Awareness
Health Care Intro
Team MommyTalk
How is Healthcare Affecting Your Family?
Our Seeing, Sharing, Supporting topic is extremely relevant and important to all of us. Healthcare. The debate about healthcare concerns in the United States (and many other countries)... Read More >>
Health Care
How is Healthcare Affecting Your Family?
Our Seeing, Sharing, Supporting topic is extremely relevant and important to all of us. Healthcare. The debate about healthcare concerns in the United States (and many other countries) focuses on the rising concerns of access, efficiency and quality, and of course, the cost.
So many questions, so many different scenarios. Where do we begin?
How do you receive healthcare for yourself and your family? How much do you spend per month on healthcare expenses? $0-$200, $200-$500, $500-$1000, $1000+ ? How would you rate the healthcare you and your family receives (that is covered through your insurance provider)? How concerned are you about the rising costs of health care premiums? How concerned are you about paying extra for your health insurance and taxes to cover those who cannot afford health insurance?
Analysis
By Gary Langer
Oct. 20- Americans express broad, and in some cases growing, discontent with the U.S. health care system, based on its costs, structure and direction alike - fueling cautious support for a government-run, taxpayer-funded universal health system modeled on Medicare.
In an extensive ABCNEWS/Washington Post poll, Americans by a 2-1 margin, 62-32 percent, prefer a universal health insurance program over the current employer-based system. That support, however, is conditional: It falls to fewer than four in 10 if it means a limited choice of doctors, or waiting lists for non-emergency treatments.
Support for change is based largely on unease with the current system's costs. Seventy-eight percent are dissatisfied with the cost of the nation's health care system, including 54 percent "very" dissatisfied.
Indeed, most Americans, or 54 percent, are now dissatisfied with the overall quality of health care in the United States - the first majority in three polls since 1993, and up 10 points since 2000.
Yet apprehension about the system is counterbalanced by broad satisfaction among insured Americans with their own current quality of care, coverage and costs - a situation that tends to encourage a cautious approach to change. While the system is seen to have gaps, flaws and an uncertain future, it's also seen to work for most people.
Among insured Americans, 82 percent rate their health coverage positively. Among insured people who've experienced a serious or chronic illness or injury in their family in the last year, an enormous 91 percent are satisfied with their care, and 86 percent are satisfied with their coverage.
Still, cost concerns are prompting some evasive action: Nearly one in four Americans, 23 percent, say they or someone in their family put off medical treatment in the last year because of the cost. (Among uninsured people, this soars to 49 percent.) And 12 percent say they or someone in their household bought prescription drugs from a foreign country - a violation of federal law.
In addition to universal coverage, there are other areas in which the public favors change. Nearly seven in 10 say it should be legal to buy prescription drugs from foreign countries, despite the FDA's safety qualms. Three-quarters favor the $400 billion plan to cover prescription drugs in Medicare; most would pay higher taxes to fund it. Most also favor the creation of HMO-based Medicare options that cover prescription drugs but limit the choice of doctors.
There's long been a schism in concern about health care costs: Most Americans are dissatisfied with the costs of the system overall, and apprehensive about their future expenses - but satisfied with their own current costs.
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Did you know...
- That 14.2% of all Americans were without health insurance in the 1st quarter of 2007.
- Americans by a 2-1 margin prefer a universal health insurance program over the current employer-based system.
- The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any other nation in the world.
- Most American's, approximately 59.7%, receive their health insurance coverage through an employer, although that percentage is declining.
- Premiums for family coverage have increased 78%, while wages have risen 19% and inflation has risen 17%.
- About 9% of the population purchases healthcare insurance directly from the market. Government sources cover 27% of the market.
- Nearly 1/5 of the uninsured population is able to attend insurance, 1/4 is eligible for public coverage and the remaining 56% need financial assistance.
- Medical bills are overwhelmingly the most common reason for personal bankruptcy in the U.S.
- The overall performance f the U.S. healthcare system was ranked 37th by the World Health Organization.
- Uninsured Americans are less likely to have regular heath care and use preventative services.
- The costs of treating the uninsured must often be absorbed by the providers as free care, and is then passed on to the insured via cost shifting and higher health insurance premiums, or paid by taxpayers through higher taxes.
- Most uninsured Americans are working-class persons whose employers do not provide health insurance, and who earn too much money to qualify for one of the local or state insurance programs for the poor, but do not earn enough to cover the costs.
- Some states, like California, offer limited insurance coverage for working-class children, but not for adults.
- The U.S. and South Africa are the only examples of industrialized nations without universal coverage.
How do you feel about healthcare? Are you and your family concerned with the costs and quality of healthcare , or about paying more for your healthcare because others cannot afford it? How would you like to see healthcare in the United State (or in your country) change?
