Health Care System Research Papers Example

The United States has embraced the provision of the health care facilities to her citizenry. Therefore, every individual has the right to accessible health care. The health facilities are numerous in the country making them more accessible to the patients. However, the provision of the health care facilities comes at a cost that not most of the people can afford. Nonetheless, the United States should subsidize health care charges, and make them affordable to most of the people (Jonas et al 124). It is essential to the U.S government to note that the high number of health facilities that charge high fees make life unbearable to most of the people.
Thesis statement: an analysis of the U.S health care services depict that the services are inaccessible by most people due to the high charging fees despite the number of facilities being many.
The U.S government has lagged behind in the provision of the public health care services in the country. Additionally, leaving the health care provision to the private individuals only makes it more expensive. The private individuals enter into the sector for business thereby; charging high amounts of fees as a way of increasing the revenue. Research shows that undergoing cancer screening and treatment is expensive in the United States compared to the other OECD nations. For this reason, many cancer patients tend to seek the treatment from the other European countries due to the high charges in the U.S.
On the other hand, the Japanese government offers the health care facilities at subsidized prices. Additionally, the Japan government pays the higher percentage of the patients. As a result, the hospitals require the patients to pay only a 30% of the fees charged and the government settles the remaining 70%. It is a good initiative because it makes the health care available even to the low-income earners. Therefore, the best health care services are not only left to the affluent in the societies but also the poor. As a result, the mortality rates among the poor have declined in Japan due to the equality in the accessibility of the facilities.
Furthermore, the insurance facilities in the United States are also concentrated on the wealthy people. Research conducted by the Center for American Progress in 20009 approximated the number of the health uninsured people at around 50 million. As a result, the accessibility of the health care becomes unachievable (Duane 239). Therefore, it is erroneous to people to perceive that the health care facilities in the U.S are easily affordable because many low-income earners fall in this bracket. Nonetheless, the lucky insured ones are in most cases underinsured. The research by Commonwealth Fund 2008 provided the number at 25 million people. However, the numbers of the insured are different in Japan because the Japanese government insists that people should pay for health insurance. As a result, a great percentage of the Japanese population is under health insurance cover.
The intervention of the Japanese government in the regulation of the hospital charges has made health accessible by the locals. For this reason, the government shows its efforts in the provision of the free and fair health facilities because it is within their mandate to provide cheap and quality health care services. On the other hand, the U.S government has no control over the hospital fees imposed on the patients. The lack of the U.S government regulation forces the private individuals to exploit the innocent patients who seek their services. It leaves many loopholes for the expensive life that not all the citizenry can afford. Additionally, the lack of regulation has opened doors for the private sector doctors to operate different hospitals because they can get the maximum revenues out of the facilities thereby an upsurge in the profit levels.
The provision of the free screening services for some diseases by the Japanese government help its citizenry detect the diseases early in advance and have them treated as early as possible before they advance and harm the individual. The free screening services encourage people too often attend the health facilities. However, this is not the case in the U.S due to the screen charges and people attend the facilities when one feels sick and not for precaution measures. Free screening acts as a precaution measure because the one can know one’s status on the diseases screened. The universal health care services in Japan make it accessible for all the people irrespective of the origin or race (Naoki 51). On the other hand, the health care services are selective, thereby discriminative.
The implications of the health care services to the U.S are numerous. The life expectancy rate is lower than that of Japan. In the U.S, the life expectancy at birth stood at 78.49 years while that of Japan stands at 83 years, and this ranked Japan highly among all the other OECD countries. Therefore, the U.S health care systems contribute the low life expectancy. However, U.S is known to provide quality health facilities. The research shows that the health rank the United States was near the bottom among the selected 17 high-income countries (National Institute of The research ). For this reason, the life expectancy was low in the U.S as compared to that of Japan. Nevertheless, the researchers attributed the low life expectancy rate in the U.S to the inequities in the health services. The most affected group is mostly the low-income earners
