"HEALTH CARE IS NOT A COMMODITY OR PRIVILEGE, BUT A HUMAN RIGHT."
Dr. Julio Frenk
Dr. Julio Frenk
The graph shows that U.S spend more funds on healthcare, but it is still unequal and expensive.
Why is important to fix our healthcare system?
We should fix our healthcare system to eliminate the high percentages of uncovered Americans that are affected by the current system. According to the U.S. Census Bureau," there were 28.1 million Americans without health insurance in 2016" (Verywell Health). Also, we can eliminate the private insurance system, which is taking a high percentage of Americans' salaries and improve a public program for all Americans to get equal access to healthcare. According to The Commonwealth Fund, "In 2015, about 67.2 percent of U.S. residents received health coverage through private voluntary health insurance (VHI)" (International Healthcare). By this high percentage, we can infer that America needs a better healthcare system on which we all get an equal healthcare service without paying more for it.
Single payer system is the solution for our healthcare inequality.
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a Reuters poll that was taken in June and July 2018 indicated that 70% of respondents polled were in favor of "Medicare for All" in the USA. (the balance)
WHAT IS A SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE SYSTEM?
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 insurances' system, and it can build a reliable connection with many Americans.
CANADA USES SINGLE-PAYER TO FUND ITS HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
The above graph shows how Canada fund its healthcare system. Most of the healthcare in Canada is fund through the federal government taxation.
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
HOW TO ACHIEVE SINGLE-PAYER IN AMERICA?
In order to achieve Medicare For all, we must need to get the public support from all Americans by educating and explaining them about how single-payer works through media. Also, we will need to work with the Congress because it is not easy for states or small governments to create single payer healthcare due to its high cost. Therefore, we have to convince and persuade the Congress that a single-payer system is beneficial for American people, so they can implement a national law that can help all states to fund single payer. Another important fact is that we need to eliminate some of the complexity that federalism has created to finance healthcare. We have one of the consequences of this problem which is the waste of spending on unnecessary administration. Our major goals is to convince American people that single payer can work, persuade the Congress to provide a national law for single-payer, and reduce the complex administration on healthcare.