Comparing Health Care Systems: The United States and Cuba Essay

For m any(prenominal) days, the wellness cope in the linked effected the best that any country had to poke bring out (University of Maine, two hundred1). further when as the facts would t block off to display, it is lento becoming whizz of the most unable(p) in the world (Maine, 2001). The join States wellness pity governance may splatter itself of macrocosm in the category of being the most expensive in the world, pith a dearth of re lineages for the anxiety it delivers (Reed Abelson, 2008). al whizz the disparity in the amount that the muckle spend and the quality of the service of process devoted to that hail is seemingly not par eit here(predicate)l of latitude to each early(a) (Abelson, 2008).A decl ar released on the fall in States wellness disturbance dodging shows that the country is spending near twice the amount on the wellness armorial bearing needs of its citizens is comp ard to that of the expenditures of other develop nations (Ab elson, 2008). merely if the prices of wellness alimony in the unify States, the country is listed at the lavatory of countries that in the mortality of sight if hard-boiled with efficient medical safeguard (Abelson, 2008). This is a growing concern cross looks the accessible spectrum of the fall in States (Meena Seshamani, Jeanne Ambrew & Joseph Antos, 2008). The amount that the coupled States spends annually on wellness rail tutelage is au thentically staggering.In 2006, the join States spent $2. 1 trillion on wellness dole out work al bingle, double what the country allot a decade back and round half of that is targeted in nine years time (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008). The United States currently ranks as the third largest nation in the world, with a population of slightly 294 million (Samuel Uretsky, 2008). Of this number, it is believed that most 75 million Ameri s alsoges realize pitiful medical damages or do not have damages all told (Abelson, 20 08). It was overly found that the quality and the determineants footing of wellness rush greatly varies across the societal spectrum (Abelson, 2008).These be drain the funds of American businesses, which in turn digest a quarter of the capital for health care needs (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008). The costs to employers in terms of contribution to the health care fund increased by a staggering 98 per centum in the span of seven years- from 2000 to last year, which outstripped the increases in remuneration by four to angiotensin converting enzyme (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008). In 2007, the cost of employee-based insurance policy cost intimately $12,000, nearly twinned the wages for minimum wage employment (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008).Adding to the consign of heights insurance payments is the fact that these have to be paid with higher service and deductions (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008). This make out alike has an impact on the senior citizens of the United States (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008). Elderly Americans, in the current scenario, have to accumulate meet nearly $300,000 dollars in non-Medicare bounce back health costs (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008). These costs have contributed to the access of health care by many Americans (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008).Citizens who are covered by employer-based health insurance in 2006 fell five portion, from 66 percent to about 61 percent in the six-year period preceding 2006 (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008). But how is health insurance in the United States given? The United States offers a sort of avenues of health insurance coverage two from unexclusive funds and from the private orbit (Uretsky, 2008). In a history released by the United States Census Bureau in 2003, it found that about 6 out of constantlyy 10 Americans were covered by employer-based health insurance, about 3 of the 10 from the presidency, and the remainder with no insurance (Uretsky, 2008).In 2001, it was found that the United States spent ofttimes of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) than any other essential nation in the world (Uretsky, 2008). For that period, America spent much than 13. 9 percent of its GDP, compared to Japan, which spent about 7. 8 percent Canada, 9. 4 percent and the United Kingdom, 7. 6 percent (Uretsky, 2008). It should be interesting to note that even if the United States outpaced Japan in terms of health care spending, the United States ranks just twenty-fourth in the world for life forethought (Uretsky, 2008).Life expectancy in the United States is about 70 years old, trance the valedictorian on the list, Japan, comes in at about 74. 5 years for its citizens (Uretsky, 2008). Memberships in life insurance and access to seemly health care have been shown to go away together (Devi Sridhar, 2005). The availability of health insurance is essential to instances and times that people would be able to rely on medical care in relation to the b oilers suit health of the person (Sridhar, 2005). Lack of addressable health insurance willing prefer a toll on a persons physical upbeat (Sridhar, 2005).The individual will not be able to go to medical facilities for hitch medical manipulation, fill out prescriptions, and will likely be receiving that medical treatment in the latter stages of a affection (Sridhar, 2005). Unlike the United States, Cuba, on the other hand, is not prone to the failures of the private and public fund problems found in the United States (Harvard Public Health Review, 2002). Cuban governing exercise complete administrative, budgetary, and operational indebtedness for the delivery of health care run for all its citizens (Harvard, 2002).The Cuban health care model is purely derived from the government, defining it as a public health care brass seeking to tolerate customary health care coverage for all Cubans (Oxford Journals, 2008). It has been seen as a model of matching few available resourc es with the needs of the people in getting adequate medical care, often getting extremely high marks (Oxford, 2008). Compared to other developed nations, the United States has the distinction of being the only one that does not nominate the availability of planetary health care to its citizens (John Battista and Justine McCabe, 1999).In the developed world, it is found that 28 of the industrialized nations figure a whizz- payer arranging, while Germany forms a multi-payer clay akin to the proposed placement of the chairman Clinton (Battista, McCabe, 1999). This would lead most ob comers to take a second look at the health care dodge of the United States (Battista, McCabe, 1999). In the analysis of the American health system, it is total to debunk many of the fallacies and errors that have been around the effective and quality of the United States system of health (Battista, McCabe, 1999).The United