United States Health Care System
17 Nov 2006
US Health Care System: Does the Public Get the Best Return vs. Investment
The United States spends more of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare then any other industrialized country in the world and because of this one would think that the U.S. provides one of the top universal healthcare plans for all citizens without health insurance. Furthermore, the U.S.’s overall health system performance is 37 out of 191 (qtd in U.S. Census Bureau), obviously 37 out of 191 is horrible especially because of the investment made by tax paying citizens. This problem affects a massive amount of Americans. Approximately 40 million Americans are without health insurance and because of the increasing expenditures the numbers of uninsured are only on the rise (McIntosh 83). The United States healthcare system should be just as good or better then any other countries because of the money invested. Every industrialized nation has some kind of basic healthcare system for all of their citizens (McIntosh 85). The United States has many factors to deal with in the healthcare crisis, however; this paper will cover four factors, which are to compare the healthcare strategies of the U.S. and other countries. The countries that will be looked at are Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom (U.K.). These countries provide a universal plan for all their citizens therefore comparisons will be made as to how exactly they achieve this goal and what the U.S. is doing wrong. The second objective is to look at the U.S.’s healthcare results, which will cover life expectancy at birth, life expectancy at the age of 65 and infant mortality. These results will then be compared to Canada, Germany and the U.K. The third objective is to breakdown what the U.S. spends on healthcare. The fourth and final objective is to identify healthcare problems and why expenditures are continuing to rise. Also, three main issues will be covered; they are the aging population, new technology,
US Health Care System: Does the Public Get the Best Return vs. Investment
The United States spends more of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on healthcare then any other industrialized country in the world and because of this one would think that the U.S. provides one of the top universal healthcare plans for all citizens without health insurance. Furthermore, the U.S.’s overall health system performance is 37 out of 191 (qtd in U.S. Census Bureau), obviously 37 out of 191 is horrible especially because of the investment made by tax paying citizens. This problem affects a massive amount of Americans. Approximately 40 million Americans are without health insurance and because of the increasing expenditures the numbers of uninsured are only on the rise (McIntosh 83). The United States healthcare system should be just as good or better then any other countries because of the money invested. Every industrialized nation has some kind of basic healthcare system for all of their citizens (McIntosh 85). The United States has many factors to deal with in the healthcare crisis, however; this paper will cover four factors, which are to compare the healthcare strategies of the U.S. and other countries. The countries that will be looked at are Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom (U.K.). These countries provide a universal plan for all their citizens therefore comparisons will be made as to how exactly they achieve this goal and what the U.S. is doing wrong. The second objective is to look at the U.S.’s healthcare results, which will cover life expectancy at birth, life expectancy at the age of 65 and infant mortality. These results will then be compared to Canada, Germany and the U.K. The third objective is to breakdown what the U.S. spends on healthcare. The fourth and final objective is to identify healthcare problems and why expenditures are continuing to rise. Also, three main issues will be covered; they are the aging population, new technology,
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