As health care reform moves forward, there are a few reasons why many
Americans are not aware of the large costs incurred by the government in
providing health care.In the U.S, there is a combination of both public and
private health insurance options to choose from for coverage, and most
Americans get insurance through their employment. Americans do not realize
the increase in government costs as they are more focused on their own
insurance costs and providing for their families. It is also hard to track down
exactly where all the government spending goes, "There are so many
government laws and pieces of legislation that precisely recording the true
level of government engagement is extremely challenging" (Kaiser.edu, n.d.).
As insurance rates increase, more and more people are opting out of paying
for insurance which creates more of a reliance on government funded
healthcare programs. The federal government provides benefits to the elderly
and poor through Medicare and Medicaid, as well as the VA for veterans, and
federal employees using health care expenditures to cover the costs for these
groups of Americans. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services states
that the national health expenditures in 1970 for Medicare was $7.7 billion
and in 2012, Medicare expenditures have increased to a whopping $572.5
billion! This causes a financial crisis for the government’s health care
expenditures and this is not sustainable for the government to continue to
spend at their current level. As the population increases and more people are
uninsured and living longer, this creates a problem for the federal
government incurring health care costs.
-Vanessa
References:
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Office of the Actuary, National
Health Statistics Group. Retrieved
from:https://web.archive.org/web/20150717161157/http://www.cms.gov/
Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Statistics-Trends-and-Reports/
NationalHealthExpendData/Downloads/tables.pdf
CDC. (Jan 20, 2022). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: National
Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved
from:https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/2019/006-508.pdf
Kaiser.edu (n.d.). U.S. health care costs. Retrieved
fromhttp://www.kaiseredu.org/Issue-Modules/US-Health- Care-Costs/
Background-Brief.aspx
World Health Orginizaiton (2011) Global Health and Aging. Retrieved
from:https://www.who.int/ageing/publications/global_health.pdf
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