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| The debate over health care
reform in the United States centers on questions of a right to health
care, access, fairness, the quality achieved for the high sums spent,
and the sustainability of expenditures that have been rising faster
than the level of general inflation and the growth in the economy. It
is now clear that medical debt is the principal cause of bankruptcy in
the United States. The mixed public-private health care system in the
United States is the most expensive in the world, with health care
costing more per person than in any other nation. A greater portion of
gross domestic product (GDP) is spent on health care in the U.S. than
in any other United Nations member state except for East Timor
(Timor-Leste). A study of international health care spending levels in
the year 2000, published in the health policy journal Health Affairs,
found that while the U.S. spends more on health care than other
countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
(OECD), the use of health care services in the U.S. is below the OECD
median by most measures. The authors of the study concluded that the
prices paid for health care services are much higher in the U.S. According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, the United States is the "only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not ensure that all citizens have coverage". Whether a federal government-mandated system of universal health care should be implemented in the US remains a hotly debated political topic, with Americans divided along party lines in their views of the US health system and what should be done to improve it.[citation needed] Those in favor of government-guaranteed universal health care argue that the large number of uninsured Americans creates direct and hidden costs shared by all, and that extending coverage to all would lower costs and improve quality. Opponents of government mandates or programs for universal health care argue that people should be free to opt out of health insurance. Both sides of the political spectrum have also looked to more philosophical arguments, debating whether people have a fundamental right to have health care provided to them by their government. In spite of the amount spent on health care in the US, a 2008 report by the Commonwealth Fund ranked the United States last in the quality of health care among the 19 compared countries. Other comparisons conclude that the US system performs better on some measures, such as responsiveness and higher cure rates for some serious illnesses such as cancer. Wikipedia reference: Health care reform in the United States |
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