Healthcare

By Deanna Zois, Jacob Ray, and Shakya Adikari

Background• Healthcare in a glimpse: diagnoses and

treatment of illnesses or injury, and refers to the primary and secondary care done to achieve that

• Costs began to rise rapidly in the 70’s and 80’s, due to improving technology, and growing inefficiencies in the healthcare system

• In 2006, the percentage of Americans without health insurance was 15.8%, or approximately 47 million uninsured people. Source: US Census Bureau

• The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system

Issues• Affordability:

▫ Overall inflation rate increased 3.5%, wages increased 3.8% from 2000-2006

▫ Group plans are usually less than individual, so those who aren’t employed often can’t pay the high costs

• Portability:▫ Majority of health care comes

from employment▫ If someone loses their job or

goes down to something more menial, then their healthcare does too

Accessibility:▫ Lack of health insurance limits

access to medical care such as check-ups, dental care, prescriptions, eye exams, and mental health care

▫ Many of those who need it are not enrolled in the necessary programs

1. Companies want more profit, for state of the art resources, etc.

• Increase price of healthcare to pay for these extra costs

2. Employers have the costs higher, but don’t want to pay for the majority of it

• Too expensive for them to pay for everybody, would make less money

3. Each employee has to pay a percentage of their healthcare cost, but their pay increases a little or not at all

• Many Americans can’t afford healthcare anymore

Costs (in billions) 77.1% of

government health care spending is on Medicare and Medicaid

Health care spending accounts for 16.3% of government spending

Health care expenditures in the United States surpassed $2.3 trillion in 2008, more than three times what was spent in 1990, and over eight times more than 1980

Views of Healthcare- Democratic• Reducing our deficit by over $1 trillion in the

next two decades alone• bring additional security and stability• “we will offer individuals and businesses tax

credits to make quality, reliable health coverage more affordable. We will provide tax credits to Americans who are approaching retirement age and those who are between jobs so they can afford quality, reliable coverage. We will expand coverage for low income adults through existing federal-state health care programs. And we will provide all Americans with access to the same coverage that members of Congress give themselves”

Views of Healthcare- Republican•“We reject any notion of government-run

universal health care because we have seen evidence from around the world that government-run health care leads to inefficiencies, long waiting periods, and often substandard health care”

•Rejects government run universal health care

•“Individuals should be free to manage their own health needs through Flexible Savings Accounts (FSAs) and Medical Savings Accounts (MSAs)”

Problems/impact on future• Health care costs America's people of million of dollars each

year• The money get's received from taxes• It’s used for helping seniors get health care really cheaply• It works by us paying lots of money when we are young and

then we get it back when we are older As a society, we're living longer and better than at any time in

history (in part, this is due to pharmaceutical advances) We're making progress against the most serious diseases we

face This all costs money: we get taxed, and only adds to our

growing debt of almost $50,000 per person “Increases in health care costs over the past two decades,

coupled with an overall economic down turn and rising federal deficit in the past 10 years, place great strains on private health care financers and federal programs”

Bibliography•http://www.issues2000.org/Celeb/Democratic_Party_Health_Care.htm•http://www.issues2000.org/celeb/Republican_Party_Health_Care.htm•healthcare.gov•http://aging.senate.gov/crs/medicaid7.pdf•http://www.healthpaconline.net/health-care-issues.htm•http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2007/03/a_short_history_of_health_care.html•healthcare.gov•http://ontheissues.org/Background_Social_Security.htm•http://www.healthpaconline.net/health-care-statistics-in-the-united-states.htm•http://www.usdebtclock.org/•http://www.gop.com/2008Platform/HealthCare.htm•http://www.issues2000.org/Celeb/Democratic_Party_Health_Care.htm•http://www.issues2000.org/Celeb/Republican_Party_Health_Care.htm•http://www.google.com/imgres?q=republican&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Fuk&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1366&bih=664&tbm=isch&tbnid=tH_euzUozYqTZM:&imgrefurl=http://fordrydentown.org/&docid=VXvk7wlHc9_KDM&imgurl=http://fordrydentown.org/sites/default/files/Republican-logo.png&w=600&h=521&ei=54ciT8CWBsbl0QHs0en2CA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=848&vpy=204&dur=954&hovh=209&hovw=241&tx=126&ty=93&sig=115574790098502772452&page=1&tbnh=135&tbnw=155&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:4,s:0•http://www.google.com/imgres?q=democrat&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1366&bih=664&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=d6rZksTB47CISM:&imgrefurl=http://democrat.com/&docid=YVeVn4wuLwlW7M&imgurl=http://democrat.com/Democraticlogo.jpg&w=200&h=178&ei=GokiT8KiFMTv0gGKi_DxBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=153&sig=115574790098502772452&page=1&tbnh=137&tbnw=154&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0&tx=61&ty=77•http://www.rwjf.org/healthpolicy/product.jsp?id=57449•http://www.rwjf.org/healthpolicy/cost/