U.S. Healthcare System: Most Expensive and Unaffordable in the World - Essay Sample

Introduction

According to Frontline: "Sick around the world" is a documentary film focusing on healthcare systems in the U.S and worldwide, the American healthcare system in the most expensive around the world. Despite the high costs of healthcare, more than 47 million Americans are left uncovered, given that they cannot afford the cost of healthcare. Compared to other free-market democracies around the globe where the people are provided with affordable healthcare, the U.S needs to improve its healthcare system. Various healthcare policies have been implemented in America, but still, most people have been left out despite attempting to revamp the healthcare system (Honigsbaum, 2018). Britain and Japan are two countries with among the best healthcare systems around the world. In the U.K, the national health system (NHS), people pay for healthcare from tax revenue; therefore, the healthcare facilities are government-owned. In Japan, with a population of 130 million, the country has a better healthcare system than the U.S and spends half as much as the United States on healthcare per capita, and everybody is catered for (2020). Japan boasts of the longest life expectancy and the lowest infant mortality around the world.

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Ethical Aspect of Healthcare in Britain that can benefit the U.S

Great Britain has been referred to as the home of "socialized healthcare," which is an aspect of the national healthcare system that has significantly benefited the British people. Through the government-run domestic health services, for about half what the Americans pay for healthcare, the NHS covers everybody and has better health statistics than the U.S. The Brits pay for healthcare through tax revenue. The government can accommodate everybody in treatment programs. The government owns the hospitals in Britain, and the doctors working in these healthcare facilities are salaried government employees.

In the U.S, private healthcare is becoming a more popular trend where Americans are opting out of government healthcare plans due to the rampant unreliability in the government system. The British NHS can be identified to consider various ethical practices, such as the provision of affordable healthcare to all people. Through the tax system, Britain can ensure that everyone can access affordable healthcare irrespective of various issues, such as the socioeconomic background. In the U.S, more than 47 million people do not have comprehensive healthcare cover (2020). The U.S can borrow from Britain’s NHS, which has managed to provide affordable healthcare to its citizenry while also taking ethical considerations of equality in healthcare service delivery to all the people.

Ethical Aspect of Healthcare in Japan that can benefit the U.S

Social insurance in healthcare is probably one of the most advanced forms of healthcare that Japan has adopted to deliver affordable healthcare to its people. Every individual has to sign up for a healthcare insurance policy which can be acquired at work or through a community-based insurer. For those in the lower-income brackets, the government is directly involved in supplementing their medical financial obligations. As a result, everybody is covered for healthcare services, resulting in the impressive healthcare statistics that Japan has managed to achieve.

Therefore, the Japanese healthcare system has managed to incorporate ethical aspects through community-based health insurance programs (Minari, Brothers & Morrison, 2018). For instance, people without formal employment are still able to access healthcare services. The United States could benefit from adopting such health policies that ensure every individual is well cared for and can access essential services adequately. In the U.S, people from low-income backgrounds have been left out and cannot access healthcare services due to the high cost of health services delivery.

By borrowing from some of the healthcare aspects that have been outlined in the British and Japanese ethical healthcare practices, the U.S can primarily benefit from these policies. The healthcare system in the U.S needs to adopt some of these policies to ensure that they can provide the American people with affordable and quality healthcare. With a healthy working nation, the U.S can manage to achieve various national development agendas courtesy of a modern revolutionized healthcare system.

References

Honigsbaum, F. (2018). Priority setting processes for healthcare: in Oregon, USA; New Zealand; the Netherlands; Sweden; and the United Kingdom. CRC Press.

PBS Frontline: Sick Around the World (2020). Retrieved 23 June 2020, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4rg-DJBd34

Minari, J., Brothers, K. B., & Morrison, M. (2018). Tensions in ethics and policy created by National Precision Medicine Programs. Human genomics, 12(1), 1-10.