Understanding the Healthcare System of the United States

Before understanding, the health care system of US one should know about the factors that are
essential to any healthcare system.
QUALITY: Quality is a measure of how good the medical care is and how effective the
services are.
COST: The sources and uses of money that pay for healthcare services
ACCESS: This include the five A’s that are affordability, availability, accommodation,
accessibility and acceptability.
The five major branches of US health care system are:
1. Providers
2. Payers
3. Purchasers
4. Patients
5. Policymakers
According to the report, the U.S. does not have a uniform health system. Also U.S have no
universal health care coverage, and only recently enacted legislation mandating healthcare
coverage for almost everyone which makes this country to lay behind several other nations on
health care aspects. Rather than operating a national health service, a single-payer national
health insurance system, or a multi-payer universal health insurance fund, the U.S. health
care system can best be described as a hybrid system.
Two main challenges include high health care costs and disparities in insurance coverage in
the U.S. Other issues in the healthcare systems are:
Private Health Insurance and the Lack of Insurance: Like the other nations,
medicine is a profitable business. Hence, the expenditure for the health care has increased
tenfold. Still U.S lags behind many other nations. One main reason is private health
insurance. The U.S relies largely on a direct-fee system. In these system patients, under 65
are expected to pay for medical costs themselves, aided by private health insurance.
The High Cost of Health Care: The U.S spends much more money per capita on
health care than any other industrial nation and still lags behind many other nation in terms of
health care services.
Managed Care and HMOs: A poor development in the U.S health care system has
been the introduction of health maintenance organizations or HMO’s. They are prepaid health
plans with designated providers that is the patients must visit a physician who are employed
by the HMO.
Racial and Gender Bias in Health Care: African Americans are given less priority
than the Native Americans are and gender bias is present since women’s are not given certain
diagnostics tests and medications.