Health Care Costs in the United States Essay

Health Care Costs in the United States on the Access to Care

Total U.S. Spending on Health Care vs. Overall Health in America

The United States spends an extraordinary amount of money on health care. In 2009, health spending was $2.47 trillion dollars and accounted for 17.3% of the U.S. economy in 2009 (Pickert, 2010). This was a significant increase over the 2008 figure of $2.34 trillion and "was the largest one-year jump since 1960" (Pickert, 2010). This has led to predictions that by 2019, U.S. health spending will be $4.5 trillion (Pickert, 2010). Much of this spending is government spending. Approximately one-fifth of the federal budget in 2009 went to health-care spending. That year, the "federal government spent about $500 billion on Medicare; the federal government and states spent some $380 billion on Medicaid" (Pickert). However, while U.S. health care spending has risen, the quality of health care in the United States has been in steady decline and has been surpassed by many western nations. "Compared with six other nations -- Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom -- the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives" (Davis et al., 2010).Davis, K., Schoen, C., & Stremikis, K. (2010, June). Mirror, mirror on the wall: How the performance of the U.S. health care system compares internationally. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from the Commonwealth Fund website: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Fund%20Report/2010/Jun/1400_Davis_Mirror_Mirror_on_the_wall_2010.pdf

Pickert, K. (2010, February 4). The unsustainable U.S. health care system. Retrieved December 5, 2011, from Time.com website: http://swampland.time.com/2010/02/04/the-unsustainable-u-s-health-care-system/

Increased Health Care Costs have Led to Approximately 49 Million Uninsured Americans

The increased costs of health care have led to an insurance crisis. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2010, the number of uninsured Americans was 49.9 million (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Moreover, "the percentage of people covered by private health insurance has been decreasing since 2011" (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). While there was an increase in the percentage of people covered by government insurance, it was largely due to Medicare. Most alarmingly, "in 2010, 9.8% of children under age 18 (7.3 million) were without health insurance" (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Children in poverty were more likely to be uninsured….....