OPPapers.com

Healthcare

HEALTHCARE IN THE UNITED STATES
The US is the only country in the developed world, except for South Africa, that does not provide healthcare for all of its citizens. Every other developed country in the world as well as some developing nations offer universal healthcare for their residents. In the US, nearly 50 million Americans have no health insurance, more than 10 million of which are children. Those Americans that do not have access to healthcare are often either unable to afford health insurance, or have been denied coverage by insurance companies. Individuals often have coverage denied due to pre-existing conditions or diseases. The list of diseases used by insurance companies to deny coverage number in the thousands. Insurance companies are not willing to take the risk of insuring unhealthy people, which means that people that need insurance the most do not have access to it.
The US spends more money on healthcare than any other country in the world. In fact, the US spent $2 trillion on healthcare in 2005 and this number is growing. It is expected to rise to $2.9 trillion by 2009. Comparing US healthcare spending to other nations with universal healthcare such as Norway, France and Canada, we can see that US is spending drastically more. From Exhibit 1, US healthcare spending per capita annually is $5,771, while healthcare spending in Canada is $2,998 – nearly half that of the US. Another way to look at healthcare spending is to see what portion of national's GDP is spent on healthcare. From Exhibit 2, we can see that US healthcare spending as a share of GDP is the highest in the world at 15.2%, while that of Canada is only 9.9%.
(http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm)

Exhibit 1
Total Health Expenditures Per Capita, U.S. and Selected Countries, 2003

Exhibit 2
Total Health Expenditures as a Share of GDP, U.S. and Selected Countries

The United States' health financing system is the least fair of all the developed...