Essay : Should the United States move to a governmental single-payer system?
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Course
Healthcare
Institution
Healthcare
Essay : Should the United States move to a governmental single-payer system?
Develop a compelling, well-supported, and convincing economic argument for both sides.
Please ensure you mask your personal beliefs on the topic.
In your supporting and opposing arguments, please include economic ter...
Essay : Should the United States move to a governmental single-payer system?
Develop a compelling, well-supported, and convincing economic argument for both sides.
Please ensure you mask your personal beliefs on the topic.
In your supporting and opposing arguments, please include economic terms, as appropriate,
examples include:
Incentives, substitution effects, prices and price controls, third-party buyer approach, moral
hazard, restriction of the choice set, the prisoners’ dilemma, debts and deficits, asymmetry of
information, inputs/outputs, rationing, the Triple-Aim, insurance, risk, unintended consequences,
rational decision making, and opportunity costs.
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Introduction
The current state of healthcare in the United States is very frustrating. The rate of
expenditure is high, debt and the quality of services offered are very poor. There have been high
scores on low life expectancy despite the government spending much on insurance and
pharmaceuticals. America’s pharmaceutical spending has decreased to 17% of the National
health expenditure while their population cannot account for it (Bishop et al., 2017). All these have
been attributed to the healthcare finance structure, which is made up of very common networks
of multiple pairs, including both the government and the private sector health insurance options.
The system has been said to be very wasteful, with mismanagement of the available funds and a
lack of a plan to manage their daily income. 14% of the healthcare cost is spent on healthcare
and Medicare administration (Dave, 2017). Additionally, the multiple systems have created
discrimination in the provision of care. Despite being one of the major economic drivers in the
world, America cannot afford to provide universal care to all its citizens. Many Americans are
still not insured because of the imitation of the multiple payment system. Multiple systems
always seem like a competition where each American has to compete for medical care.
Alternatively, there have been propositions by different stakeholders in the healthcare
system suggesting that the country should move into a single payment system that the
government solely manages. The single-payer system involves having the government as the
main payer while there are other intermediaries, such as the current one with Medicare and
health insurance intermediaries. The difference only exists since, in the single-payer system, the
health care services are paid by the federal government solely, while in Medicare, beneficiaries
also contribute to payments through premiums (Donnelly et al., 2019). Several economists have
argued that it would be better to reduce the high expenditure through cost control and lower
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