American Health Care
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Health care is an issue in the United States that touches all the major bases: personal, political, economic and social. It is an issue the outcome of which is pretty much a foregone conclusion: everyone needs good health, therefore, good health care is a necessary part of the equation. The health system in America is not working, though: costs are high and steeply rising; tens of millions of Americans are without health insurance, or are inadequately covered, or have only intermittent coverage. As more than one observer has noted, the American health care system is no "system" at all, rather, it is a hodgepodge of private sector enterprises and government programs that were put together in no particular order, overlapping in some parts, leaving huge gaps in medical service delivery in other areas. In recent years both the government and the private sector have become aware of the need to organize American health care into some sort of systematic entity. One of the concepts growing in persuasiveness is that of the "integrated delivery" system. The integrated delivery system promises to address several of the key issues dividing Americans on health care. It will be the focus of this paper to describe the context of American health care debate and how integrated delivery systems appear to be the evolutionary direction of progressive, cost-effective/patient-oriented medical services in this country. As part of that description, also examined will be how integrated del
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ch an improvisory basis, there is yet another variable in the equation that must be accounted part of the problem: health insurance. Health insurance started out, ironically, as one of the solutions to a dilemma facing health care providers during the Great Depression. With patients unable to pay their bills, hospitals and physicians faced financial collapse. The first Blue Cross health insurance plan, introduced in the mid-1930s, was considered by the insurance industry as a probable loser. But health insurance was greeted by the medical service consumer of the 1930s as the necessary stop-gap hedge against an uncertain world: it was an immediate success. Other insurance companies and, later, the government soon stepped in to fill various perceived needs as they arose.
From the beginning, the biggest criticism levelled at health insurance was its concept of "risk." All insurance investment is based upon risk: the insurers gamble that the premiums paid in will be more than those paid out. But insurance up to this point in the mid-'30s had largely been based upon tangible assets - land, buildings, movable stock, etc. - there was a fixed value on the item insured, a fixed value on its replacement/repair costs. Health is a
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Organizations PPOs, Bob Dole, Blue Cross, Medicare Veterans, , Policy Council, White House, health care, integrated delivery, National Product, Rodham Clinton, Health Care, delivery systems, american health, american health care, integrated delivery systems, delivery system, integrated delivery system, health insurance, medical service, integrated medical, physician-dominated systems, service delivery, health care reform, integrated medical delivery,
Approximate Word count = 2870
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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