Issues in the U.S. Health Care System

The health care system in the United States is undeniably a disaster. Never before has our country’s health care system been in such dire disarray—and it needs repaired sooner rather than later.

A recent edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association found that the United States spends $6,000 per citizen on average on health insurance. This amount is more than any other country spends on health insurance per person and is about 16 percent of the United States’ gross domestic product. This figure is truly out of control.

Too many politicians are focusing on making Americans happy by providing health insurance coverage to every citizen. But few politicians are actually talking about how to decrease the amount the U.S. government spends on health insurance per person, which truly is the problem our government faces more than any other issue regarding health insurance.

Before any politician talks about giving universal coverage to everyone, they should be discussing how to lower health care costs as they currently stand and be discussing how to make the price of health care affordable to the government, as well. Undoubtedly many of the 2008 presidential candidates’ health care plans show theories of how to give all Americans coverage but with the caveat of an expensive price tag. The U.S. government quite frankly can’t afford such a large new expense—and these issues need to be addressed before any new universal health care coverage plan is put into place.