Introduction
Health care in the United States has been provided by different authorized entities for a long time. Most healthcare services are provided by personal institutions. Private institutions provide health insurance services to approximately 15% of Americans. Each American spends a lot of money on health than any other person in the world. The greater portion of countries income is spent on health care. Many Americans have complained that despite them using a lot of money on health, the health system does not provide the necessary services. This and many other problems experienced in the American health system underline the need for the USA to adopt socialistic health systems such as the one practiced by Canada.
Benefits of the socialistic healthcare system
Today, there is the emergence of different diseases. Most of these diseases require immediate and intensive attention from doctors. The American health system has seen most of the patients going without proper attention from doctors. There are many people who still wait in the queue to be attended especially those who suffer from cancer and are from a poor background. In some instances, people have succumbed to illnesses due to poor treatment from these hospitals. With a socialistic health system, people will be able to receive immediate attention from doctors as the system treats all patients equally. In America, attention to patients depends on the capability of the patient to pay consultation and treatment fees. With some Americans being underinsured or not insured at all, they are not capable of receiving proper medication from these hospitals. In a socialistic healthcare system, medical charges are catered for by the government helping every person access equal medical attention (Butler & Haislmaier, 2006, PP. 1-9).
Americans have suffered for a long time by being exploited by insurance companies. The companies charge them a lot of money to secure their health. This has led to many people working in other nations that exhibit socialistic healthcare systems opting to reside in those nations. Through a socialistic health system, Americans will be relieved of the responsibility of insuring their health. This would be of great benefit to citizens who have not been able to access good medication due to lack of money. People have gone to an extent of selling almost all their property in a bid to help them acquire proper treatment in America. With this system, people will be able to receive quality health care at minimal charges and efficiently. It is estimated that by the year 2016, every American will spend 41percent of his or her income on health. This will lead to most of them leaving a poor life as they will not be able to meet all their needs and cater for health. The socialistic system of healthcare is the only method that can save this situation. People who are not capable of meeting their health insurance will get it from the government while those who can afford do it at a lower cost than what is charged today (Socialist Alliance, 2008, Par. 4).
The socialistic health system takes it as the right of every citizen to access healthcare. Every American would be able to access health care regardless of his or her ability to pay for the service. The system would ensure that patients receive medical resources depending on their needs. This would depend on the prescriptions from the doctors thus ensuring that there is no discrimination in providing health services. As the system would be financed from money collected as tax from the citizens, it would act as a good method of redistributing money from the rich to the old and the sick. Through this system, the government will ensure that there is available money for community health in poor regions. Most of the American poor regions have poor medical facilities that do not meet all the required medical attention. The socialistic healthcare system would provide funds for transforming all-purpose practicians working in poor areas into community health centers where all people would be able to access quality healthcare (McPherson, 2003, Par. 2-4).
In America, researches are carried out by private sectors. Private institutions are responsible for coming with drugs to treat varied diseases. As a result, drugs have been so expensive for most people to buy. With the adoption of a socialistic healthcare system, the government would ensure that it has established research sectors that will help every citizen have access to drugs at an affordable cost. With the high prevalence of mentally ill people in the US, most of them have gone unattended due to the huge amount of money required for medical care. There are also speculations that these numbers will continue to rise due to cases of depression. Through the system, Americans will be able to access this rare service as psychiatric services would be made available to people without charges. Proper measures will also be established to fight cases of mental illness within the country (Steve, 2009, Par. 2).
As the system ensures equitable access to medical services, it would help the Americans in coming up with policies that would help in ensuring equal handling when it comes to healthcare. For instance, the government would help in coming with measures to reduce cases of depression within the nation as well as accidents that occur at workplaces. Health education and other programs aimed at improving health would also be provided to citizens for free. By so doing, the country would be able to cut on the high cost it incurs on the medical bill every year. This is because the community would be given a chance in making decisions regarding their health. In the past, patients’ rights have been ignored by most private and government practitioners. They have been denied the right to take part in making decisions regarding their health by not being served with sufficient information about their health status. A socialistic healthcare system would ensure that every patient has access to information regarding their health hence participating in making an informed decision. To achieve these goals, the government would ensure that there are enough doctors to meet all the patients’ needs without having to keep them waiting for long (Klein, 2002, PP. 42-50).
The system does not aim at eliminating other private practitioners. However, it believes that if properly regulated, private practitioners would save the country lots of dollars spent on the medical cover every year. It would ensure those practitioners who prescribe a special medication to patients are well trained. It would extend medical cover to cater even for services provided by private doctors. It would also help in integrating these doctors in community health centers hence increasing the number of doctors within the country. Many people go without being attended as various hospitals accept only specific medical insurances. A socialistic healthcare system would help in eliminating this as it would come up with a general medical insurance cover that would be acceptable in all hospitals. This would reduce high charges incurred by people for them to be treated in hospitals that do not accept their medical insurance.
There have been reported cases of emergency cases going unattended due to patients not having medical insurance or their insurance covers not matching those accepted by certain hospitals. This has resulted in many people losing their life. With the adoption of the system, every hospital would be required to attend to all patients regardless of whether they are insured or not. Also, people would be treated in any hospital as the government would be the one catering for medical covers (Kahssay & Oakley, 1999, PP. 1-15).
Conclusion
The current health system has been criticized for not being efficient, accessible, and not providing services equal to the amount of money charged to patients. In 2000, America’s health system was ranked first in both expenditure and responsiveness but thirty-seventh in performance. Research has found that some cost-effective means of treatment are not employed frequently as they deserve. Some patients have been taken through unnecessary treatment making them incur an extra redundant cost. This has gradually resulted in a poor relationship between patients and doctors. According to a study from Johns Hopkins University, for every four patients, one admits that his or her doctor has subjected him or her to risks. Another major issue that has led to the failure of the current system is political influence. This has led to an increase in the cost of drugs making the government and insurance companies unable to cover their cost. All these problems underline the need for the Unite States to adopt socialistic healthcare system.
Reference list
Butler, S. M. & Haislmaier, E. F. (2006). A National Health System For America. Web.
Klein, R. (2002). Why Britain’s Conservatives Support A Socialist Health Care System. Web.
Kahssay, H. M. & Oakley, P. (1999). Community Involvement in health development: a review of the concept and practice. Public health in action, 5, PP. 1-15. Web.
McPherson, S. (2003). Health-Care Socialism. Web.
Socialist Alliance. (2008). Socialist Alliance Health Charter. Web.
Steve, C. (2009). ‘Socialist’ health care a godsend for expatriate. Web.