Healthcare

HEALTHCARE IN THE UNITED STATES

The US is the only country in the developed world, except for South Africa, that does not provide healthcare for all of its citizens. Every other developed country in the world as well as some developing nations offer universal healthcare for their residents. In the US, nearly 50 million Americans have no health insurance, more than 10 million of which are children. Those Americans that do not have access to healthcare are often either unable to afford health insurance, or have been denied coverage by insurance companies. Individuals often have coverage denied due to pre-existing conditions or diseases. The list of diseases used by insurance companies to deny coverage number in the thousands. Insurance companies are not willing to take the risk of insuring unhealthy people, which means that people that need insurance the most do not have access to it.

The US spends more money on healthcare than any other country in the world. In fact, the US spent $2 trillion on healthcare in 2005 and this number is growing. It is expected to rise to $2.9 trillion by 2009. Comparing US healthcare spending to other nations with universal healthcare such as Norway, France and Canada, we can see that US is spending drastically more. From Exhibit 1, US healthcare spending per capita annually is $5,771, while healthcare spending in Canada is $2,998 Ð'- nearly half that of the US. Another way to look at healthcare spending is to see what portion of national's GDP is spent on healthcare. From Exhibit 2, we can see that US healthcare spending as a share of GDP is the highest in the world at 15.2%, while that of Canada is only 9.9%.

(http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm)

Exhibit 1

Total Health Expenditures Per Capita, U.S. and Selected Countries, 2003

Exhibit 2

Total Health Expenditures as a Share of GDP, U.S. and Selected Countries

The United States' health financing system is the least fair of all the developed nations, according to World Health Organization (WHO). Each individual is responsible for financing his or her own healthcare in the United States. In most cases, Americans have to purchase health insurance in order to cover unexpected healthcare related costs. However, even Americans with health insurance are not always covered to the extent that they think they are, because insurance companies do not guarantee the payment for certain procedures. For example, over 50% of family bankruptcies filed in the USA involve medical expenses and over 75% of those bankruptcies are filed by people with health insurance. (http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/Warren070717.pdf) It is clear that all members of the population, from the rich to the poor are affected by the "least fair system", but the poor are affected the most.

The healthcare system in the US seems to be a vicious cycle, especially for the poor. The poorest section of society and those with chronic illnesses cannot obtain health insurance. Half of all American households earn less than $48,000 per year, which is not enough to cover serious illness treatments. (http://www.census.gov) When health problems are not properly treated, as they are not without insurance, the symptoms persist and may become long term disabilities. Health problems and disabilities make it increasingly difficult to find employment. Without employment, there is not enough money available to afford health insurance for the children of those afflicted. In turn this causes children's health problems to not be properly treated. In 2006 the poverty rate for minors in the USA was 21.9%, the highest rate in the developed world. Those people get stuck in this vicious circle and find it very hard to get out of it. Therefore, without access to healthcare, members of society suffer severe hardship.

In comparison to America's healthcare system, the Canadian healthcare system used to have a similar health system to the one practiced in the USA today, but switched to socialized healthcare three decades ago. Right before Canada switched to socialized healthcare it's life expectancy, infant mortality and spending per capita on healthcare were all close to that of the USA. Nowadays, Canadians are expected to live 2.5 years longer than Americans, the infant mortality rate in the US is 31% higher than in Canada and spending per capita on healthcare in US is nearly twice that of Canada per capita. (http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=1503)

The governments of the United States and Canada are closely involved in the delivery of healthcare to their residents. However, the main structural difference between the two countries is health insurance. The Canadian healthcare structure is quite simple: The national government provides universal healthcare and all residents of Canada are fully insured, as opposed to the healthcare in the United States, where 46 million people remain uninsured.

The United States splits up its healthcare costs among the following:

- Private individuals, who are responsible for purchasing insurance for themselves and their families.

- Private organizations, which encourage their employees to enroll into healthcare policies.

- Federal government, healthcare funding of which is limited to Medicare, Medicaid, Veteran Administration and SCHIP (State Children's Health Insurance Program, (Wall Street Journal, July 11, 2007.).

One of the major problems and complaints about the Canadian health care system is waiting times, whether for a specialist, major surgery, or specialized treatments. Canadian people think that this problem arises from the country's lower costs and commitment to universal coverage. Studies by the Commonwealth fund found that 24 % of Canadians have to wait 4 hours or more in the emergency room, versus 12 % in the U.S.; 57 % of Canadians wait 4 weeks or more to see a specialist, versus 23 % in the U.S. However, Canada's multi-billion dollar budget surpluses have allowed new funding to the healthcare system, the primary purpose of which is to reduce the waiting time for treatment. (Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2007)

Some of the extra money spent in the United States goes to doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals, all of who receive higher compensation than their colleagues in Canada. Such factors as higher cost of living in the U.S., lower private cost of medical training in Canada, and high costs of medical malpractice