American Government: Healthcare and National Security

This article discusses the issues of healthcare and national security in the United States. It provides recommendations for resolving these issues and improving the quality of life for citizens.

Running head: AMERICAN GOVERNMENT
American Government
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A. Healthcare
A report published by the national government of the United States in the year 2016
shows that more than 91.2% of the citizens of the nation have health insurances either the one
provided by the national government or the private ones (dpeaflcio.org, 2018). It is important to
note that the premiums of the health insurances are rising but their quality is falling. In this
particular context it needs to be said that from the year 1999 to 2005 only 11 percent of the
annual premium of the families have increased. This growth, however, is significant when the
years 2005 to 2015 is taken into consideration with the growth rate being 5 percent every year.
The inadequate health care coverage wields a negative impact on the economy of the
United States. It has been estimated by the Centre for American Progress that the lack of
adequate health insurance will cost the American society somewhere between 125 dollars to 249
dollars each year in the coming years (dpeaflcio.org, 2018).
The cost of the healthcare services offered by the health care organisations has increased
in a significant manner over the years and it is seen that the poor as well as the minorities often
fail to get adequate health care services because of their inability to afford health care insurances
or the treatment facilities offered by the health care organisations. In the year 2014, there were
about 32 million uninsured Americans and of them more than 5.4% are children (Smith
&Medalia, 2014).
It is pertinent to note that when the statistics are considered, a bitter truth comes upfront.
However, this particular problem can be resolved through the reduction in the healthcare services
and also insurance coverage costs. The introduction of National health insurance health system
and National health service policy are the most feasible options for the purpose of promoting and

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increasing the health insurance among the common citizens. The National Health Service will
be delivered by the government of the concerned country. This will be done through the
government clinics, hospitals and the salaried physicians, government hospitals, and government
salaried physicians who will be financed through the tax payments made by the citizens of the
concerned nation. The policy will require the national government of the nation to recruit private
doctors within the scheme who will work according to the specific medical regulations provide
effective health care services to the patients. The second solution is a national health insurance
system and it will be a single player system. In this scheme, a single government institute will
collect the premium and pay the healthcare costs. The medical services will be financed publicly
however the services will be provided through the various private health care organisations
(Martin et al., 2018).
Recommendation
The single pay system of National Health Service will be delivered only through the
publicly funded healthcare system, whereas the majority of the services can also be provided by
the private hospitals as well. The federal government can thus issue a bill as a national health
insurance health system bill so that it can discuss it in the congressional debate and thereby make
it a law (Smith, Roberts & Vander Wielen, 2013). This health care plan will have the supervision
of the government; the federal bodies will ensure that the quality of care that is delivered to the
patients. The state-level government will play the role of a central authority which in turn will
facilitate and bind both the federal and the local government in place. The local government will
act in synchronicity with the national government to provide the medical care to the citizens or
the insurer (Ridic, Gleason &Ridic, 2012).

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B. National Security
National Security is a pressing and concerning issue for any country due to the
underlying threats and the challenges. To elaborate on the term national security, it is a
comprehensive term which includes both the national defence and the foreign policy of any
nation. The most recent and gripping issues of national security that the nation USA faces is in
relation to the Nuclear escalations and testing which is being performed by North Korea.
Considering the Kim Jong Un’s present crave for increasing the nuclear arsenal, it is likely that
the North Korean government can use their Nuclear missiles against the American nation (Cha &
Kang, 2018). Thus, the national security strategy will be an approach which will deal with the
key security and the foreign challenges. This will offer United States a better response strategy
and a better view (Nelson, 2013).
Another major national security issue arises from the current Russian stance. Considering
from the Russian side, it is important to note that Russia has adopted an adversarial stance
towards both the west and the United States. Previously, United States have taken several stern
actions against Russia to contain Russia's actions (Ambrosio, 2017). However, it is important to
highlight that the US has taken actions like sanctions, removing Russia from the G8 group and
this has resulted into putting a lot of pressure on Russia and its global activities. There is a long-
standing rivalry between United States and Russia. After the Cold war, this rivalry was taken a
step forward with the United States befriending the European nations and bringing up the
defence to a whole new level with the formulation of NATO (McCauley, 2013). NATO on the
other hand is persistently trying to track and contain the boundary activities of Russia (Tsypkin,
2012).

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Recommendation
The situation of national security thus calls for the wise use of both the foreign policy and
the national security. The present-day threats not only arise from terrorism within the country but
also arises externally (Pifer, 2018). United States can along with the Russia work together to
control and reduce the activities of terrorism from the US soil as well as globally. Foreign policy
here plays a major role along with diplomacy. United States can act unilaterally with Russia and
engage with it diplomatically to sort out the differences and bringing Russia back into the G8
nation's group (Penttilä, 2017). National security is a federal issue however the cooperation of
the state and the local governments is likely to help the national government in a significant
manner. The improvement of national security will require the national government to improve
vigilance at the grass root level. Vigilance at the grass root level means to keep a vigil on the
suspicious activities that are being executed on the United States soil. The local police
departments, detective agencies and the central FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) along with
the defence can work together in a synchronized manner. This will promote security and safety
among the citizens, crimes will reduce, and deter the activities of the criminals to committing
any crime.
Comparison
The two national issues discussed in this paper are correlated to each other and the
effective resolution of both of these issues is important from the perspective of the national
growth of the concerned nation. Furthermore, at the same time the President will have to take
into effective consideration these issues in order to establish a stable central government which
will not provide better quality of facilities and also opportunities to the people but at the same
safeguard them as well.

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Reference
Ambrosio, T. (2017). Challenging America's global preeminence: Russia's quest for
multipolarity. Routledge.
Cha, V. D., & Kang, D. C. (2018). Nuclear North Korea: A debate on engagement strategies.
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dpeaflcio.org. (2018). Retrieved from http://dpeaflcio.org/programs-publications/issue-fact-
sheets/the-u-s-health-care-system-an-international-perspective/
Martin, D., Miller, A. P., Quesnel-Vallée, A., Caron, N. R., Vissandjée, B., &Marchildon, G. P.
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Smith, J. C., &Medalia, C. (2014). Health insurance coverage in the United States: 2013.
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