Although America is among the richest in the world we are still far behind many other in the line of health care and providing it to our citizens. Other countries have found a solution to their health care problems through the means of; universal coverage such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan, are just a few among many of the countries that have decided to take this path. Some countries have relied on a different type of health care systems known as socialized medicine.
Socialized medicine is a system for providing medical and hospital care for all at a nominal cost by means of government regulation of health services and subsidies derived from taxation. We have yet to find a solution to our “broken” system. With many people not being able to afford health care but still making too much to get health care under welfare. Many people like Nikki White, a thirty-two year old from Tennessee, will die because of our flawed system. Once Nikki was diagnosed with lupus it was impossible for her to get any health care. She had spent her last month’s pleading for help. As Dr.
Amylyn Crawford said “Nikki didn’t die from lupus, she died from complications of the failing American health care system. It was a lack of access to health care that killed Nikki White. ” With people dying for due to a lack of healthcare that the country can provide leaves me to believe that the American health care system is definitely broken. The way Health care is setup in the United States you must either make enough money to pay for your own, have a job that insures you, or get welfare. With unemployment at this rate many people are losing their health care due to the loss of their job.
Many will have jobs that don’t offer health care but the job will pay too much to be able to get welfare, as well as not enough for them to buy their own insurance. We do not have a universal coverage, otherwise known as universal health care, referring to a system that provides coverage to everyone. Most nations offer universal coverage to all their citizens. Many countries will use this type of health care and keep the coast at a reasonable rate. Using private doctors, private hospitals, and private insurance plans. The United
States, however, has a piecemeal system of coverage that leaves approximately 46 million residents uninsured at any given time. This will leave plenty of people stuck in a situation such as Nikki Whites. There are three types of universal coverage, single payer, Two-Tier, and Insurance Mandate. With single payer the government provides insurance for all residents and pays all health care expenses except for copays and coinsurance. With the two-tier system the government provides or mandates catastrophic or minimum insurance coverage for all residents, while allowing the purchase of additional voluntary insurance when desired.
With the final system, insurance mandate, the government mandates that all citizens purchase insurance, whether from private, public, or non-profit insurers. Although many people don’t like the term “socialized medicine” it is already a part of our health care today. The U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs is one of the world’s purest models of socialized medicine at work. With socialized medicine the government makes the rules and pays the bills. The other socialized form of health care that we have is in the Medicare system covering about 44 million elderly or disabled Americans.
Both of these systems have become very popular and have rated very high in recent surveys for patient satisfaction. Many developed countries manage health care without using socialized medicine. A lot of Americans fear the idea of taking an idea from another country they see it as anti-American and unpatriotic. In all reality it is what we need to do. The idea of other countries will help us refine our systems and put millions of people back on the health care system and possibly save numerous lives. I believe that we need to follow the way Taiwan runs their health care system.
They run what’s called a National Health Insurance, or NHI, The system promises equal access to health care for all citizens. NHI is mainly financed through premiums, which are based on the payroll tax, and is supplemented with out-of-pocket payments and direct government funding. They took a look at all the other nations and mixed-matched the best of each. They may have a higher tax on their health care but there is no wait and you can pick your doctor. All of your medical records are kept on a Health IC smart card which is a little card that is the size of a debit card.
It holds about thirty two kilobytes of memory that includes provider and patient profiles to identify and reduce insurance fraud, overcharges, duplication of services and tests. Another country that has a decent health care system is England. Health care in England is provided by the National Health Service (NHS), is free at the point of use for the patient though there are charges associated with eye tests, dental care, prescriptions, and many aspects of personal care. The NHS provides the majority of healthcare in England, including primary care, in-patient care, long-term healthcare, ophthalmology and dentistry.
The NHS is divided conceptually into two parts covering primary and secondary care with trusts given the task of health care delivery. There are two main kinds of trusts in the NHS reflecting purchaser/provider roles: commissioning trusts are responsible for examining local needs and negotiating with providers to provide health care services to the local population, and provider trusts which NHS bodies are delivering health care service. England’s publicly funded health care system, which accounts for most of the Department of Health’s budget.
The actual delivery of health care services is managed by ten Strategic Health Authorities and, locally accountable trusts and other bodies. From the birth of the NHS in 1948, private healthcare has continued to exist, paid for largely by private insurance. Some people are fine with the way this country’s health care is now just fine and have no problem with the way things are run, on the other hand many people are left out in the cold with no one to help them, no one to give them the chance that they deserve to live.
I believe that America should move to a more socialized medicine health care system. Although we may have higher taxes our overall health as a nation should increase. We already have a hint of socialized medicine in our health care with the U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs is one of the world’s purest models of socialized medicine at work. With socialized medicine the government makes the rules and pays the bills. The other socialized form of health care that we have is in the Medicare system covering about 44 million elderly or disabled Americans.