There are several challenges when it comes to obtaining high-quality Healthcare, especially in the US. Even though the Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010, coverage gaps remain, particularly regarding the mental health services resources. The USA annually spends much more on Healthcare than any foreign country, although increased spending has not increased life expectancy for Americans. Two of the main problems of the US Healthcare system are the high cost of care and its inconsistency with this price and the fraudulent practices of doctors.
One of the primary and most pressing problems in American medicine is its high price. The United States spends considerably more money on Healthcare than any other industrially developed country, as mentioned above. However, the United States lags behind many peer countries on several Healthcare indicators (Bishop 13). While the United States expends significantly more on Health Care than other nations, although it lags behind in many measures, the unavoidable conclusion is that the United States spends more than it should. The high spending on Healthcare is due to the two reasons.
First, administrative costs for Healthcare in the US are the highest in the industrialized world. Because most health insurance in the US is private, the billing and record-keeping tasks are enormous (Riley et al. 35). Second, the US counts on a fee-for-service-based personal insurance policy model. According to this model, doctors, hospitals, and health facilities have the relative freedom to levy whatever fees they prefer for their facilities. In other industrialized countries, government regulation keeps prices lower. Having this crucial difference that separates the US from similar countries helps illustrate why the cost of US Healthcare is so much higher than in other countries.
Medical ethics and explicit medical fraud are other areas of concern. Many Healthcare providers, including doctors, medical equipment companies, and nursing homes, engage in various types of Healthcare fraud (Flasher & Lamboy-Ruiz, 2019). A common instance of dishonesty is that sometimes they invoice private insurance companies for check-ups that have never been conducted. A few types of ‘fraud’ are legal but questionable from an ethical point of view. Doctors occasionally recommend their patients to be checked by a facility they own or in which they have invested. While this practice is legal, it raises issues about determining whether the analyses are in the self-interest of the patient or in the interest of the doctor.
Some doctors dispute this point of view, particularly those who are fiercely opposed because doctors are engaged in fraudulent practices. They argue that the current medical system puts doctors in a rigorous framework that allow them neither to inflate prices for services, nor to engage in fraud. However, the fact that Americans spend colossal sums on medical care each year indicates otherwise. In addition, it is impossible to ignore the fact that monetary ties between doctors and specific laboratories and clinics exist.
In conclusion, it has to be said that the American Healthcare system, like the Healthcare system of any other country, has many problems that need to be worked on. While failing to meet high standards, the high cost of the treatment proves that high cost does not guarantee a quality service. Moreover, the problems in medical ethics and fraud prove that medical education of doctors and ethical education needs to be worked on.
Works Cited
Bishop, Thomas. “Healthcare in America: Assessing the ACA and Medicare-for-All”. Public Interest Law Reporter, vol. 25, no. 1, 2019, pp. 11-17.
Flasher, Renee, and Lamboy-Ruiz, Melvin A. “Impact of Enforcement on Healthcare Billing Fraud: Evidence from the USA”. Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 1, no. 157, pp. 217–229.
Riley, Richard D., Windt, Danielle, Croft, Peter, and Moons, Karel G. M., editors. Prognosis Research in Healthcare: Concepts, Methods, and Impact. Oxford University Press, 2019.