Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Fouad Alzaroui
Andrew Cavin
PS1010
29 March 2017
Health care is currently the biggest issue in the United States political climate due to the
expensive prices of medications, treatments, etc. Many politicians in congress and even the
President of the United States are working vigorously to come up with a plan to help Americans
have better health care insurance plans in order to live a healthier life style. Health care in the
United States has become increasingly expensive every day, making it even more difficult for
people with low income jobs to afford its outrageously high copayment. Many policies have
been put forth by the government to help lower class Americans reduce the cost of their health
care plans; these policies include preventive measures and Medicaid incentives. This social
problem matters because medical services are rising making it harder for people to afford
payments. Preventive care proves to be the most successful policy to help Americans avoid the
Americans across the nation have been dealing with expensive costs of medical services.
Many factors contribute to the ridiculously high prices of health care services in the United
States. Some of these factors include unhealthy lifestyles of Americans, drug prices, and lack of
knowledge about preventive measures like early testing, screenings, and vaccinations offered by
insurances. Howard Schneider, author of Americans are far, stressed and unhealthy, argues that
the United States of America ranks severely low in the world when it comes to diseases such as
obesity, diabetes, and heart disease because of our diet and lack of exercise. This unhealthy
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lifestyle is a major cause of diseases which requires very expensive treatments and medications.
These treatments may also last for several years unless they improve their diet. Another factor
that has been raising prices of medical services is newly discovered drugs and medical
technology. According to a report from CNN, by Parija Kavilanz, drug prices are very high due
to the amount of research done to create them. Usually people buy generic drugs because they
are the same drug but much cheaper. Kavilanz says that, generic drugs account for about 80
percent of all prescriptions in the United States (Kavilanz). Now you might be wondering how
are drugs contributing to the expensive costs of health care costs when there are cheaper generic
substitutes available? Well, while generic drugs are cheap they usually dont hit the market right
away so there is a significant lag time (about ten years) before prices adjust for a drug that goes
off patent (Kavilanz). Another major factor that affects the price of medical services is that
people find out they have a problem too late and causing the treatment to be much more
expensive because of the development of a more severe problem. For example, attempting to
treat a stage 4 cancer would be much more difficult to treat than stage 1 or stage 2 cancer
because the disease is not only stronger but will also require more expensive medical treatments
to cure. All Americans need affordable health care but each day prices for medical services are
rising making it harder for people to afford the copayments and monthly payments. The best way
to avoid these rising prices are through a healthier lifestyle and preventive measures.
Policies created by the national government have been made to encourage a healthier
lifestyle and offer Americans a wide array of preventive measures options. One policy made to
help promote a healthier lifestyle is Medicaid incentives which offers incentives to people who
are on good behavior with their health. This is an attempt to encourage healthier lifestyles so an
unnecessary expensive trip to a doctors office may be avoided. This seems like an idea that
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would be successful because people would be motivated but Hannah Katch, an author for Center
on Budget and Policy Priorities, explains that the rewards for living a healthier lifestyle arent
that enticing. She explains that studies have shown that there has been little to no effect to
peoples health by this incentive because the incentive just arent worth the effort to change their
habits. A better policy that politicians have created is the Affordable Care Act which requires all
Preventive health care focuses on health maintenance. This is a routine health check of
risk factors for the development and early diagnosis of diseases. This can prevent citizens from
needing more expensive treatment after they contract a disease that could have been prevented.
As mentioned previously in the second Memorandum, the Affordable Care Act implemented this
policy to help Americans gain access to routine screening services, checkups, vaccines, and
medical advice. If everyone that has an insurance plan has access to preventive care, then why
dont people use it? Elizabeth renter says that about 57 percent of the United States population is
unaware of these free services offered by all insurance companies. Harvard professor, John
McDonough, from the school of Public Health said that the insurance companies must cover
preventive care at no cost under the ACA because it would already be covered with the payments
made monthly to insurances. He also said, it requires coverage of preventive services through
private plans without cost sharing and addresses other areas of prevention such as tobacco
cessation, obesity screening, and menu labeling (John McDonough). The main goal of the
Affordable Care Act is to help Americans prevent diseases that would later cost a fortune to treat.