States, though having one of the best health professionals and an excepti onal system of delivery and technology, still lags behind some of the industrial worlds health system (Battista, McCabe, 1999). In fact, if several factors in health care statistics are considered, the report card for the United States is a glum failure (Battista, McCabe, 1999). Several of these factors would evidence how the system of health care in the United States has failed to give an improving system to its citizens. In 1960, America ranked 12th in terms of infant mortality (Battista, McCabe, 1999).In 1990, the United States ranked 21st in the world, settling at 23rd in recent times (Battista, McCabe, 1999). A primaeval issue in the United States health system is the issue of ecumenic health care. A current misconception of arguing against the thoughtfulness of universal health care is the preventive costs associated with it (Battista, McCabe, 1999). The opponents for the policy of a single payer system are of the tactile sensation that institutionalizing the policy aver s that the country king end up pay too much (Battista, McCabe, 1999).In fact, the United States is already paying about 40 percent more than any other country in health care spending per capita (Battista, McCabe, 1999). cardinal of the top priorities currently in the orbit of health care are the ever increasing costs in the grooming of health and the decreasing levels of access to health care (Sridhar, 2005). This fact is continuing to moil a wedge between those that can afford to provide for their health care needs and those that can ill-afford to purchase or do not have the convey and the opportunity to be covered by insurance (Sridhar, 2005).This problem of individuals not covered by the health care system in the United States is expected to dilate also to affect the insured patients (Sridhar, 2005). The issue seems to be in how the universal system of health care would operate (Sridhar, 2005). umpteen opponents of the policy are criticizing the system as an added layer of the bureaucracy and might pass in the centralization of the health care system (Sridhar, 2005). But the current practice of Americans in purchasing their health-care needs might be more expensive than the supplying for universal health care (Sridhar, 2005).At present, and as mentioned earlier, Americans are covered by health insurance in terce ways it is a benefit to workers and retirees, through and through government programs and the purchase of non-government insurance (Uretsky, 2008). But is the electric resistance to the universal, or single-payer, heath insurance system justified? The main opposition as again mentioned is the cost of the system (Battista, McCabe, 1999). In addition to the seeming overspending of Americans on health care, the institutionalization of the single payer system could means savings (Battista, McCabe, 1999).According to studies do by the Congressional Budget king and the General Accounting office, it shows that with the practice of the single -payer system, the United States can accumulate $100 to $200 billion a year in health care savings, with the coverage expanding to cover uninsured individuals and improving the quality of services offered (Battista, McCabe, 1999). The Cuban Health System do do with less, and then some As mentioned earlier, the health care system of Cuba is alone run and operated by the government (Seshamani, Ambrew & Antos, 2008).This health care system provides not only diagnostic procedures, but also preventive, alterative and ameliorative treatments for the people of Cuba (Harvard, 2002). The Cuban health system is also distinguished as the one possessing the highest ratio in terms of people to doctors (The London School of political economy and Political Science, 2003). These health practitioners are dexterous in the countrys 21 medical educational facilities (London, 2003). In turn, the family physicians, as they are called, 20,000 of them, are tasked to administer the health care system of the Cuban government, one family physician to about 600 people (London, 2003).It should also be noted that these achievements in the palm of health acre by the government in Havana have been done in the presence of an economic embargo oblige by the United States since 1961 (Harvard, 2002). The embargo tramp severe restrictions on the ability of Cuba to source out funding for its health car initiatives (Harvard, 2002). Since these sanctions covered even the importation and feed items and medical supplies, the Cuban government salutary a system of preventive resume as a means to cushion the impact of the embargo (Harvard, 2002).In essence, the family physicians, at least in epidemiological terms, serve their fellow Cubans in the best way that they know how (London, 2003). Not only do the family physicians provide excellent preventive care, they also make it a point to provide treatment and diagnostics to prevent the approach of diseases upon the people (London, 2003). These f amily physicians are usually stationed in the nations consultorios, or bantam clinics situated in small neighbourhoods that they are assigned to. These doctors usually reside in the space above the clinic or just nearby (The Social Medicine Portal, 2006).These physicians attend to the patients who come in the morning to the clinic, then set out in the good afternoon for home visitation for patients who are unable to come to the clinic (Social Medicine, 2006). For complicated and more ticklish cases, the people can go a facility called a polyclinic (Social Medicine, 2006). These polyclinics, numbering about 400 scattered throughout the nation, act upon similar to a hospitals outpatient department (Social Medicine, 2006). Some outpatient procedures are administered here in the polyclinic, but the facility is generally geared for consultation sessions with specialists (Social Medicine, 2006).Also, acupuncture, physical therapy sessions and ultrasonography procedures are conducted in the facility (Social Medicine, 2006). This is the scratch level of health care in the island nation the second tier of care being administered by local and regional health care facilities (Social Medicine, 2006). The Cuban health system is one that can be characterized as an undivided, cohesive and devolved system that caters to the health and well-being of the people (Francisco Rojas Ochoa & Leticia Artiles Visbal, 2007).Also, the proper to universal health care is guaranteed as a responsibility of the government under quick Cuban jurisprudence (London, 2003). In unrelenting contrast to the Cuban guarantee of the right to free and adequate health care for its citizens, the United States does not obligate the government to deliver universal health care to is people as one of their rights as citizens of the United States (Battista, McCabe, 1999). This resiliency and dedication of Cuba to provide for its citizens was also seen as one of the reasons that health care delivery was not too affected by the economic crisis in the 1990s (Oxford, 2008).