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Problems With the American Health Care System

The American health care system is constantly under debate. President Barack Obama promised to fix the system during his campaign for the presidency. His opponent, Sen. John McCain, maintained that it was fine. The basic part of this debate is that of a multi-payer system (what the Unites States has in 2010) vs. a single payer system. Prominent economists, journalists and political analysts take exception to what they see as problems with the American health care system, ranging from overwhelming costs to inefficiency.

  1. Medical Bankruptcy

    • Robin Koerner, political and economic columnist and founder of Watching America, asserts that a major problem with the American health care system is the exorbitant cost of medical care and its associated medical bankruptcies. In an article published in March of 2010, Koerner asserts that 62 percent of all American bankruptcies are medical bankruptcies. The structure of American health care is such that those without employer-provided coverage must pay for insurance or medical costs out of pocket. According to the 2009 United States census, 46.3 million Americans are without health care coverage. Therefore, these Americans -- 15.4 percent of the population -- face steep medical bills, the payment of which is often unfeasible, and leads to personal bankruptcy.

    Inefficiency

    • Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman and Princeton and MIT professor Robin Wells assert in their article, "The Health Care Crisis and What to Do About It," that the American health care system is inefficient. The article states, "The inefficiency of our health care system exacerbates a second problem: our health care system often makes irrational choices." Krugman and Wells argue that because the American health care system divides patients into haves (those with good health care) and the have-nots (those with bad or no health care), there is no median standard for care. Rather, countless millions of dollars goes into making the best treatments available for the former group, while the latter group gets poor treatment at best.

    Doctor Payment Schemes

    • According to an article by Washing Post columnist Ezra Klein, a major problem with the American heath care system is an unrealistic payment scheme for doctors. Klein asserts that doctors in the United States do not receive pay based on the quality of care provided. Thus, doctors who give insufficient or sub par health care receive the same pay, if not more, than doctors providing the best quality care. This is unique to the American health care system when compared to equally developed nations, such as the United Kingdom, where 95 percent of doctors receive pay commensurate to the quality of care provided.

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