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Medicare For all

In America, the healthcare system is financed by public and private insurances, and it is causing a gap in the accessibility and efficiency to reach the coverage of all Americans. As inequality increases, healthcare financing has become a crucial issue for Americans since many of them are affected through the high cost of health services. Moreover, those different insurances avoid the creation of a healthcare system that can promote equality in America’s communities by creating a complex system that has to depend on one part from the government, but it also dependent on private business sectors. Those injustices and inequalities that affect America citizens lead our healthcare group to find and collect data about possible solutions to the question, what would an ideal system of healthcare coverage look like? The most prominent solution for an ideal system of healthcare will be the creation of a single-payer system that will cover all Americans equally. The federal government will cover everyone’s expenses in order to eliminate the private business manipulation of prices. Additionally, the primary purpose of the single-payer system will be to cover those high health care services and provide a more trusting connection with Americans.

 

 

The illustration above shows the differences between multi-payer systems and a single-payer system. Through the graphic, one can see that a multi-payer is a very complex system on which patients pay to private insurances, and those insurances pay to hospitals or health providers. On the other hand, single payer is a more trusting way to pay for healthcare because patients will only negotiate through government insurances or programs, avoiding the high prices imposed by private businesses.

 Our healthcare group created a concept map that focuses on gathering information to identify possible solutions for the creation of an ideal healthcare system that can cover most Americans. By gathering a vast amount of information, our members find extensive and reliable information about ways to finance healthcare, compare our healthcare with other countries, organizations that want to transform healthcare into universal, theories on visions to fix healthcare, how to improve healthcare, and more. The information helps us to be determinate, which can be a possible solution that can work without affecting us in another area.  Therefore, this concept map was handy for us because it provides many pieces of knowledge about the problems and solutions of our current healthcare system on which we depend. Also, it helps me to decide on the single-payer system as the ideal healthcare system that can benefit Americans, and it can eliminate the high prices that private business promotes.

To understand our primary concern on how to fix our current healthcare, which is like a mix idea system of healthcare. We need to emphasize that there are so many families who are uncovering because the private sector has played an essential role in the high cost to get a treatment America. Those injustices that people need to buy private insurances to have a better treatment make us realize that there is a problem. The solution that we find to healthcare is a single-payer system, and it is so vital that you understand how it works. A Washington Post describes the single-payer, “In a purely single-payer system, there is, as the name would indicate, just one payer — typically the government. This is analogous to how the United States administers some portions of Medicaid: The government provides coverage, and no private insurers are involved” (W.P). That definition helps us understand that a single payer is typically a universal system of healthcare on which individuals such as citizens will pay only taxes to the government, and their government will pay for the treatment that they need. Also, the single-payer system is less complicated than the insurance one, and it can build a reliable connection with many Americans. On the other hand, It also has a negative side that makes affect the distribution of funding in other areas if it is taking to pure single-payer because from there, most healthcare will depend on government funding. According to the same magazine, “Sanders’s bill takes universal coverage close to this extreme: The government insurance would cover so many services with such small co-pays that private insurance would be almost universally unnecessary. Accordingly, it would also be quite expensive — $32 trillion over 10 years, according to an Urban Institute report. That’s more than a 50 percent increase in federal spending — all federal spending — according to spending projections by the Congressional Budget Office. That would be partially offset by people no longer needing to pay premiums to private insurers” (W.P). The report shows that single payer is an expensive system. However, it is also a great system because it contrasts the unnecessary money that people no longer need to be paid to private businesses by stating that the expensive can rely on the private insurances that people no longer need to pay. The most important from the quote is that we can have full coverage by paying our government instead of private insurance, who use their knowledge on the medical area to increase the treatment prices and force patients to pay a high percentage of it. That inconveniences persuade us that it does not matter if single payer is so expensive because we already have a waste of money in an expensive mixed system that we are paying a private high amount of money and still they do not provide adequate services.

The single-payer system has become popular and common practice across the world by many nations, which shows us that it functions with high efficiency and management. By observing the way other countries used single-payer, one can start to think about single-payer as the solution to the problems caused by the mix ideas that the U.S has used to reform and financed healthcare for many decades. According to a New York Times survey, a tournament to determinate the best healthcare system in the world, reveals, ” In Canada, the government finances health insurance, and the private sector delivers a lot of the care. Insurance is run at the province level. Many Canadians have supplemental private insurance through their jobs to help pay for prescription drugs, dentists and optometry. The government ends up paying for about 70 percent of health care spending in all” (The New York Times).  Although we can infer, Canada is not a pure single-payer system. However, it limits and reforms its healthcare by using a single-payer system that leads to a high reduction in the use of private insurances. The lower private business participation demonstrates that single payer is a prominent method to resolve the inequality that has been increasing in America due to mix ideas that open doors for the private business sector to manipulate prices. Moreover, it is well known that private insurances change the prices of the treatment for some patients; one reason is for the interest of making money from the payments of the patient. Although the U.S healthcare depends most on private insurance, it is our duty as Americans to demand our government to implement the single-payer system in order to contribute to the development of equality in our healthcare system.

