US Healthcare: Strengths and Weaknesses

By: Leroy A. Binns Ph.D.

While healthcare in United States is noted for the finest medical facilities, technology, innovations, treatment and human expertise the service it provides is not inclusive of the public at large.

Unfortunately in most instances those who benefit are either covered by employers or through government assistance to the indigent and elderly via Medicaid and Medicare respectively. This formula disregards over 37 million Americans, a third of whom are children under 18 years of age. US subjects are also confronted with disadvantages such as medical liabilities that trigger spiraling costs – the highest worldwide on record to date. Case in point is medical malpractice that results in 98,000 deaths and 1.5 million injuries per annum. Such presents a huge monetary burden to insurance companies threatening the sustenance of health care providers within the industry as well.

The system has also become a financial albatross to misuse of emergency services and ineffective communication practices. Hospitals are forced to divert human and material resources within emergency departments to patients lacking insurance credentials for unrelated concerns. In addition dependency on a paper based system of medical records is inefficient in coordinating and sharing valuable information and monitoring compliance with prevention and disease management programs.

To offset expenditure and ineffectiveness demonstrated by a cumbersome regime the passage of legislation introduced the 2010 Health Care Reform bill that will within the next five years provide the following:

Access to coverage of all unmarried individuals up to the age of 26 under their parents’ health insurance plans unless the aforementioned has his/her individual policy

Immunization and preventive care with all programs

Coverage with pre-existing conditions

An end to unreasonable annual or life time limits on health care provisions to be determined by income, size of family and use of coverage.

The expectation of minimal insurance to all by 2014 or risk of penalty

Considering many will remain uninsured a single payer system as evident in Canada is worthy of consideration. It too carries baggage such as limited access to high tech procedures, shortage of equipment and beds, omission of assistance for some medical matters and cost overruns but allows all citizens an opportunity to receive primary healthcare regardless of location or employment status. It is credited in part due to the focus on primary care giving which currently experiences a shortage in America and an administrative overhead that is 11% of all healthcare cost as opposed to 19% to 24% in the United States. Moreover when judged among comparable arrangements in 10 developed nations it has received kudos from the Harris polls as the most satisfying service of its kind.

With a growing demand for improved quality in the delivery of healthcare in America current and future administrations must consider the value of human life and its correlation to productivity and advancement and act accordingly. An alternate course of action will most definitely permeate the society with unfathomable social chaos.

Sources

Cooper, Ed and Taylor, Liz. Comparing Healthcare Systems. Good Medicine 6/29/00.
Donohue, Tom. US Healthcare: Strength and Weakness. Washington Examiner, 2/08.
What is Obamacare? www.insuranceproviders.com