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Crisis in the Health Care System
Philosophy
 Created on 5-11-08
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College Essay on the crisis of Health Care
A Problem Solution Essay
A major domestic problem confronting the United States is access to health care. Many hard working citizens in this country cannot afford health care, and their number is growing. Most people agree that people in first world countries should have access to health care, and that current trend should be addressed and reversed. There is plenty of disagreement on how to approach this problem.
There are a number of causes for the current healthcare crisis. First of all, many people cannot afford health care coverage. Traditionally, this has been the poor and the unemployed, but increasingly it is also the middle class. The price of health care insurance has been steadily increasing. Lawsuits against hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and others in the medical profession have caused costs to increase. Also, new and expensive procedures have been developed to better treat medical problems add to those costs. Second, many people have been losing their insurance because their employers no longer pay for coverage-either because they cannot afford to themselves, or in an effort to cut company costs. A third major problem is issue of the maintaining of Medicare and Social Security. Finally, there is also a need for more workers in the medical profession, and the need for more young people to pursue a career in medicine.
There a number of approaches to this problem. I don’t believe any of them, alone, will be able to fix the problem, but a balance of them may address it in a satisfactory manner.
First, we can try to carefully limit lawsuits against the medical industry. Government should try to ensure that frivolous lawsuits are thrown out, and damages awarded are reasonable. While the medical profession should be held accountable for mistakes, we need to make sure that the lawsuits do not damage the industry, forcing medical professionals to pay larger premiums for lawsuit insurance resulting in more expensive medical costs.
Next, we can try to set up a national health care system. It should be targeted primarily on the poor, the young, and those on Medicare and others who cannot afford health care currently. This would, hopefully, allow everyone access to a health care system. However, we must recognize the economic reality that this system cannot deliver everything, and we must strive to make it viable and sustainable by trying to reduce its costs. One way to do this, I think, is to determine a certain level of acceptable care, and instead of trying to cover everything, it should concentrate on that level of care. It might also mean that more expressive edge procedures are replaced by less expensive, but acceptable, procedures. It may also mean fewer choices in selecting doctors. An emphasis should be on preventative care, which tends to be more affordable. By doing this, we will not be able to guarantee that everyone gets perfect health care, but they will get some level of health care that they otherwise would not have. It also keeps costs lower, helping to make the system more sustainable. Finally, the introduction of a national health care system may introduce more competition into the health care market. I lived for several years in Canada, which has a national health care, and noticed that this program was working well. Another thing we can do is to allow poorer people to import cheaper drugs from Canada. And perhaps we can use new technology to make some procedures cheaper. In the past year there was a flu shortage and the government did not agree to take supplies of flu vaccine from Canada, because it claimed that these shots did not have the same quality as American Flu shots. People who could afford going to Canada to get these shots went. However, people in need were not able to afford getting to Canada to get those shots. The government made a mistake by not permitting this medication to the States, because there were not enough flu shots to cover the children and seniors who needed the shot the most, and the death toll was high.
A third thing we can do is to make private health care more affordable. Government can give tax breaks to employees who provide health care benefits to their employees. We can also have health care provides offer more options in coverage-allowing individuals to get coverage that are targeted to meet their needs or the amount they can afford, rather than a more expensive over comprehensive plan.
Finally, the government should encourage students to pursue a medical career by giving them incentives such as scholarships or loans to pay for school. Those loans might come with the opportunity to get those loans paid off if they work in hospitals and clinics in poorer neighborhoods for a few years, thus helping to make sure that more qualified doctors are available in those areas.
I believe that every citizen should have access to health care. The government should look at the health care systems and provisions in place both in other countries and within the States to see which systems can provide an adequate level of care while also being affordable, and importing medications when it is needed, while promoting the local pharmaceutical companies. In addition, encouraging a new generation of people to become doctors would help greatly to resolve this issue.
A Problem Solution Essay
A major domestic problem confronting the United States is access to health care. Many hard working citizens in this country cannot afford health care, and their number is growing. Most people agree that people in first world countries should have access to health care, and that current trend should be addressed and reversed. There is plenty of disagreement on how to approach this problem.
There are a number of causes for the current healthcare crisis. First of all, many people cannot afford health care coverage. Traditionally, this has been the poor and the unemployed, but increasingly it is also the middle class. The price of health care insurance has been steadily increasing. Lawsuits against hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, and others in the medical profession have caused costs to increase. Also, new and expensive procedures have been developed to better treat medical problems add to those costs. Second, many people have been losing their insurance because their employers no longer pay for coverage-either because they cannot afford to themselves, or in an effort to cut company costs. A third major problem is issue of the maintaining of Medicare and Social Security. Finally, there is also a need for more workers in the medical profession, and the need for more young people to pursue a career in medicine.
There a number of approaches to this problem. I don’t believe any of them, alone, will be able to fix the problem, but a balance of them may address it in a satisfactory manner.
First, we can try to carefully limit lawsuits against the medical industry. Government should try to ensure that frivolous lawsuits are thrown out, and damages awarded are reasonable. While the medical profession should be held accountable for mistakes, we need to make sure that the lawsuits do not damage the industry, forcing medical professionals to pay larger premiums for lawsuit insurance resulting in more expensive medical costs.
Next, we can try to set up a national health care system. It should be targeted primarily on the poor, the young, and those on Medicare and others who cannot afford health care currently. This would, hopefully, allow everyone access to a health care system. However, we must recognize the economic reality that this system cannot deliver everything, and we must strive to make it viable and sustainable by trying to reduce its costs. One way to do this, I think, is to determine a certain level of acceptable care, and instead of trying to cover everything, it should concentrate on that level of care. It might also mean that more expressive edge procedures are replaced by less expensive, but acceptable, procedures. It may also mean fewer choices in selecting doctors. An emphasis should be on preventative care, which tends to be more affordable. By doing this, we will not be able to guarantee that everyone gets perfect health care, but they will get some level of health care that they otherwise would not have. It also keeps costs lower, helping to make the system more sustainable. Finally, the introduction of a national health care system may introduce more competition into the health care market. I lived for several years in Canada, which has a national health care, and noticed that this program was working well. Another thing we can do is to allow poorer people to import cheaper drugs from Canada. And perhaps we can use new technology to make some procedures cheaper. In the past year there was a flu shortage and the government did not agree to take supplies of flu vaccine from Canada, because it claimed that these shots did not have the same quality as American Flu shots. People who could afford going to Canada to get these shots went. However, people in need were not able to afford getting to Canada to get those shots. The government made a mistake by not permitting this medication to the States, because there were not enough flu shots to cover the children and seniors who needed the shot the most, and the death toll was high.
A third thing we can do is to make private health care more affordable. Government can give tax breaks to employees who provide health care benefits to their employees. We can also have health care provides offer more options in coverage-allowing individuals to get coverage that are targeted to meet their needs or the amount they can afford, rather than a more expensive over comprehensive plan.
Finally, the government should encourage students to pursue a medical career by giving them incentives such as scholarships or loans to pay for school. Those loans might come with the opportunity to get those loans paid off if they work in hospitals and clinics in poorer neighborhoods for a few years, thus helping to make sure that more qualified doctors are available in those areas.
I believe that every citizen should have access to health care. The government should look at the health care systems and provisions in place both in other countries and within the States to see which systems can provide an adequate level of care while also being affordable, and importing medications when it is needed, while promoting the local pharmaceutical companies. In addition, encouraging a new generation of people to become doctors would help greatly to resolve this issue.
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