In the United States, millions of citizens must get into debt to pay their medical expenses, despite the fact that many have private insurance, families must face the arrival of bills that sometimes reach thousands of dollars. It goes without saying that the high cost of the health care, is one of the biggest problems that affects the American community, for both users and suppliers it is impossible to know in advance what will be the costs that a certain service will entail for the user, since the providers do not have access to this information, they only mark codes that will be transformed into two administrative areas, which will forward bills to the user (if they do not have insurance) or to insurance.
In the United States, health care is not free, but it is mandatory, and to obtain government health coverage (such as Medicare, Medicaid, and other public programs), certain requirements must be met. Otherwise, you will have to bear all of your medical expenses and pay a fine for not getting health insurance or join a private insurance company that will help you pay some of those expenses. The practice of medicine in the United States is primarily a monopoly exercised by a select group of members of the medical profession, protected by the government and supported by groups and organizations related to them: medical associations, hospitals, pharmaceutical, chemical and medical equipment companies, as well as an important group of medical insurance companies that support and share powerful economic interests.
The issue regarding high costs results in the establishment of reliable and services access for those who lack the capacity to pay. The costs that the patient has to pay directly is a critical issue that is increasing and can lead to consume the available financial resources and generate debts, according to Melton, Courtnee. “Medical Debt 101: How a Medical Bill Becomes Medical Debt.” The Sycamore Institute, 15 Oct. 2019, https://www.sycamoreinstitutetn.org/medical-debt-101/. “Medical bills can also become debt when people take loans to pay them, often at higher cost. To pay their bills, people sometimes use credit cards, take out a second home mortgage, or turn to other higher-cost forms of credit. For example, a 2016 Kaiser Family Foundation national survey found that 34% of people who reported problems paying medical bills increased credit card debt to help pay them. In the 2015 National Financial Capability Study, an estimated 50% of Tennesseans with unpaid medical bills (compared to 23% without) reported taking a payday loan (i.e. a short-term, high-interest loan) in the last five years. Interest and late fees that accrue from these financing mechanisms can sometimes cost more than the original bill.” This basically describe how people start to unconsciously ask for loans in order for them to pay their medical bills, as it is common knowledge, every action has its consequences, and the aftermath presented when it comes to borrow money to pay a bill, can take you to more debts that you are supposed to pay, this not only means that you will get affected, but also your credit can be affected by the factors that a medical bill can cause, it is like a domino effect, you get money from a loan to pay a bill, and then you request another one to pay for the previous loan that you solicited, and it starts to build a chain that at the end will take you to owe more money to pay than the actual bill.
Furthermore, facing an avalanche of new high-cost technologies that are being developed, health systems are concerned about rising health spending. The new technologies are putting insurance companies under pressure, whether public or private, these companies base their earnings in certain high-cost services, which they could end up appropriating all the funds available for health. This is expanded based on “Snapshots: How Changes in Medical Technology Affect Health Care Costs.” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 19 Apr. 2013, https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/snapshots-how-changes-in-medical-technology-affect/. “Public and private investments in basic science research lead directly and indirectly to advancements in medical practice; these investments in basic science are not necessarily motivated by an interest in creating new products but by the desire to increase human understanding. An estimated $111 billion was spent on U.S. health research in 2005. The largest share was spent by Industry ($61 billion, or 55%), including the pharmaceutical industry ($35 billion, or 31%), the biotechnology industry ($16 billion, or 15%), and the medical technology industry ($10 billion, or 9%). Government spent $40 billion (36%), most of which was spent by the National Institutes of Health ($29 billion, or 26%), followed by other federal government agencies ($9 billion, or 8%), and state and local government ($3 billion, or 2%). Other Organizations (including universities, independent research institutes, voluntary health organizations, and philanthropic foundations) spent $10 billion (9%). About 5.5 cents of every health dollar was spent on health research in 2005, a decrease from 5.8 cents in 2004. It is not known how much of health research was spent specifically on medical technology, though by definition most of the Industry spending ($61 billion) was spent on medical technology. Medical technology industries spent greater shares of research and development as a percent of sales in 2002 than did other U.S. industries: 11.4% for the Medical Devices industry and 12.9% for Drugs and Medicine, compared to 5.6% for Telecommunications, 4.1% for Auto, 3.9% for Electrical/Electronics, 3.5% for All Companies, and 3.1% for Aerospace/Defense.” It is drawn as a conclusion that not all innovation is an advance, nor all innovation improves health, nor any innovation that can improve Health is cost-effective. Cost-effectiveness, which has gained its status of accepted principle for incorporation and use of new technologies, it is not always taken into account to prioritize, decide and act. The evaluation of health technologies faces well-known but poorly resolved problems. This means that there are the technical difficulties of the evaluation. There is a logical concern about the limitations of the adoption and dissemination of technologies. Some inefficiencies systemic could be corrected through organizational innovations as well like many adverse effects of healthcare. Some new technologies suffer delays, other developments are incorporated abruptly, fueled by media pressure, and industry. People are paying more and more for factors that should be low payment, meaning that, it is necessary to develop these new technologies to help both the patient and their budget, we cannot ignore the fact that people are dying waiting for their medicine or new advances that can enhance their health improvement.
