Financing Health Care In The US Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Financing Health Care In The US - Term Paper Example Health insurance can actually be availed through an employed individual’s employer or through the employers of either the spouse or parents’, as applicable. Health insurance can also be purchased individually depending on one’s capacity or financial status, and the required scope and contents of health insurance coverage. The problem is eminently evident for those Americans who are unemployed and could not afford to purchase health insurance coverages. Further, those who are employed also opt to drop insurance coverages because of two reasons as proffered by Siegel, Mead and Burke (2008), to wit: (1) the number of employers offering health insurance benefits to their personnel (including beneficiaries) have significantly declined; and (2) those employers who offer health insurance benefits have opted to require increasing amounts of employee participation in premium payments, which are deemed by employees as virtually unaffordable. With increasing number of peopl e who opt to waive availment of health insurance coverages, more unemployed and employed people without health coverages opt to tap the government’s health packages for Medicare and Medicaid, thereby increasing the need for more financial resources to support and sustain the expenditures for this sector. Components of Health Care Sector Expenditures The paper written by Seshamani, Lambrew and Antos (2008), one of the most significant revelations was that the increasing cost in health care expenditure is accounted for by tax subsidies shouldered by the federal government from the health insurance premiums and related costs declared by employers. As indicated, the cost of tax exemptions from contributions made by employers and employees are... A more structured and plausible approach was recommended by Flier, who suggested that accurate and effective reforms could only provide the needed solution to the health care dilemma when the root causes are truly identified. In his article, the root causes were identified as: the unjust employer-based tax advantaged system, restrictions and overregulated health insurance market, and the presence of both Medicare and Medicaid programs. In this regard, Flier recommended the following: a restructuring of the tax shelter system; to encourage increased players in the delivery of both health care and insurance to decrease the exorbitant health care costs; and to evaluate and closely review the possibility of reforming both Medicare and Medicaid programs in terms of the kind and quality of expenditures, as well as closer screening of the beneficiaries to determine alternative options for cost reduction and the use of cost effective interventions, in the long run. The objective of the essay to proffer relevant and critical issues pertinent to financing and the delivery of health care services in the U.S. was hereby accomplished through provision of the current status of health care in the U.S. prior and by determining the significant components in health care expenditures that are the real culprits of the health care dilemma.  The proposed measures to reform the health care system in the US using strategies and plans should encompass policies and regulations that have the ultimate welfare of the population in mind.