Josh Wheaton Sociology 235 Social Problems 4/11/2014 Health Care Reform United States citizens spend, on average,

$4,287 per day in a hospital. This is nearly three times more than any other country in the world. According to Obamacare.com The United States spends more on health care than Japan, Germany, France, China, the U.K., Italy, Canada, Brazil, Spain and Australia combined. These figures are a clear indication that there is a problem with our health care system here in the U.S. However, it has been proposed that a single payer system health care could resolve many of the issues A single payer system consists of a government funded health care system were the government, rather than private insurers, pay for health care costs. The term single payer only means a single public body funds health care. Within a single payer system the government has the decision to contract health care services from private organizations or develop, own, and employ their own health care delivery systems. Whats Next for Health Care? An article written by Robert Pear of The New York Times summarizes the current position of the ACA and answers a few lingering questions surrounding the impact the ACA has on our nations health care system. Pear answers the question Will premiums shoot up next year? The answer to this question was it depends. It is likely that they will increase by double digits but there are a few factors that will keep premiums from skyrocketing. Some of these factors include; competition with new insurance providers,

federal and state officials negotiating with insurers, and the law protects citizens by stabilizing premiums for the next several years. Medicaid is a crucial source of funding for low-income families that cant afford current health care delivery. According to Pear, congress attempted to require states to extend Medicaid to those who need it. Unfortunately the Supreme Court overruled this notion and allowed states to not offer Medicaid. Another setback is the fact that it may be difficult to find doctors and physicians to provide health care to those who have Medicaid. Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University, states, Nothing in the Medicaid provisions of the Affordable Care Act, by itself, cures the underlying shortages of primary care physicians and specialists who accept Medicaid. Single Payer National Health Insurance Physicians for a National Health Program composed this article to give readers a view of the problems we currently face with our health care system. They try to reason the solution of a single payer system in order to relieve the U.S. of its current state. PNHP argues that the reason we spend more but get less than the rest of the world is because insurers are for-profit payers in the U.S. Insurers charge more to absorb huge profits and pay for other areas of the business as well as increase executive pay. To balance this out, doctors, surgeons, and hospitals have high costs associated with administration to deal with the bureaucracy. With a single payer system the administration costs would be reduced so much that it could use the previously wasted costs to provide widespread health care coverage

to the entire nation. Health care delivery would ultimately become barrier free to all Americans. Regulating the U.S. Health Care System: Failure in Motion This journal reasons that the ACA is a step towards health care reform and initiates reform to health care delivery but does not attack the problem directly. The current regulation of health care delivery is extremely poor. Too much emphasis is put on a mix of private and public regulators rather than a governmental regulated system. Regulation is dysfunctional because these regulators are not providing enough evidence that they are improving quality of care, providing benefits to the public, or effectively regulating health care delivery. Their focus is more so directed towards the regulation of markets. Health care is a problematic issue to face. However, regulation reform is needed because regulation is a fundamental characteristic of efficient health care delivery. Understanding the Choices in Health Care Reform This journal reduces the myths and misunderstandings behind health care reform. Health care is an industry with many stakeholders and most are ready to mislead correspondents to protect their interests. Costs associated with health care, and the coverage we provide, are not easy capacities to balance out, at least not for the United States. A universal system wide approach health care could reduce the discrepancies in costs and benefits provided with our current health care system. It would also allow for a better-regulated delivery of health care. Health care reform holds grounds for less-thancordial debate. And development of political support for implementation will not be easy to find. However, it does provide grounds for coherent and educational debate on competing proposals.

Structure-Functionalist Perspective On Health Care Reform The main question is, How do we approach this dilemma? In American society today, we are very self-oriented individuals. We tend put our own interests before thinking about the good of the whole. This is not a problem that we can point a finger at any person, or body of people, and blame. However, this may be the cause of the huge discrepancies between our countries spending on health care compared to other large countries. Every day there are a countless number of Americans that need medical attention but fail to receive this delivery of health care because they cannot afford health insurance. They wait until the problem requires emergency medical attention and are forced to visit emergency rooms. Not only are individuals in poverty affected by the high costs associated with health care. The article Whats Next for Health Care addresses that employers are reluctant to provide health care to employees because of the high insurance premiums. These premiums are only expected to increase in the future. As stated earlier in the paper, insurance companies charge higher prices to absorb large profits and increase executives pay. From the view of a structure functionalist, this clearly benefits insurance companies and executives much greater than the benefits received by policyholders. In order to give everybody a fighting chance, costs should be reduced to a point where it benefits all stakeholders equally and ever citizen can obtain these benefits. The way that insurance companies, government officials, and private health care providers are currently approaching this social problem does not address the needs of our entire nation. If it is possible to provide every citizen in the United States the ability to

receive effective health care delivery then we need to put our own interests aside and do what we can to work together and make it happen. Policy The approach we need to take to address this situation is to create a single payer system where every citizen receives the same benefits of health care delivery. Not only does this approach do the most good for the good of the whole, but also provides a universal system approach that makes it easier to regulate discrepancies between costs and benefits. This system should be an executive order carried out, maintained, and enforced by the highest forms of government here in the United States. All requirements should be addressed within the ACA and approved by all members of congress and the Supreme Court. This policy will make permanent changes to the Affordable Care Act. After this policy is enacted, each and every citizen will be provided the health care they deserve. All healthcare funding will be provided and maintained by the government. Health care delivery will be contracted to private health care providers. The government could also develop its own delivery resources and hire doctors and physicians. These doctors and physicians would then become government employees. It is important that the United States begins to think in a different perspective rather than the mindset of a self-involved individual our culture has created. We must embrace the idea that what is good for one should be good for the whole. Everybody deserves a fighting chance at life and providing accessible health care to every citizen and is the opportunity to make this happen.

Work Cited

"Health Care Facts: Why We Need Health Care Reform." Health Care Facts: Why We Need Health Care Reform. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2014.

Pear, Robert. "Whats Next for Health Care." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Apr. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

"Single-Payer National Health Insurance." Physicians for a National Health Program. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

Jacobson, Peter D., Laura M. Napiewocki, and Leah A. Voigt. "Regulating the U.S. Health Care System: Failure in Motion." Journal of health politics, policy and law 36.3 (2011): 583-9. Sociological Abstracts. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

Health Care, Study Group. "Understanding the Choices in Health Care Reform."Journal of health politics, policy and law 19.3 (1994): 499-541. Sociological Abstracts. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

"Health Insurance." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 May 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.