The U.S government’s negligence decreases the possibility of transforming our healthcare into a single-payer system. That emphasizes that our government is not attractive to create a system of healthcare for all, and it might be because it can be expensive. However, the reality is that if we get a single-payer system, we Americans will benefit more by avoiding the complex insurance systems that take a significant percentage of the money for their interests. According to an America Bar Association, an organization that promotes universal healthcare emphasizes, “Article 12 goes on to require that ‘states must protect this right by ensuring that everyone within their jurisdiction has access to the underlying determinants of health, such as clean water, sanitation, food, nutrition, and housing, and through a comprehensive system of health care, which is available to everyone without discrimination, and economically accessible to all.’ This treaty was signed by all UN countries. It was ratified by all countries except three—Palau, Comoros, and the United States of America” ( ABA)  The statement of providing healthcare without economically accessible; it reveals that the U.S is antipasti with the ideology of creating a single-payer healthcare system that depends and rely on the government to be controlled and financed it. Most member countries from the United Nations are in favor of promoting universal healthcare, and it leads us to the question, why the U.S. does not want to offer a single-payer system? On which citizens will only need to pay the government instead of the untrusty insurance companies.  One of the primary reasons is the cost of a single payer, the America government believes that instead of increasing the economic; it will decrease the growth of our economy and stop other favorable reforms because most federal will have to be distributed to the healthcare sector. Although the idea of the government to not incorporate single payer emphasizes that we as Americans need to demand and choose a leader that is in favor of it.

The single-payer is the most prominent solution to the end of injustice and inequality in the current healthcare system of America. It does not only offer a better system; instead, it can improve our current lives conditions by lowering the cost of health services and increasing the coverage across the U.S. With single-payer, the gap that private insurances created will be eliminated because many people will rely on government more than an untrust insurance company. Therefore, the improvement that single-payer offered emphasizes that it can function appropriately in America as it has a function in other countries such as Canada. Also, the single-payer system will be an ideal method to eradicate the manipulation of prices from private sectors because now the government will intercept for the patient’s treatment, not longer private insurance. As Americans, it is our concern to advocate for the most benefited system for our communities, and the healthcare group believes that this can be a single-payer. So we need to demand a single-payer system or vote for those government representatives that are in favor of it, to transform our current healthcare into single-payer in America.

 

 

 

The irrelevant increase of the inequality on the healthcare system has become a sign of federal and state government failed to eradicate the irregular healthcare that has been affecting Americans. The inefficient processes that our institutional systems are using to eliminate the inequality seem to be criticized by all Americans due to the absence of improvement results. However, we see that healthcare is a broken system that is receiving many funds but is not improving at all. As Americans, we have to understand and consider the central message of the question, why don’t we have universal healthcare in America? Many citizens believe that federalism is one of the main factors that impede the creation of universal healthcare on which all Americans will have the same opportunity to equal healthcare service. Our modern democracies created the federalism system to split the government’s power into two levels the federal and state. By dividing powers of administration, the united states formed an unpredictable and complex federalism system that increase the failure to generate high-efficiency management of the government on healthcare due to the limitation that another level government-imposed to secure their interests.

 

The box above shows the structure of federalism on which it describes the two levels of government, which are federal and state. By observing the graph, one can see that federalism means separation of power between the nation and a subnational government. Also, we infer that there will be a limitation of power from one to another, leading healthcare issues to be a debate between the different interest groups that form part of those governments. Eventually, it will cause poor management and arrangement to solve the healthcare problem because some groups will think that other objectives are more important than universal health. The federalism complexity of this system will create debates on whether universal healthcare is necessary or not postponing them for long times.

Our healthcare group decided to evaluate the prominent question, why we do not have universal care? Some of the most important factors that make it difficult and hard to introduce a reform of universal healthcare. We found data in our research that America has an influential individualist culture, limitation of power between levels of governments, the waste of spending, different interest groups from congress, and the federalism system that will maintain the order between all two government institutions. In my point of view, I find more important the federalism system because of their separation of power and obligation between federal and state levels. The division of power shows a more clear perspective to determinate why is universal healthcare not able and its effect on our current system.

The federal government uses grants to transfer money to the subnational government as a way to persuade them to work in cooperative federalism toward the selecting objectives, for example, healthcare or another area. However, those grants can become categorical grants, which limit the beneficiaries to use funds from the federal government by directing them to strict rules in order to obtain their benefits such as Medicaid, a program that excludes a large number of citizens that do not qualify with their income and family size, (Federal Govt, pg.90). Although we can infer that federalism is creating exclusions of the middle-class on our healthcare system, it is a practice of limitation over free healthcare services from the federal government. For some citizens, this decision is a symbol of the inefficiency of our government to fix the irregular healthcare and transform it into equal care services for everyone since we all pay the same percentage of taxes to our federal and state governments; therefore, we all should get the same benefits.

