Points of View - Healthcare System Usa

Points of View

Amanda Bundy

HUM/115

April 18, 2016

Nora Clarke

Points of View

Healthcare System

To put it simply I think our healthcare system is broken, especially since Obamacare came into action. More and more people are unable to afford the high cost of the insurance plans, and if you do not get the coverage, you get a fine at the end of the year. The Affordable Care Act was supposed to have been created to help people, but with the high cost of plans and outrageous deductibles & being fined if you do not get coverage, it seems to have hurt people more than help them.

Healthcare Crisis Countdown: [ALL Edition]

"Polls find at least 60 percent of Americans want public financing of the $2 trillion healthcare system, something that would work the way Medicare does for older citizens. The government would foot much of the bill from private hospitals and physicians" (Francis, 2006, para. 14).

I believe the information that is provided in the article is not reliable. The author quotes others’ work and talks about percentage ratings of various things having to do with the healthcare system but, he does not show any proof. There are not graphs stating how, whoever conducted the study, came up with those numbers and no external link content anywhere to verify the information at hand.

The author David R. Francis seems to be credible from the research I had done on him. According to “The Fiscal Times” (2016) website, he is a very well-known author for multiple newspapers and websites, a few being, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Sports Illustrated. He has reported all over the world on a number of topics, and he holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and a master’s degree from Georgetown University.

I do think that the article is credible, even though he failed to show his proof. After doing a bit of research, I had found that the information he provided to be true. An example is; “the drug industry usually ranks as the most profitable. In 2002, it made a 14 percent return on assets; the Fortune 500 made a median of 2.3 percent” (Francis, 2006, para. 9).  While I found the same information on another web page, according to "Public Citizen" (2003), " return on assets of 14.1 percent, compared with a fortune 500 median of 2.3 percent" (para. 4). So even though he may have failed to show evidence, the information at hand is accurate and not biased.  

U.S. Health Care from a Global Perspective

According to “The Commonwealth Fund” (2015), “Data published by the International Federation of Health Plans suggest that hospital and physician prices for procedures were highest in the U.S. in 2013. The average price of bypass surgery was $75,345 in the U.S. This is more than $30,000 greater than in the second highest country, Australia, where the procedure costs $42,130" (exhibit 7).

I do firmly believe that the information provided in this article is reliable. The author’s quote and cite many research studies and provide adequate proof throughout, in the form of charts and graphs along with the source for each one.

David A. Squires, one of the authors, has a master's degree in bioethics from New York University and graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's in English and minors in Economics and Philosophy from Bates College (“The Commonwealth Fund”, 2015). Chloe Anderson, another contributing author, according to “The Commonwealth Fund” (2015), “Ms. Anderson holds an M.S.W. with a concentration in Policy Practice and Research from Columbia University. She also graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Sociology and Philosophy from New York University” (Chloe Anderson). I do believe with the credentials both the author’s hold makes them credible.