Health Spending Projections

This week's article discussed the impact of the recession on health care economics. As addressed in the article, and as mentioned in our Public Health lecture, health spending makes up an enormous portion of the GDP (gross domestic product) in the United States, and is a far higher percentage than any other country. And according to the article, health care spending will only continue to increase. Due to the recession, spending in general has decreased; however, health care spending has only slowed down, not decreased. Typically the effects of a recession on health care are long term. People are unable to save as much money, so in the years to come they spend less on health care. As a result, more people will be eligible for medicaid and will no longer be paying for health insurance from their own wallets.

The government is already in severe debt. As mentioned in the article, health care spending is becoming a greater and greater part of this country's GDP. The government is currently spending most of its money on something that they get nothing out of. Health care is a service, not a good that is tradeable or profitable. They keep putting money into a system that they are not even in charge of running. How much money can you put into something that you do not have control over? Ultimately, if the government is going to contribute so much money (that they don't even have), they should have at least some power.

One pressing issue in the health care reform are the number of uninsured individuals in the United States. There are a number of social and economic consequences due to such a high percentage of uninsured people. Those who don't have insurance are less likely to seek out medical help when in need, which will result in more serious health problems. They may seek attention when it is too late and require more intense treatment in hospitals. Since these people are uninsured, they will be unable to pay the cost of the treatment, which will ultimately be passed on to insured patients.

If I could change one thing about our health care system, I would recommend switching to a single payer system, which is universal health care for an entire insurance pool. There are many advantages to this change in health care system. Health care would be guaranteed for every US citizen and no one would be denied health care due to a pre-existing medical condition. Also, the cost of providing care would be dramatically lower because there would be no motive to make a profit and administrative costs would be eliminated.

That's all for now. Happy spring break!