A structural barrier of the preventive care policy process is evaluating all the different
types of tests. Most diseases are unique and require different tests or treatments to cure. Although
preventive care services are meant to save money, some tests are just way too expensive for
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insurances to be handing out to everyone for free. Dr. Ruben, explains that because different
barriers are present in different settings, insurance companies require doctors to evaluate a
patient to see if they need an expensive screening done or not. Doctor evaluations are simple and
inexpensive making them a good way to combat the structural barrier of costly testing.
misconceptions about vaccinations. Vaccinations are an important early defense against diseases
but there is a fear that vaccinations cause autism in children. The preventive care policy requires
certain vaccines to be mandatory for all Americans, this was a big issue for people against the
use of vaccines. According to Big Think, the main social structure around vaccines is that 1 in 10
Americans believe it causes autism in children even though there is no study to prove this claim.
More education on vaccines would combat this by putting the general public at ease and making
it easier to give more people vaccines. Author Monica Anderson explained that there is a law in
most states that allows people to even opt out from vaccines for religious purposes. This makes it
difficult to prevent diseases early with vaccination but states like Mississippi, West Virginia,
and now California do not allow religious exemptions to vaccines (Anderson). Other states are
also starting to follow this path in order to save money and prevent the spread of diseases. By
putting the public at ease by educating the about vaccines we can combat this barrier and allow
Preventive care services have been proven to be a very successful way to save money and
improve the overall health of the population. The National Commission on Prevention Priorities,
sought to answer the question of whether preventive medicine and screening is a good
investment. In the recent study, they found that preventive services such as daily aspirin use,
tobacco cessation support and alcohol abuse screening can potentially save 2 million lives and
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nearly $4 billion annually (Currie). Another study done by Dr. Cohen shows that preventive
care is saving money for major health risks including smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity,
alcohol abuse, and influenza. He also explains that diseases that are more common can help save
more money. Likewise, diseases that are less common dont show too much promise to be saving
money. Thus, diseases that are less common arent included in the Affordable Care Acts list of
preventive care services until cheaper screenings are available to diagnose them. These studies
prove that the Affordable Care Acts preventive care policy is a very effective method to save a
Health care reform is one of the biggest problems the United States faces today. Health
care is becoming more expensive every day making it harder on Americans to afford their
insurance payments. Preventive health care focuses on proactively keeping people healthy in
order to reduce risks of diseases. This can prevent citizens from needing expensive treatment
after they contract a disease that could have been prevented. This policy overcame obstacles like
costly testing and fear of vaccination by letting doctors evaluate a patient and educating the
general public about the benefits of vaccinations. Studies also prove that the preventive health
care policy is a very effective way to save money and keep Americans healthier. Although it
doesnt fully solve the social problem, reformers have made significant progress on the issue. If
we continue to focus on this issue, implement solutions that we know to work from previous
implementations, and look for new innovative solutions, we can solve the health care issue of
this nation.
Works Cited
Anderson, Monica. "5 Facts about Vaccines in the U.S." Pew Research Center. N.p., 17 July
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Choen, Joshua, Dr. "Does Preventive Care Save Money? Health Economics and the Presidential
Currie, Donya. "Prevention Saves Lives as Well as Money, New Research Confirms."
Katch, Hannah. "Are Medicaid Incentives an Effective Way to Improve Health Outcomes?"
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. N.p., 24 Jan. 2017. Web. 28 Mar. 2017.
Kavilanz, Parija. "6 Reasons Health Costs Keep Going up." CNNMoney. Cable News Network,
Rubin, Haya. "Overcoming Barriers to Preventive Care." N.p., 15 June 2000. Web. 28 Mar. 2017
Schneider, Howard. "Americans Are Fat, Stressed, and Unhealthy." The Washington Post. WP
"Tackling the Challenges Preventing Vaccination." Big Think. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.