A Brief Look At Healthcare - 1618 Words

A Brief Look at Healthcare There are fewer hotter and polarizing topics in the United States of America than health care. Healthcare is a modern favorite for news networks and reporters. From the controversy involving Martin Shkreli and price gouging in the pharmaceutical industry, to reports that Americans pay much higher rates than those in other developed Western nations. Healthcare as a concept has been even had a large impact on politics in the country. Recently our current president, Barack Obama enacted the Affordable Care Act, in 2010, which was intended to help lighten the weight of healthcare fiscal responsible on the American people. Many have stood up to oppose the act including other politicians, they claim that the bill is†¦show more content†¦provided $45.9 billion in annual unpaid care. The debt doesn’t only lie on the shoulders of the hospital and other parts of the healthcare industry. The Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey of 2012 found that 41% of adults between the age of 19 and 64 were to reported to have had medical debt, of that 41%, 42% stated that they had difficulties staying current with those bills. The inability for patients to maintain timely payments can be an even further hinderance on the quality of life. Lack of payment and delinquency can lower credit ratings and lead to a garnishment of funds. It’s because of these financial troubles that the American people and politicians scrutinized the structure of the American healthcare system. While the America has been a major power and leader in advancement in many aspects for the Western world, the country has not done so in healthcare and could considered behind the times. Sometime near the end of the 1800’s and the early 1900’s, Western European nations, began experimenting in providing social insurance for their citizens. Some of those social insurance’s were meant to provide benefits for protecting citizens against loss of pay, during periods of illness. Although the introduction of these benefits were a positive introduction, they weren’t initially provided to all citizens and were often used to leverage employee favor. During the same period of time the