2008 Woodie Awards
Alumni Column - Food For Thought on Universal Healthcare
Bob Smoler '79
Issue date: 10/4/07 Section: Commentary
- Page 1 of 2 next >
While the Iraq war continues to rage on as a hot topic, there is an issue at home that carries enormous implications for every resident in our country: our healthcare delivery system. According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in 2005, the healthcare spending in the U.S. was approximately two trillion dollars, or 16percent of the gross domestic product. That breaks down to $6,697 per person. This is the highest per capita healthcare spending of all OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) member countries, yet the World Health Organization only ranks the U.S. 37 in overall health system performance. The reality is that all of our spending on healthcare is just not helping us to be as healthy as we can be as a society. The question is, would a universal healthcare plan that covers all U.S. citizens help the United States reduce the cost and improve the quality of care?
One consideration that certainly impacts the cost and quality of care is access to healthcare services. Few of us are paying the average $6,697 for healthcare. According to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, in 2002, about ten percent of the population accounted for almost sixty-four percent of all spending, while the lower fifty percent of the population accounted for only three percent. Clearly, if any of us would be unlucky enough to fall in that top ten percent category, financial ruin could be added to our health worries without some form of help in paying the bills. It is this worry that has given rise to the importance of health insurance. Having adequate health insurance today is the ticket to getting access to quality healthcare without having to spend every last dollar you have in the process.
The U.S. population is insured in a number of different ways. The elderly, the poorest Americans, the children of low income families, veterans, military personnel, Native Americans and others (approximately 27 percent of the population) are covered by a myriad of government programs funded by taxes. If someone doesn't qualify for a government program, then typically that person receives health insurance through their employer under various plans provided by numerous different health insurers. This accounts for 60 percent of the population. The problem is that health insurance has gotten so expensive for employers that many of them are either requiring their employees to pay an ever increasing percentage of the insurance cost, increasing the amount of healthcare spending the employee is responsible for paying out of their pocket, or both. Many smaller employers are even eliminating insurance coverage all together because they can't afford it.
One consideration that certainly impacts the cost and quality of care is access to healthcare services. Few of us are paying the average $6,697 for healthcare. According to the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, in 2002, about ten percent of the population accounted for almost sixty-four percent of all spending, while the lower fifty percent of the population accounted for only three percent. Clearly, if any of us would be unlucky enough to fall in that top ten percent category, financial ruin could be added to our health worries without some form of help in paying the bills. It is this worry that has given rise to the importance of health insurance. Having adequate health insurance today is the ticket to getting access to quality healthcare without having to spend every last dollar you have in the process.
The U.S. population is insured in a number of different ways. The elderly, the poorest Americans, the children of low income families, veterans, military personnel, Native Americans and others (approximately 27 percent of the population) are covered by a myriad of government programs funded by taxes. If someone doesn't qualify for a government program, then typically that person receives health insurance through their employer under various plans provided by numerous different health insurers. This accounts for 60 percent of the population. The problem is that health insurance has gotten so expensive for employers that many of them are either requiring their employees to pay an ever increasing percentage of the insurance cost, increasing the amount of healthcare spending the employee is responsible for paying out of their pocket, or both. Many smaller employers are even eliminating insurance coverage all together because they can't afford it.
Be the first to comment on this story