there is substantial expenditure paid from private insurance. A recent study found that medical expenditure was the cause for 60% of all personal bankruptcy in the United States. According to Dr. David Himmelstein of Harvard University who helped author the study, "Unless you're Warren Buffett, your family is just one serious illness away from bankruptcy...for middle-class Americans, health insurance offers little protection..."
The US spends more on health care per capita than any other UN member nation. It also spends a greater fraction of its national budget on health care than Canada, Germany, France, or Japan. Even with these ridiculous expenses, the World Health Organization found that:
"The U.S. healthcare system is the highest in cost, (yet) 37th in overall performance, and 72nd by overall level of health (among 191 member nations included in the study)"
In 2004 the US spent $6,102USD per person on health care, 92.7% more than any other G7 country, and 19.9% more than Luxembourg, which, after the US, had the highest spending in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Although the US Medicare coverage of prescription drugs began in 2006, most patented prescription drugs are significantly more costly in the US than in most other countries. Factors involved are the absence of government price controls, enforcement of intellectual property rights limiting the availability of generic drugs until after patent expiration, and the monopoly purchasing power seen in national single-payer systems. Some US citizens obtain their medications, directly or indirectly, from foreign sources, to take advantage of lower prices.
The US system already has substantial public components. Of every dollar spent on health care in the US, 45 cents comes from some level of government. The federal Medicare program covers the elderly and some people with disabilities, the federal-state Medicaid program provides coverage to some of the poor, the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) extends coverage to low-income families with children, Native Americans are covered while on the reservation, merchant seamen are covered by the Public Health System, and retired railway workers and military veterans are also covered by the government. Government also affects private sector medicine through licensing and regulatory barriers to entry into health professions.
Health care spending in the U.S. is also highly concentrated. In 1996, 5% of the population accounted for more than half of all costs.
People in the US without health insurance coverage at some time during 2007 totaled 15.3% of the population, or 45.7 million people. The current economic downturn and rising unemployment rate caused the number of uninsured to grow by several million in 2008 and 2009.
The cost and quality of care in the United States are frequently the two major issues of discussion. While cost comparisons are relatively easy, the reasons for higher costs in the US and quality measures are frequently subject to debate.