“Your Healthcare. Your Choice.”

by Shain Waugh 

The United States is identified as the only industrialized nation without a universal health care system (UHCS). UHCS is a state in which all residents of a geographic or political entity have their health care paid for, regardless of medical condition or financial status. It is approximated that 45 million American are without health insurance, which 80% (36 million) are employed. The challenges facing the 45 million involves the inability to fill prescription, get medical advice, and preventive care.The challenge with the U.S. healthcare system is that the country spends $2 trillion on health care every year, health care costs are skyrocketing, health insurance premiums are rising, lack of affordable health care availability, and there are major flaws in quality with health care providers. As an example, over 100K Americans dies from medical error each year.

With this in mind, the philosophy of universal health care is successfully practiced in many countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cuba, Sweden, Germany, and an array of other countries.Sweden as an example is a country of about 9.1 million people on the Scandinavian Peninsula of Northern Europe. Geographically, it is slightly larger than California, U.S.A. It is a single-payer system of health care in which the government pays the majority of all health care costs. The country has struggled in the past with health care expenses causing a strain on government budgets, rationing health care, instituting waiting lists for medical appointments and surgery. 

Canadians as another example, strongly support the core values including equality, compassion, and social solidarity. The interesting concept is that the country’s medical system is built from the understanding of citizenship as opposed to social programs. The system is largely government-funded, with most services provided by private enterprises. The challenge with this system includes long waiting time for major non-emergency surgery, technological adaptations, and challenges with coverage during travel.

The U.S. Health Systems should focus on prevention and public health from its communities perspectives. Politicians such as Presidential hopeful Barack Obama “Every American should have health care coverage within six years.” The challenge with the statement is that mandates will be required. With mandates comes increased expenses and conservatives, which means there will be an array opposers to universal health systems causing misleading attacks, resistance, and a long-winded acceptance process. For Senator Clinton, her plan is to secure health insurance for all Americans while severely limiting the ability of insurers to deny coverage or charge higher premiums to people with chronic illnesses or other medical problems. The plan would preserve a large role for private insurance companies, which will promote the use of health information technology, and low-cost generic drugs.At present, the U.S. health care system faces an unmeasurable struggle in addressing universal health care.

The U.S. politicians hold the strategic and tactical keys in integrating and improving the countries health care system, but how influential will their influence be in making a change. Obama’s plan creates mechanisms to make both private and public health insurance readily available, individual mandate, and focuses on children. Clinton’s plan does the same, but requiring every American to buy health insurance. Which country’s or U.S. politician’s integration strategy is the most efficient, is still up for globalized discussion.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 10th, 2007 at 8:44 pm and is filed under Health Care, Health Information, Globalization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.