Characteristics of US Health Care Systems

Characteristics of US health care systems
CHARACTERISTICS OF US HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS
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Characteristics of US health care systems
The primary characteristics of US healthcare systems from free market perspective
Introduction
Every country of the world has their own primary characteristics in their health care
system depending on the level of their knowledge and government policies put in place (Shi &
Singh, 2014). This paper tries to identify and focus the attention on the Unites States’ primary
characteristics in healthcare services distinct from other countries. There are ten distinct
characteristics of US healthcare system that differentiate it from other systems of other countries
and they include:
Free from government control. The health care system of US is not government,
departmental or agency controlled. The government subsidizes healthcare services by paying a
minimum of 46% of total expenditure in private hospitals where the remaining 54% is privately
financed by the employers. This means that majority of hospitals and physician’s clinics are
owned privately as business without government interference (Buerhaus, DesRoches,
Dittus&Donelan, 2015).. Unlike other developed countries where comparison of global budget is
done to determine the government subsidiary according to the resources within budgetary limits,
US have no central agency to monitor total expenditure through global budget (Singh, 2015).
Even though, United States federal government plays a key role in health care system. The
government determines public-sector reimbursements and expenditures rates for services given
to Medicare, CHIP, and Medicaid beneficiaries (Buerhaus, DesRoches, Dittus&Donelan, 2015).
Also the government sets standards through formulating health policy regulation which providers
must comply with to be certified to provide services to Medicare, CHIP and Medicaid
beneficiaries.

Characteristics of US health care systems
The second characteristic is partial access. Access simply means the ability of a patient to
access the health care services whenever there is a need. The is restricted for health care in US
for people who have (1) employers have given them health insurance, (2) government health care
program covers them, (3) can individually afford to pay their own insurance, and (4) can afford
to pay services themselves (Rejda, 2015). The primary means of ensuring access therefore
remains Health Insurance (Rejda, 2015).However, community health centers supported by
federal government providephysician services to both those who can and those who can’t pay by
themselves. There are still barriers to accessing needed health care to uninsured even though they
are allowed to access certain types of services. The hospital emergency departments are required
by the United States law to evaluate patients’ condition and provide medically needed
medication services without a guarantee of direct payment not unless patient themselves can
afford (Califf et al., 2012).
The third characteristic is the imperfect market. Although the delivery of services in the
United States is actually owned privately healthcare is not fully governed by free market forces
(Singh, 2015). In the United States the delivery of healthcare services can’t pass the basic test of
free market forces hence described as imperfect or quasi-market (Shi & Singh, 2014). For a
market to be free, it must have; multiple patients (buyers)and providers (sellers) acting
independently and patients can choose to get services from a provider of their choice (Singh,
2015). When market conditions are free, there will be increase in demanded quantity while the
prices are reducedfor a particular product or service and also the prices will increase as the
quantity demanded reduces. Practically, instead of consumers of the services negotiating with the
providers of the service the providers negotiate with the payers of the service who could be