Analysis of Universal Healthcare in the United States

Policy Issue Analysis
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A Universal Healthcare System: Is It Right for the United States?
Problem Identification
There has been significant cost increase in the American health care system in the last few decades. The health insurance premiums have been on the rise with an approximate double-digit percentage in the last five years, a rate that is approximately twice or thrice the country's inflation rate (Chua, 2007-2008). These costs have resulted into a steepened rise in the number of Americans without insurance. At present, over 45 million Americans have completely no health insurance and millions more are underinsured (insured with an inadequate financial coverage from health care costs) (Chua, 2007-2008).
This was initially a problem that was confined to low-income Americans; however, an increasing number of the middle-class citizens are being affected by the problem. With the rise in care costs, employers are finding it increasingly difficult to provide insurance for their workers (Vladeck, 2003). Even when employers can provide benefits, the prevalent trend is the provision of high-deductible insurance covering a continuously shrinking percentage of costs in health care. Therefore, more middle-class and unemployed Americans end up with low quality or no access to health care (Vladeck, 2003).
Americans should be concerned with the health of the individuals in the lower socioeconomic class and today, the middle class as they are a crucial and necessary part of the American society, therefore, important to provide them with proper coverage (Rashford, 2007). Universal health care is a system that will provide health care at a basic level to all the American citizens. However, the central problem is the financial feasibility of universal provision of health care (Chua, 2007-2008).
Background
Over sixty years after the adoption of the declaration of human rights universally, the country, among all the developed countries is the only one ignoring the inequalities in the access to health care (Maddox, 2009). The United States is among the wealthiest and most prosperous nations globally. However, despite the wealth, the government is not able to provide adequate care for all Americans. Many Americans have no insurance coverage and cannot afford to purchase it due to the apparent high costs, and this impacts especially the lower socioeconomic class as they experience the greatest impact of the inability to afford health care insurance (Rashford, 2007). With the current baby boom in the country, a large number of the population depends on social security and it has become increasingly difficult for this group to afford certain health care services including medication (Rashford, 2007).
Spending in health care is in a true sense not an economically negative aspect and America has huge health care expenditures as it is a wealthy nation. Economists consider such expenditures as being expenditures on a normal good (health care) hence correlated positively with income (Tanner, 2008). However, due to the manner in which health care costs are distributed, they have become a burden to consumers and businesses. Americans are concerned of the state of the country's health care delivery system. The ever increasing cost of health care services, prescription medicine, and access to adequate care has left the uninsured with an inability to pay for the much needed primary health care services (Tanner, 2008).
Years ago during the Civil Rights Movements, healthcare was a pertinent issue and the famous doctor Martin Luther King Jr. stated that among all the types of inequalities and injustices that exist in United States, the one in healthcare were the most shocking. Years later this statement is true hence the need for a universal healthcare system (Rashford, 2007).
Stakeholders
A long-standing recognition exists that reforms in the health system have both technical and political dimensions. Stakeholder perceptions of policy problems and options are perceived as being crucial for policy making that is based on evidence and viability CITATION Lav09 \l 1033 (Lavis, 2009). It is defined as acceptability by the consumer, professional organizations acceptability, and political acceptability. This is recognized as the criteria for assessing policies that are related to financing (Gilson, Ermin, Jo, Macha, Kamuzora, & Mtei, 2011). Therefore, the healthcare system in America is comprised of an interlocked system comprising of a system of key stakeholders that include patients, politicians, hospitals, pharmacists, policy makers, insurers, employers, care providers, regulators, payers/payment plans (Cafasso, 2011).
Issue Statement
National or universal health care is a wide concept that can be implemented in varying ways. There is no single-model and the systems employed depend on the political, historical, and national factors of the health care system (Tanner, 2008). The campaign towards the provision of universal care is based on an undeniably appealing premise that requires a universal accessibility to quality health care when needed. However, while such a premise is attractive, the ugly reality is that the provision of such quality care is expensive, and the ...