Assignment 4

Running head: ANALYSIS OF HEALTHCARE IN THE U.S. 1

ANALYSIS OF HEALTHCARE IN THE U.S. 6

Analysis of Healthcare in the United States Today

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According to the video, the current US health system is based on a weak paradigm of treating the symptoms of the myriad types of diseases that ail the United States in this century. Another fault with the current health system is the increase in the cost of health insurance. Form the analysis of the system from professional analysts, it can be deduced that powerful economic, political and cultural forces influence the formulation of health policy. As such, it becomes difficult to create a balance between the costs incurred by the citizens of United States and the real benefits they receive from the health system.

Notably, the increase in costs of health provision can be attributed to the rise in ailments, specifically cancer, which come about from the relationship structures between humans in this century, how we handle stress, and the type of lifestyle lived by a majority of people today (Hall, 2012). However, the money is used to treat the symptoms of the imbalances prevalent in the American society’s life. It is estimated that 80-90 percent of ailments affecting US citizens are avoidable and/or treatable but they have to be treated at the root, not at the symptoms level as the health system currently does it.

According to the speaker, the health system sees human health as several systems that operate to make a whole: the human body. This leads to the rise of specialists in several fields that cover the different parts of the human body, with the effect that there fails to be the one important thing that can assure proper human health: The professional doctor who sees the link between all the parts and maintains human health by working with the human body as a whole and not as parts. Dr. Emmett Miller recommends a treatment system that focuses on “healing from within” when properly guided by a medical professional.

Medics who undergo grilling at med-school, which in the end leaves those with little sensitivity for themselves run the US health sector. As it is said, one cannot love others without loving themselves. In the same way, the physician s graduating from US medical training schools have little sensitivity for themselves, and this translates into a lack of interest in the health of the patients (Ghosh, 2013).

According to the video, health insurance is based on a corporate strategy to compete for employees in the job market. As such, corporates make better and better health insurance packages for their employees to be competitive. This creates a cycle in which sick employees, as patients, go to hospitals to seek medical assistance from doctors who have become accustomed to impersonally serving patients, a result of the insensitivity said above, and the fact that modern doctors are specialists who cannot assist patients affected by problems. The only thing that they can do is to refer the patients to other specialists who are trained to deal with the problems with a patient’s body. As patients visit hospitals, the cost is borne by the corporations but since the corporations are mostly profit oriented entities, it makes economic sense for them to introduce their employees to health insurance companies who soar the health insurance costs to cover for the increase in lifestyle ailments, with the end result of making the American health insurance policy expensive.

The speaker, Dr. Emmett Miller, is correct about the structure of the United States health insurance system. It results in high costs that end up hurting the average US citizen. In fact, the healthy insurance providers and hospitals are the ones that reap the benefits. The system is imbalanced in favor of health providers, which is a situation rampant in health insurance in most parts of the world (Lewis, 2013). On the other side, though the doctor is recommending a system of treatment that is not backed by any scientific knowledge. "Healing from within”, as the doctor says it, is based more on patient psychology than it is on practical scientific knowledge. Even though this may be possible in the future with significant advances in noetic science, it is currently not a feasible way of treating ailments (Carpenter, 2013). However, patient psychology can be used to restructure the way people relate with each other, alter their lifestyles and how to handle stress son as to reduce the number of diseases.

The 21st century doctor is not insensitive due to the training that he or she receives at college. Rather, the modern physician is plagued by the same the problems that affect our society namely stress handling, modern relationships and lifestyles are the ones that contribute to the insensitivity. Understanding the interconnections within the human body for more integrated medicine is surely a necessary thing that is lacking in modern medicine. Although it would require a lot of training and dedication to raise doctors who understand the human body well enough to treat patients in a more comprehensive way, it is a necessary step towards making human medicine better.

Treating the problem at the source is a good way of having an American population that is healthier and with lower health insurance costs (Lewis, 2013). It is a recommendable method of not only reducing the number of people who are infected by avoidable diseases but it also creates an environment for sustainable healthcare provision. It satisfies the necessary conditions for the Affordable Care Act. Based on the Act, health insurance in the United States can be improved by:

a) Conducting research on the ability of the system to cater for the majority of the population.

b) Comparing the system to the older system to observe any change resulting from the change of systems.

c) Streamlining healthcare provision to reduce the costs.

d) Focus healthcare on the causes of diseases and not the superficial symptoms.

e) Subsiding healthcare for the elderly and the unemployed for ethical purposes.

The affordable care act us a health insurance act that seeks to set the guidelines for the affordable provision of health care to Americans. It arises from the observation that Americans pay more for healthcare and there is lower utilization of resources when compared to its European counterparts. The affordable care act seeks to provide free preventive healthcare to American citizens. This is the economic consideration for cost reduction and sustainability since preventive care costs less that treatment in the long run. Moreover, the act provides for the economic benefits of tax credits for small business enterprises, discounts for seniors. Additionally, the act provides for efficiency in healthcare provision by creating an insurance market place to enhance competitiveness among the companies that sell health insurance policies (Carpenter, 2013).

Notably, the act guides the ethical provision of health insurance by protecting consumer from insurance fraud, consumer assistance and creating provisions for patients with preexisting medical conditions.

References

Carpenter, C. (2013). State Health Insurance Exchanges. Journal of Financial Service Professionals, 67(3), 26-28.

Ghosh, C. (2013). Affordable Care Act: Strategies to Tame the Future. Physician Executive, 39(6), 68-70.

Hall, M. & Schneider, C. (2012). Can Consumers Control Health-Care Costs: Forum For Health Economics & Policy, 15(3), 23-52.

Lewis, V., Colla, C., Carluzzo, K., Kler, S., & Fisher, E. (2013). Accountable Care Organization

in the United States: Market and Demographic Factors Associated with Formation. Health Services Research, 48(6pt1), 1840-1858.