Inequity in U.S. Health Delivery System

The multibillion dollar health care industry in the United States represents a patchwork of successes and failures in improving the health status of the population. Given its enormous expenditures on health care, America should rank number one in terms of low mortality and morbidity rates compared with other countries: "Americans will spend close to $1 trillion on health care this year [1995]--a staggering one-seventh of the nation's economy." Surprising, despite these expenditures, America is not the leading country in terms of its population's health; major improvements are needed.

The major failures of the American health care system are evident in five areas: high blood pressure control, pregnancy and infant health, s

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: "Because portability of health insurance is not guaranteed throughout the system, [some] face 'job-lock,' the fear that a change in employment will jeopardize all or part of their family's health insurance coverage." Although health care coverage is a common fringe benefit for full-time workers, the millions of Americans who are employed part-time rarely have access adequate health insurance. Americans who leave their jobs to pursue self-employment often find themselves at a disadvantage in obtaining health care coverage. People who leave their full-time jobs are generally allowed to retain their employer-based coverage, albeit with higher premiums. These benefits are extended only for a set period of time, e.g., 15 months. At the end of that period, the self-employed person must obtain coverage in the marketplace, at premiums that are often prohibitive. For this reason, the self-employed are a significant portion of the American population that is uninsured or underinsured. As one newly self-employed and uninsured writer laments, "Health care is about as basic a service as any nation can provide. [Then] why must affordable, adequate insurance be tied to traditional, full-time employment?" With recession creating the
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Kaiser Permanente, Medicaid Medicare, Accounting Office, Unfortunately Robert, Blue Cross, Politics Federal, Laurie Abraham, health care, Medicare Medicaid, America Universal, Bill Clinton, health insurance, health care system, care system, care costs, health care costs, carroll estes, health care reform, care reform, health care coverage, care coverage, medicaid medicare, health ed, ed philip, carroll estes sudbury,
Approximate Word count = 4178
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)

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