US Healthcare System and the Cuban Healthcare System Compared The health care systems of many countries have been compared time to time by exercising some studies (Ida Hellander and JoAnne Bailey, 2001). In USA, around 45. 8 million people are without health insurance and they know that this healthcare system has not been implemented for everyone in the country.
The US healthcare system has become the topic of great discussion. At one point some put it as the best healthcare system in the world, which has highly advanced technology but on the other hand some argue that American healthcare system has inadequate insurance schemes and poor administration and especially they indicate that American expenditure is more on healthcare than other countries in the world (Kao-Ping Chua, 2006).
In 2000, WHO presented a report on health systems of its members mentioning three key objectives of a good health system: (1) good health: which must give the best health status to the whole population of a country for full life, (2) responsiveness: healthcare providers should be responsive to the clients’ treatment, (3) fairness in financing: providing financial protection to everyone with costs circulated on the basis of a person’s payment capacity (Ida Hellander and JoAnne Bailey, 2001). Following are some facts that have to be considered while making comparisons (Ida Hellander and JoAnne Bailey, 2001):
1) Cost: The US has the most costly healthcare system in the world by having the reasons like: expensive medical technology and high administrative costs. According to a survey in 1999, 15. 5 percent population of US is uninsured that makes the healthcare system expensive as health crisis occur in later stage since it is not prevented in early stage. Those complicated conditions make the treatment more expensive like the expenses of emergency room or intensive care unit. 2) Access to healthcare: Except South Africa, US is the only country that does not provide heath care to its all citizens.
The private health covers employed people and the public insurance covers the elderly that is Medicare and for the military, veteran and the poor and disabled people Medicaid is there. So this unsystematic approach of healthcare generates a big gap. 3) Health and Well-Being: The WHO reports that disability- adjustment life expectancy (DALE) that is estimated healthy years of an average population of US is very low and it ranks 24th. Especially the infant mortality rate is very high. 4) Responsiveness: In US the uninsured people have bigger problems in getting responsive caregivers than those who are insured.
This is happing especially in private health coverage via Medicaid and some others. 5) Fairness in Financing: It focuses on the point of fair distribution of financial services among the whole population. According to the report of WHO, US was the lowest of all the countries. 6) Attainment and Performance: This criterion examines that how is a country performing in its healthcare system in contrast with its level of resources. In WHO evaluation, the US healthcare system received rank 15th in attainment and 37th in performance.
7) Satisfaction with Healthcare System: The WHO reports says that in US only 40 percent people were satisfied with their healthcare system, which was very low. The US Healthcare System The US healthcare system is the mixture of public and private insurers where private insurers are more powerful than public insurers. According to a 2003 report 62% non-elderly Americans had private insurance and 15% had public insurance and 18% were uninsured (Kao-Ping Chua, 2006). Public Health Insurance • Medicare: It covers people aged 65 and above and also disabled people.
It is managed by the government solely, which is responsible for the reimbursement of insurance. The finance comes from the federal income taxes that is the collective effort of employers and employees. It is divided into four parts, where Part A covers services related to hospitals, Part B has physician services, Part C is related to Medicare Benefits and Part D gives drugs benefits (Kao-Ping Chua, 2006). It has the coverage of 39. 7 million people, which is 14% of the population. . It has some drawbacks like no coverage for efficient nursing facilities, preventive care, dental, vision and hearing care.
That is why many people have to pay 22% of their income for the cost of their healthcare apart from the Medicare coverage. • Medicaid: This program is planned for disabled and low-income people and it includes children, elderly disabled, poor pregnant women and parents. It does include the adults without children and it is difficult for many poor people to qualify Medicaid. It runs under the administration of District of Columbia and The states with valuable fifty-one programs. It receives the finance from the federal government and the states mutually through taxes. Federal government’s share for the payment is 57% of the costs of Medicaid.
It has extensive benefits for its clients which includes prescription drugs. Its drawback is that many of its clients face difficulty because of its low rate of reimbursement. • Other Public Systems: S-CHIP- It is the State Children’s Health Insurance Program especially for children whose parents cannot purchase private health insurance. Its administrative and financing formation is same as Medicaid. VA- The Veteran’s Administration focuses on veterans of the military. It benefits them with exceptionally reasonable care. The veterans get the treatment in government hospitals and clinics.