HA425 Unit discussion POST 2&3
On two different paragraph give your personal opinion to Alyssa Mejia and Erin Lemont
Alyssa Mejia
I would say one of the major issues the U.S. healthcare system faces is the number of individuals uninsured. The United States has tried to lower this number with the Affordable care act, but this number of uninsured individuals is still way to high. Healthcare cost in the U.S. is costlier than any other country. The percent of healthcare used has increased over the years and it is said this is because of policy and lifestyle changes. Programs like Medicare and Medicaid were established to help lower the amount of uninsured people, but this also led to providers being able to increase the price of healthcare services. The other cause, lifestyle change, has led to an increase in chronic illnesses like diabetes which is one of the leading costs of healthcare in the U.S. (Amadeo, 2018). The reason that the U.S. lacks a universal healthcare system has to do a lot on interest groups. These interest groups really influence the government process and a lot of insurance companies wanted to keep private insurers on top of the healthcare coverage system instead of the government. Another reason is that the U.S. is cultured by conservatives that believe in liberalism which is the thought of the government having very limited control and more individualism in societies. A universal healthcare coverage would go against these liberal beliefs (Callaghan, 2016).
Callaghan, T. (2016, October 26). 3 Reasons the U.S. Doesn't Have Universal Health Coverage. U.S.News & World Report. Retrieved December 9, 2018, from http://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2016-10-26/3-reasons-the-us-doesnt-have-universal-health-coverage?context=amp
Amadeo, K. (2018, November 14). See for Yourself If Obamacare Increased Health Care Costs. Retrieved December 9, 2018, from https://www.thebalance.com/causes-of-rising-healthcare-costs-4064878
Erin Lemont
The U.S. healthcare system has many issues but also has many good things as well. Though this discussion is asking for the major issues, rising cost of care and access with lack of universal coverage. There is so much potential for the U.S. healthcare system to do amazing things.
Major issues that come up is that the healthcare system is literally losing “patients”, both from patients not wanting to continue care from lack of trust but in all reality over 500 patients are killed each day from errors (Binder, 2013). Unnecessary care can be a large issue and can cause patients to not even feel better and have larger healthcare bills (Binder, 2013). All in all money is being wasted (Binder, 2013).
Geisinger Health Plan in 2016 wanted a 7.5 percent increase for people buying under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (Pear, 2016). Then in 2017 Geisinger requested a 40 percent increase and that started a healthcare war that is still raging (Pear, 2016). Just that alone seems outrageous. This goes right along with problems with the access and lack of universal healthcare. It can all work if the $$$ weren’t in the way. Anyone should have access to healthcare and if there can be a large CPT or ICD10 code book that is universal then why can’t there be a universal healthcare? Today there is so much more excess that can be spread out and with the technology that we have, why can’t there be better ways of sharing that excess? All the answers are right in front of us. Why does that always seem to be the hardest to see?
Erin Lemont
References
Binder, L. (2013, February 21). The Five Biggest Problems In Health Care Today. Retrieved 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahbinder/2013/02/21/the-five-biggest-problems-in-health-care-today/#21f5f4084587
Pear, R. (2017, December 21). Why Do Health Costs Keep Rising? These People Know. Retrieved 2018, from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/10/us/health-insurance-affordable-care-act.html