The U.S government allocated 17.9% of its GDP in the year 2011. According to World Health Organization, allocation of the funds was a good move. However, based on the high costs charged by health facilities, the allocation was inadequate. On the other hand, Japan allocated 8.5% of its Gross Domestic Product in 2008. As a result, the health care was better because the hospital charges are never high like in the U.S. For this reason, there was high quality of the services provided by Japan. The U.S government must provide adequate funds to the health sector to bring up a healthy nation, and it increases the economic growth rate thereby improving the living standards. Additionally, it is only healthy people increase the productivity levels that contribute positively to the economic growth.
Japan also increased her income allocation in the health sector in the year 1989. Studies show that the national income increased by 1%. The initiative by the government was good because it portrayed the government’s commitments in the health provision. The performance by the U.S government was not favorable. Everyone would expect that the U.S health providers out stood the rest such as Germany. However, it was not the case as depicted by the Commonwealth Fund’s research in last year. The performance was not equal, effective or accessible. It shows that the U.S had a long way to go to achieve the best performance outcomes. The patients would become satisfied in receiving effective and equitable health care because it becomes possible to find the value for the money used in the hospitals.
The Food and Drug Administration l is obligated to regulate the drugs in the U.S. They ensure that the drug manufacturers provide true and correct information on the drugs made. However, the in the year 2006, the FDA jurisdiction was limited to the prosecution of the drug manufacturers who provided the wrong information. The Supreme Court's ruling exposed the patients to fraud from the self-interested manufacturers because they could not face arrest on any misleading information about the drugs, and the law provided for it. On the other hand, the Japanese government intervenes to reduce the number of the illegal practices by both the health practitioners and the manufacturers in the drugs prescription.
The United States drug manufacturers, retailers, and distributors have the liberty to advertise their drugs on the social network platforms. Additionally, the 2009 drug legislation in the U.S affected the drug manufacturer companies, especially those located abroad. The legislation proposed a ban on drug importation into the U.S (David & Yashiro 124). The law would work to the disadvantage of United States because; it was possible to manufacture all the drugs for the different ailments. As a result, the sellers highly price the drugs for them to cover the advertising expenses. It affects the consumers because the producers pass the burden to the patients. There is heavy regulation by the Japan government in the health sector, and, as a result, it becomes difficult to charge the drugs highly.
Based on the research by the Center for Responsive Politics in U.S stated that the politicians greatly contribute to the well-being of the health sector. The research indicated that politicians heavily contribute to health sectors around the campaign periods. Mostly, it is done to woo more people to vote for them. However, the health sectors also provide the politicians with the campaign funds for self- interests. For this reason, the health sectors provide the campaign money with the motive of getting the same treatment when the leader assumes office if elected.
The U.S leaders urged the government to increase the health care providers to cover the high population. For this reason, the U.S provides the medical education at cheaper fees to enable people to study the course and ease the burden of overworking in the health sector. Therefore, the government employed more health practitioners (Carol 74). In Japan, the health practitioners were also few. However, the number was attributed to the high fees charged in the schools because it locked out many people. Nevertheless, the government tried to intervene to provide subsidies for the fees.
In conclusion, the U.S should address the health sector issues to reduce the mortality cases. The government must address the cost issue to increase the accessibility rate by the patients. As a result, the population, especially the low-income earners is denied the health care facilities. The health care system leads to unequal wealth and resources distribution because the citizenry feels deprived of their rights. As a result, it affects the democracy and increases dictatorship in the country. The government actions reduce the economic growth rates because the unhealthy people are never productive. The environment turns out not ample for all individuals due to the fear of the communicable diseases that are also heavily charged. Therefore, the government should put the reforms in the health sector in the forefront to make it equitable and available.

Works cited

Holtz, Carol. Global Health Care: Issues and Policies. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2008. Print.
Ikegami, Naoki. Containing Health Care Costs in Japan. Ann Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1996. Print.
Jonas, Steven, Raymond L. Goldsteen, and Karen Goldsteen. An Introduction to the U.s. Health Care System. New York: Springer, 2007. Internet resource.
Matcha, Duane A. Health Care Systems of the Developed World: How the United States' System Remainsan Outlier. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2003. Print.
Wise, David A, and Naohiro Yashiro. Health Care Issues in the United States and Japan. Chicago:University of Chicago Press, 2006. Internet resource.