1
3
High Cost Of Care In The United States
FirstName MiddleInitial(s) LastName
Institutional Affiliation (Department Institution)
Course Number and Name
Instructor Name and Title
Assignment Due Date
Introduction: Importance of high cost of care and its prevalence
The high cost of care is a significant issue across all states in the United States. The affected populations are low-income families and individuals lacking decent healthcare insurance coverage. Research links income inequality with morbidity and mortality, with high-end families and individuals reporting better health outcomes and longer life expectancies than financially unstable families and individuals (Khullar & Chokshi, 2018). The National Health Expenditure (NHE) is the total amount that the U.S. governments spend on healthcare and includes Medicare, Medicaid, and other health-related budgets. In 2020, the NHE was 4.1 trillion, over 19% of the U.S. gross domestic product. The average cost of care per capita in the U.S. is $7,893. Maine is a state with the lowest budget on Medicare and Medicaid, but one of the highest average per capita expenditures on healthcare exceeding $10,000 per individual annually. Tennessee has one of the lowest healthcare costs average at slightly over $5,900 per capita annually, and one of the highest costs in government NHE (Gotanda, Jha, Kominski, & Tsugawa, 2020). It is crucial to understand how the high cost of healthcare affects Americans, their health, and their lifestyle. It is also essential to understand some ethical considerations make some recommendations that can change the situation of the high cost of care in the United States.
Why the issue is a health risk in the United States and its history
High healthcare costs limits access to care. The low-income families and individuals living in the United States are forced to live with treatable conditions, leading to further deterioration of health or death in the worst-case scenario. As a result, an issue also lowers life expectancy in low-income neighborhoods. The increasing cost was an issue for low-income families, but the concern in the United States heightened in the mid-20th century (Finkelstein, Zhou, Taubman, & Doyle, 2020). Between 1960 and 1965, the healthcare cost increased at 8.9% per annum on average and health insurance covered about 24% of these costs. The rate has continued to grow as it increased by almost 12% per annum between 1966 and 1973. President Nixon and his administration implemented the Health Maintenance Organization (H.M.O.) in 1973, but its influence in controlling healthcare costs was limited. The cost of healthcare still increased by an average of 14% between 1974 and 1982 (Gotanda, Jha, Kominski, & Tsugawa, 2020). President Obama’s administration implemented the Affordable Care Act in 2010 to enhance universal medical coverage for Americans, including low-income individuals and families, and negotiate healthcare prices for Americans. Still, the cost of care increased, but the government coverage budget increased drastically, reducing Americans’ pocket costs while increasing government expenditure.
Impact of High Healthcare Cost in the U.S.
The high cost of care affects the health of individuals, the U.S.U.S. economy, and the U.S.U.S. social structure. The significant risk is the lack of healthcare services to low-income families. The United States census reported that over 13% of Americans live under the poverty line. They include individuals and families that cannot afford $10,000 per annum on healthcare which is the national average (Gotanda, Jha, Kominski, & Tsugawa, 2020). These individuals are forced to live with conditions that healthcare services can cure or improve outcomes. Other than death, the high cost of care also forces some Americans to spend a significant portion of their income on healthcare, limiting them from growing financially. Access to care also forces individuals with some conditions that limit their duties to underperform in their lines of responsibility (Finkelstein, Zhou, Taubman, & Doyle, 2020). The high cost of care also heightens the income and life expectancy inequality gap between the wealthy class and the low-income individuals and families.
Ethical considerations
The primary ethical consideration is prioritizing income over the health outcomes of Americans in healthcare facilities. The increasing cost of healthcare results from the high costs of physician consultation, medical examinations, medication, and other services such as ambulatory care and mental health therapies. These services are essential to society as they improve the individuals’ and general societal health outcomes. The second ethical consideration is the moral values against the economic precision concern. The high cost of care eliminates the chances of equality and fairness to Americans seeking care as the people with a higher bargain power receive better and more available healthcare services. On the other hand, low-income-earning Americans suffer from treatable and chronic conditions that the same healthcare systems can solve if they have higher bargaining power.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The high cost of care has negative impacts on the lives of Americans. It affects their health, economic prospects, and social structure negatively. The main ethical issues raised include the prioritization of income over money in healthcare systems and the heightened inequality tension in the American social classes. Government policies are essential in enhancing access to primary care for low-income families. Affirmative action can lower the gap in health inequality based on an individual’s bargain power. The government can also create free-of-charge government-owned healthcare facilities that offer primary care to low-income families and chronically ill patients with lower affordability of quality care. A simple policy direction can be using taxes from for-profit healthcare organizations to fund free healthcare services to low-income families.
References
Finkelstein, A., Zhou, A., Taubman, S., & Doyle, J. (2020). Health care hot-spotting—a randomized, controlled trial. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(2), 152-162.
Gotanda, H., Jha, A. K., Kominski, G. F., & Tsugawa, Y. (2020). Out-of-pocket spending and financial burden among low-income adults after Medicaid expansions in the United States: quasi-experimental difference-in-difference study. B.M.J., 368.
Khullar, D., & Chokshi, D. A. (2018). Health, income, & poverty: Where we are & what could help. Health Affairs, 10.