U.S. Health Care System Essay The United States and Canada
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Health Reform Plan: Accessible Healthcare
Brandi Munday
College of Science, Grand Canyon University
HCA-255
Professor Eric Heckerson
November 26, 2023
1
Health Reform Plan: Healthcare Reforms
A reform refers to something that is being improved or changed and typically reforms are
involved socially, politically, or even through healthcare, (Health Affairs). A healthcare reform
can be referred to as the overthrowing of the healthcare system. Health reforms can involve
many things like the increasing costs of healthcare for individuals.
Federal vs. State Policies
Federal health policies establish the national standards for all health administration and
protects patients' individual rights, this also includes any business transactions involved in
health, (Center For Data Insights And Innovation). An example of a federal state Act would be
HIPAA. HIPAA, also known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which
protects individuals' health information like their medical records, and personal health
information, and helps individuals to get health insurance. A state policy or law that differs per
state. The lawmakers of each state are able to determine the policies or laws and not the doctors
or physicians. An example of a state law would be the California Constitution, Article 1, which
provides all Californians the right to their own privacy, (Center For Data Insights And
Innovation). Federal policy will always have more power than state policy but there can be
conflict when state policies overlap with federal policies. They ultimately work together, but
when there is conflict between the two, the federal government will get to make the final policies
or laws that are to be set in place.
How This Reform Ensures Public Health Preparedness
I think that a health reform that could help the public would be free universal healthcare.
Other countries like Canada and China provide free healthcare for residents of their countries.
This includes visits to the doctor or seeing a physician, emergency room visits, and urgent care
visits. They also cover any prescription cost while in the hospital but do not cover prescriptions
once patients leave the hospital and they do not cover dental and vision. In other countries, the
government is able to provide citizens with free healthcare through taxes being funded through
those same individuals. I think it is possible for the United States to make a reform and make it
so everyone can receive healthcare regardless of their financial status. If the government did this,
I believe it would prepare people for epidemics better. I say this because if people were able to
visit the doctors when they need to, then the general public health would go up which means
people would be less likely to be sick. On top of that, if people got sick, they would be able to
get the help they needed quickly and wouldn’t have to risk going into debt to get help for a
sickness.
% of Gross Domestic Product
I personally would use 20% of gross domestic product to ensure that everyone was
receiving quality care. I think healthcare is very important and the fact that individuals are not
able to receive medical care because they cannot afford to see the doctors is very cruel. I think a
lot of the working class have low health nowadays due to the fact that insurance is so expensive
and hard to get. Thankfully I am still under my parents' insurance, but my co-workers who are in
their 30s, tell me that they cannot afford insurance and because of that they suffer physically.
They cannot just go to the doctors because they are hurt because healthcare without insurance is
ridiculous. I would honestly maybe even say 30% just to make sure everyone is okay but after
looking at Canada's GDP, which is a lot lower, and currently the United States is 18% which is
clearly not enough. I think the health of the state should be viewed as more important because
compared to other countries its not the best.
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Conclusion
The United States could do a lot better with their healthcare system in order to
accommodate more individuals. I personally feel like healthcare should be free for everyone if
they feel like they need to access it. Making it so an individual cannot go get help because they
don’t have enough money is very cruel and I couldn’t imagine declining help to someone
because they had no money. I think there is enough people in the United States to have our taxes
be raised with regulations of course. I am not saying I want prices to dramatically increase in
order for everyone to be able to go to the doctors, but I am saying that there is probably enough
room in the government's budget to push our taxes more toward medical health instead of maybe
like war.
References
Federal and State Health Laws
. CDII. (2023, March 29). https://www.cdii.ca.gov/compliance-
and-policy/resources/federal-and-state-health-laws/
Health Affairs: Leading Publication of Health Policy Research & Insight. (n.d.).
https://www.healthaffairs.org/
Wilensky, S. E., & Teitelbaum, J. B. (2022).
Essentials of health policy and law
(5th ed.). Jones
& Bartlett Learning.