Regulatory Influences on National Healthcare in the United States

The regulatory infrastructure of health care in the U.S. has an enormous impact on the type and quality of health care received by the American population. According to the Commonwealth Fund, the U.S. health care system is by several different standards neither as cost-effective, efficient, or of comparable quality as the health care systems available in other developed countries such as those in Western Europe and Japan. Given the fact that the U.S. is a wealthier country overall, these differences can almost totally be attributed to the type of U.S. health care regulation, or lack thereof.

Public or Private

• At the most basic level, the U.S. is a mix between a private and public health care system, which has unique benefits and harms. In privately-funded health care systems, individual citizens--usually with the help of insurance--pay their own way through the health care industry as they need the services. In a publicly-funded health care system, the government and, ultimately, taxpayers cover the costs for everyone. Both systems are extremely expensive, but for different reasons. Privately-funded systems provide basic services like general check-ups relatively cheaply, but check-ups by specialists, e.g. oncologists and urologists, are very expensive, because those specialists are relatively rare. Publicly-funded systems make visiting those specialists more affordable; however, it is expensive to provide health insurance to an entire country.

Controlling Costs

• The costs of health care in the U.S. have risen in the U.S. for a number of reasons, mostly related to an increase in administrative costs, advances in medicine and medical technology, a rise in the average lifespan, the broader onset of chronic illnesses, and increases in the total visits made by Americans to doctors. However, the particular U.S. laws governing malpractice lawsuits and the health insurance industry have also facilitated increases in health care costs. According to the American Medical Association, doctors are often forced to pay hundreds of thousands in insurance costs in order to defend themselves against malpractice suits, and these costs are reflected the rise in health care prices and the corresponding rise in the costs of health insurance. More generally, the health insurance industry is not highly regulated, allowing for easy denials of coverage to various groups of people and skyrocketing profits as the companies raise premiums.

New Regulations on Insurance

• Landmark health care reform legislation passed by the Obama administration provided a number of important reforms to the industry, not least of which are applied to the health insurance industry. For example, starting in early 2011, young people up to the age of 27 can be covered by their parents' health insurance plans. Also, health insurers can no longer deny insurance to children with pre-existing conditions, and a similar plan for adults will go into effect in 2014. An additional financial benefit accruing to businesses, according to the Huffington Post, is that "Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get tax credits covering up to 50% of employee premiums."