The United States ranks at the bottom of the Commonwealth Fund’s international comparison reports, despite the fact that America is ahead of many nations in the amount of money spent on health care – as much as 17% of GDP.
In fact, the U.S. health care system is not as rigidly regulated as foreigners often imagine it to be. Hospitals are obliged to admit a patient no matter what in an emergency. Also, the government pays a large share of the bills for visits to doctors and the purchase of medicines through special programs: Medicare for the old, Medicaid for the poor and Chip for children. Also, after B. Obama’s health insurance reforms, the percentage of people who are uninsured has dropped to 10% – “only” to 33 million people.
Otherwise, U.S. standards are generally high, and for some provisions even the best in the world. But no matter how much insurance they have, few Americans are able to avoid the paperwork involved in paying for treatment, due to the fear of lawsuits from health care providers. Almost always, visits to specialists are accompanied by additional fees from patients. This often leads to an unjustifiably large number of recommended examinations and procedures, commercializing health care. This approach to medicine, despite innovative techniques and well-trained specialists, has turned the U.S. into the country with the highest health care costs but some of the lowest health outcomes in some areas.
Leave a Reply