EN-101
04/25/2012
Today health care reform in the United States is an ongoing battle on Capitol Hill. In 2009 the United States spent around $8,000 per person on health care, that’s 17.6% of our product which is double the amount other industrialized countries spend on health care. Other countries deliver the exact same type of care the United States does but at half the cost. What does this mean about the health care system in place now? This means that there must be some kind of health care reform in the United States. The president has constructed a plan called Obamacare, but this plan will cost the American people more if they do not abide by the individual mandate. If Obamacare is overturned by the Supreme Court it leaves …show more content…
Other industrialized countries have their governments argue with health care providers, drug companies, and other people that play a part in health care costs. “In countries like Canada and Britain prices are set by the government. In other countries, like Germany and Japan, they are set by providers and insurers sitting in a room and coming to an agreement, with the government stepping in to set prices if they fail.”(Klein) America spends too much on health care and has made the system into capitalism at its finest. The government needs to step in and start negotiating with drug companies and hospitals and insurers to bring down the high costs. Doctors in the United States get paid more than any other doctors in the world, and patients get charged more if they want to see a specialist, but in other countries they’re small costs stay the same whether they see a specialist or not. The United States is leading the world in medical spending and because of the high costs 50 million Americans remain uninsured and dealing with ailments that they cannot afford to have …show more content…
The government does not want to switch to this health care plan for a couple of reasons, one being that this would give the government too much control in our lives by letting them have control of hospitals and doctors. The other concern that the government has is the waiting periods that patients have to endure in emergency rooms and in clinics for minor injuries. The government is also concerned with the fact that by passing such a health care system would lead the nation down the slippery slope of socialism, kind of like how the United States thought if Vietnam fell to communism the whole world would become