Health care spending has been a topic of debate in the United States recently. The healthcare costs increase concerned many of the United States citizens, and the statistics indicate that as at 2014, the health care costs has escalated by 5.3 percent. The rapid increase experienced in 2014 was influenced by the introduction of the Affordable Care Act , which was a primary expansion to cater for Medicaid and private health insurance. The topic is of interest to me as to the average US citizen due to the lack of benefits the citizens derive from the government's high expenditure on overall health care. Unlike other advanced nations, the US does not observe much better outcomes to their citizens overall health.
A fund report composed by Commonwealth organizations indicates that our country is among the top 10 countries with high spending on overall health care. Despite substantial investments in the discussed sphere, the US is the only nation that has failed to achieve better outcomes regarding rates of infant mortality, chronic conditions, and cancer cases. For instance, Obamacare, which was fully implemented in 2014 and led to the increase of the health care coverage for the American thereby growing the actual healthcare costs .
The study data which reported the health care spending by type of service product and services and product revealed the actual expenditure. Firstly, in 2014, the spending for hospital care increased from 3.5 percent in 2013 to 4.1 percent amounting to $971.8 billion. Researchers attribute this increase to non-price elements such as the utilization and intensity of services. Another matter was the ACA that affected the private health insurance and the Medicaid services.
Secondly, the Nursing care facilities raised from 1.3 percent to 3.6 percent between 2013 and 2015. An overspending in Medicare of approximately 4.1 percent more and Medicaid with a 3.1 percent triggered the increase. The third factor consists in the spending on drugs and medical equipment. The financial outlay on drugs accelerated from 2.4 in 2013 to 12.2 percent in 2014 of the retailing prescription only. These significant changes appeared due to the increased spending on new medication and growth of drug prices, particularly for specialty drugs such as hepatitis C. The spending on medical equipment was enormous in 2015 reaching $46.4 billion, and this was 3.2 percent more than the expenditure in 2013. The medical equipment purchased were such items as hearing aid, cancer therapy machines and contact lenses.
Lastly, based on health spending by major source finds, the Commonwealth reported that private health insurance accelerated the total health care spending by 33 percent. The rapid increase of the above mentioned indicated the impact posed by the ACA, as well as the implementation of health insurance premium tax, medical insurance industry fee, and marketplace plans with marketplace enrollment fees. As at 2014, the additional cost increased to $991.0 billion .
Discussion
From the findings, a rather interesting fact appears to be the ratio of the total health care expenditure to Gross Domestic Product . In comparison with other high-spending countries such as Germany, Japan, France, and Sweden, the US spending ratio to GDP is 50 percent more. Additionally, the hospital visits in the US are fewer if compared to the above mentioned countries despite the massive spending on health care . The hospital visits have reduced due to the tendency of American Switching to medical technology such as MRIs and CT Scans. Apart from the above mentioned, the information regarding out-of-pocket spending could be of importance in evaluating the total health care spending.
Conclusion
Health care spending in services, products, and medical type of sources should correspond with the outcomes towards the citizens concerns. There is no need for a country to invest large amount of money in health care if the outcome is not reflected on the citizens welfare. The spending should focus on strategies that can improve medical services so as to encourage hospital visits. Alternatively, the state governments can moderate the cost of health care to advance the outcomes.
About author
Linda works as an editor and she is working on exhibition review sample now. She has always enjoyed working with a variety of literature and being interested in new facts. In addition, she easily finds common ground with many people. She also received her master's degree from American University Washington