Other critical factors to emphasize are the governments’ actions and their funds for healthcare programs with inadequate management from federal and state levels throughout the last years. According to congressional research, a graph that focuses on the increase of the federal grants to state and local governments, reveals “The upward slope since the 1990s is primarily due to the increase in federal grant money going to Medicaid. Federally funded healthcare programs jumped from $43.8 billion in 1990 to $320 billion in 2014.44 Health-related grant programs such as Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) represented more than half of total federal grant expenses” (Federal Govt, pg.91). By evaluating the statistics from the congress research, we can determinate that our current healthcare is receiving more funds than any other area, but the crucial problem is why are there so many Americans uncover when our government is granting most of the funds to the healthcare. As Americans, we need to know that our governments are distributing those funds for healthcare into programs that are not for everyone; instead, they are for particular individuals. Therefore, we need to persuade our federal and state governments to validate the universal healthcare policy, which will cover all of us equally.

The waste of healthcare spending emphasizes how our federalism system is providing poor management to attain universal healthcare. According to a research paper, published in JAMA evaluating the waste of spending on healthcare, reveals, “as much as $265.6 billion is spent on what they refer to as administrative complexity… Another $230.7 billion to $240.5 billion of waste can be attributed to pricing failure… Some $102.4 billion to $165.7 billion is related to failure of care delivery… Fraud and abuse takes up a further $58.5 billion to $83.9 billion each year, while $75.7 billion to $101.2 billion is spent on overtreatment or low-value care” (Newsweek). The presented report emphasized the poor management that our current system is providing to healthcare throughout recent years. The author of the article describes our healthcare as the most expensive and unequal for the citizens because most of American decided to buy private insurance since Medicaid cover lower-income families. Therefore, we observe that our federalism system affect our goal of imposing universal healthcare in America because its complexity divides its power and limit us to proceed to our goal.

The inefficiency to provide a change in the competitive environment, funding, poor management, and waste of spending from our federal and state governments are the most fundamental reasons that decline the possibility of universal healthcare in American. As Americans, we need to know how to determinate and cooperate with our communities to spread the important value of universal healthcare for all of us. Healthcare should be equal for us because we all pay the same percentages of taxes. Therefore, we need to embrace a strong desired for the change that we want in our healthcare system and transmitted it to our federal and state governments so that they can fix and improve it for Americans.

 

The picture emphasizes the most common feelings of Americans toward the current healthcare system on which they feel discontent and limited to a system that extent inequality across the nation. By extending inequality, Americans encourage others to protest against government management. Also, persuade the government to improve and reform healthcare for all American equally.

The health care system of the United States has caused many debates and distrust between the citizens throughout the last years for its poorly management. Even after the government’s implementation of new reforms and programs that improved healthcare, citizen regularly criticized them since most of these programs do not cover all Americans equally. According to the U.S. Census Bureau,” there were 28.1 million Americans without health insurance in 2016, a sharp decline from the 46.6 million who had been uninsured prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)” (Verywell Health). Here is an example that shows one reform known as “Obama care” that reduced the cost of health care expenditures, but it does not cover all Americans equally because many of them are still uncovered.

To understand Americans, it is necessary to know the way the U.S government approach and settled the funds for health care. Therefore, our group focuses on collecting information about health care, and we developed a mapping concept with the links of reliable data that help us understand the health care management and its issues. One of the most critical information that we found is that our government-delivered healthcare through public and private systems that are causing a massive inequality on health care for some Americans. According to The Commonwealth Fund, “In 2015, about 67.2 percent of U.S. residents received health coverage through private voluntary health insurance (VHI): 55.7 percent received employer-provided insurance, and 14.6 percent acquired coverage directly. Public programs covered roughly 37.1 percent of residents: Medicare covered 16.3 percent, Medicaid 19.6 percent, direct-purchase 16.3 percent, and military coverage 4.7 percent.1” (International Healthcare). By this basic low public coverage, one can see that our government is not providing enough funds for healthcare, and many Americans might have to take private insurance. However, this disproportion leads to protest against the government to reform and improve the health care system to extend it for all Americans reasonably.

The inequality of health care remained the principal focus of America citizens. The only solution that many Americans consider possible is the creation of a universal health care system in the United States. By creating universal health care, the government will avoid the distribution of budget into many programs; instead, it will have to finance only one that reduces inequality. The Tax Policy Center reports, “the federal government spent nearly $1.1 trillion on health care in fiscal year 2018 (table 1). Of that, Medicare claimed roughly $583 billion, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) about $399 billion, and veterans’ medical care about $70 billion” (TPC). Although the U.S financed some programs with more funds than others, the distribution of funds between Medicare and Medicaid reflect that our system is not equally distributed. Therefore, as Americans, we need to encourage and persuade our government to improve our current healthcare system for a universal system that will cover all Americans equally.