Essay Sample on U.S. Healthcare: A Combination of Private & Public Coverage

Introduction

Healthcare in the United States is offered by numerous organizations acting either privately or controlled by the government and other non-profit organizations (Epstein, 2020). The private sector which includes private health insurance companies, corporate companies, and other business owners and operates health care facility by a greater percentage (Epstein, 2020). In the U.S., healthcare coverage is given via a joining of private health insurance and public health coverage such as Medicare and Medicaid. Unlike other developed countries, the U.S. does not have a comprehensive healthcare program compulsory to all her citizens.

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According to "PBS Frontline, Sick Around America" the documentary focuses on the major challenges that affect the United States, and how life is for a citizen of the United States when they get sick or needs medical services for his/ her family, for example, a child or a mother (Brabantstraat, 2017). One of the major challenges is the high medical bills. Several factors constitute high medical bills. In the U.S., for instance, the cost of drugs is high as compared to other developed nations. A self-employed renovator in the documentary is shown to suffer from a 95% blockage in the heart at the age of 51 years old (Brabantstraat, 2017). The doctors prescribe Plavix as one of his drugs, which he has to take to stay alive. The cost of drugs alone in his scenario, according to the documentary, is more than 300$ a month. Treatment is also expensive in terms of surgery and other treatment methods.

A couple who lived in Seattle, Washington, were expecting a baby boy. The documentary shows that Melinda Williams, the mother, gave birth to a premature baby. The quality of treatment in the United States is very high, which saw baby boy survival. The medical bills, on the other hand, were very high as they came up to around 1.6 million dollars. Fortunately, Melinda's husband worked at Microsoft Company, one of the few companies that offered high-quality medical coverage.

Health insurance is dependent on the place of work a citizen works. According to most companies, it is expensive to provide medical covers to the employees, due to the high medical bills. Downsizing renders a lot of American citizens without a medical cover like Paul Steven, a 58-year-old man laid off in the year 2005. Such retrenchment leads people to search for private insurance coverage, whose premiums are very high. Paul Stevens, for example, was presented with health premiums of 750 dollars a month (Brabantstraat, 2017). Downsizing led him to sell his house, some of his other possessions, went to live at his mother's home, and was declared bankrupt. According to a Harvard Law study, about 700 Americans are declared bankrupt every year.

It is difficult to qualify for a private health cover, not only because of high premiums but because of the high standard criteria required to qualify for one. Private insurance companies such as HealthNet, cover citizens whom they render as low-risk. This means that the citizen must have a very low possibility of getting sick (Brabantstraat, 2017). Recision cases are many in the U.S, as reported by Lisa Girion, a New York Times reporter. The reporter highlighted that fraud cases are numerous, which led to recision. The insurance companies avoided cases where an individual had a pre-existing health condition, which would lead to that individual omitting that information when he/ she filled out the forms.

Another reason for an expensive healthcare system is the high administrative costs of operating the healthcare system. David Cutler, a Havard economist, says that " about one-quarter of healthcare cost is attributed to administration (Epstein, 2020). Karen Ignagni highlighted in the documentary that the U.S. healthcare system is not comprehensive, which she pointed out that making a compulsory health plan to buy insurance would be a solution because it would lower the premiums, and everyone would be covered. Therefore, access to healthcare would be available to all, where low-income earners would benefit from subsidization.

References

Epstein, L. (2020, January 29). 6 Reasons Healthcare Is So Expensive in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/080615/6-reasons-healthcare-so-expensive-us.asp

Brabantstraat. (2017, Sep 20). PBS Frontline: Sick Around the World [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4rg-DJBd34