Moreover, it is said, yet rarely understood how the relationship between aging and population affect the high health care cost in the United States of America, as stated by Mendelson, Daniel N., et al. “The Effects of Aging and Population Growth on Health Care Costs.” Health Affairs, https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.12.1.119. “We have limited our discussion to the annual effects of aging and population growth, without relating these factors to the issue of most concern to policymakers: the current and future rise in total costs. To give a sense of the relative importance of our results, we calculate the contribution of aging and population growth to the overall rise in spending at one point in time—the period 1987-1990. the percentage contribution of aging and population growth to the rise in spending, the overall increase in costs, and the fraction of the overall increase in costs accounted for by aging and population growth is represented by a 25 percent. In the acute care sector, aging and population growth accounted for roughly 20 percent of the real rise in costs; in long-term care, roughly 35 percent. Our calculations show that if these results are indicative of future increases in costs, a substantial portion of the rise is simply beyond the reach of policymakers. Absent major changes in health policy that effectively reduce the level of spending, we would expect technologic changes and other factors to accelerate the rise in spending on hospital and physician services. The fraction of the rise in spending attributable to aging and population growth thus would decrease in the future. Alternatively, if efforts to contain costs are highly successful, aging and population growth could account for an appreciably larger portion of the rise in costs in future years.” Although, population is exponentially growing, and aging percentages are getting higher, it is hard to not look at the different reasons why elder should get a better and low cost health care, providers should take into consideration some background to make a fair bill for the people over the age of 65, which are considered elders, even if they are sick, they must be able to be with their families spending time together, rather than worrying about medical bills, this issue make us have a point of view into a matter that is affecting everyone, we must be ready to face challenges, but at the same time, we must prepare ourselves for the creation and developments of new methods referring to health care, there is too many countries that offer free health care, with this being said, adapt a new system will be easier for the United States because structures and data are already done by other countries implementing free access to health care, the pillar and the major goal of all society must be the insurance of a healthy future to keep helping into improving the country.
Most of the new technologies are drivers of health spending, in the short and long term, through various mechanisms, in addition to this, medical technology and expense are determined simultaneously by market forces and the regulation. To the extent that new technologies propel health spending, health and insurance systems have to choose between giving much too few or little too many, raising efficiency problems but also of equity, It is impossible to evaluate everything: we will never have enough evidence that can support every clinical decision and automate medical practice There are ethical problems and technicians to do controlled experiments in many cases, which prevents obtaining solid scientific evidence; new technologies (medical devices and surgical techniques) evolve rapidly, thanks to the interaction between designers and users and how to use learning. The evaluation reports come to print when they are already expired or about to do so.
However, the method that the United States of America is using to reach to a more affordable health care is not enough, based on Bivens, Josh. “The Unfinished Business of Health Reform: Reining in Market Power to Restrain Costs without Sacrificing Quality or Access.” Economic Policy Institute, https://www.epi.org/publication/health-care-report/. “This widespread dissatisfaction with health care costs is completely rational; the cost of American health care is exceptionally expensive while its quality is subpar when compared with health care in similarly rich nations. Further, the high (and rising) costs of health care have drawn too little attention from policymakers.” The consequence of this distribution is that health is very expensive for users. In a society that has a growing problem of income inequality, this leaves an important part of the population in a precarious and vulnerable situation, reason why health care prices must go down.
Weighing up both sides of the argument and taking everything into consideration, it is distinguishable that a huge number of people in the United States have to go into debt to pay their medical bills, aside from the fact that most have private insurance, households have to face the appearance of bills that sometimes surpass thousands of dollars. High health spending, limited coverage of the current system and the few results in health reflected in the hope of life of its inhabitants originated in the United States a Health system reform. to improve this, it is necessary to seek control in health costs and spending by changing the rules of market. The program implementation pilot to find measures and useful policies in reducing costs, also, requires change in the market rules of medical insurance for avoid fraud and involvement in the increase in coverage and cost reduction.
