HealthcareUtilization and Finance
Itis the duty of every country to ensure that their citizens haveaccess to affordable health care systems. In the past century, wehave seen a lot of reforms in the health care sector in manycountries that have made citizens have access to quality health care.In respect to the assignment, I will compare the health of USA tothat of Germany to complete the assignment
Accessto healthcare in both countries
.In the U.S, not everyone is mandated to have health insurance. Thisleads to a huge number of people being uninsured. For those whocannot afford the services such as children, the unemployed and theretired, they have Medicaid it is a package for persons and familieswith little pay and few means. It is the largest fund for low-incomepersons. This combined with other government programs cater to 27.8%of the populace (83 million),(Carmen,Proctor, & Smith, 2008)including the disabled, elderly, veterans, children, and some of thepoor inhabitants.
AllGerman residents are obligated by the government to take healthinsurance. The government caters for all bills for the unemployed,retired and children. Partners and children get insurance with noextra charge, provided they do not make money at all or make minutesums when it comes to salary. Children with disabilities who lack theability to care for themselves are insured under their guardians orparents despite their age.
Germanydoes not have refills. The patient is required to go back to thepoint of sale or physician to order more medicine. People have to paya certain amount out of their pocket for these services, though. Thelaw fixes this amount. Children under eighteen years need not pay anyextra charges. The Americans have refills, and the amount variesdepending on the point of sale.
Germansalso do not offer prescriptions. One is required to read theinstruction insert unlike in the American system where a prescriptionis offered. (Döring& Paul, 2012)
TheAmericans must go to specific health centers for treatment dependingon the insurer and their cover. They can pay by hand. One has tovisit at specific hours for health services. In Germany there are norestrictions, you are free to see any doctor you please. so peoplecan see any doctor they want. They have also deducted nothing duringthe process. Germans can then spend a lot of money without any fearbefore they receive their insurance. No money is exchanged by hand.They only need their insurance card. The doctors` association willthen pay the doctor with money through the country’s sicknessfunds. The Germans can contact the doctors with ease duringafter-hours.
Underthe Affordable Care Act, (Protection& Act, 2010)insurance companies offering health services can’t reject to covera person or make one pay more in case they have a “pre-existingcondition.” This is similar to Germany.
FinancialImplications of the health care systems
TheU.S. is too costly when compared to Germany due to it capitaliststate. Since the German government caters to all health insurancepays. The Germans find it easy and affordable to work with thisformula. This ensures that the Germans are back to work quicker andhence can make more money than the Americans.
Everyonein Germany is eligible to a similar health care no matter how muchthey earn. People in Germany pay less for healthcare this enablesthem to focus their financial wealth elsewhere. In the Americansystem, they dedicate a lot of their money into health care withmediocre results when compared to their German counterparts.(pmhdev,2015)
References
Carmen,D.-W., Proctor, B. D., & Smith, J. C. (2008). Current PopulationReports, P60-235, Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage inthe United States: 2007. Retrieved fromhttp://health-equity.pitt.edu/1073/
Döring,A., & Paul, F. (2012). The German Healthcare System. In V.Costigliola (Ed.), HealthcareOverview(pp. 45–67). Springer Netherlands. Retrieved fromhttp://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-007-4602-2_4
pmhdev.(2015). Health care in Germany: Health insurance in Germany. PubMedHealth.Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/PMH0078017/
Protection,P., & Act, A. C. (2010). Patient protection and affordable careact. PublicLaw,111,48.