Is Public Funding The Secret To Family Health Insurance?
The United Kingdom’s publicly funded National Health Service (NHS), which was introduced in 1948, is frequently said to be the envy of the world. The NHS provides the majority of health care for all elements of society within the UK and provides cover for everything from basic health care services (through a network of local family doctors) to a full accident, emergency and hospital service. Additionally, it provides a whole range of other care services including elderly care and care for the mentally ill. It even provides dental care.
By contrast the US federal government presently assists the elderly with some of their medical care through the Medicare program and also assists low income groups through a series of jointly funded state Medicaid programs which are administered at state level. However, these programs cover only a proportion of the population and with the steadily rising number of elderly citizens and with Medicare costs rising at 7% every year the US may not be able to sustain these programs, let alone expand them.
Approximately 85% of the US population carries some form of health insurance today, much of which is provided by employers and a variety of government agencies. However, this leaves close to 50 million Americans without any form of health insurance, with those who live in the western and southern US most likely to be uninsured.
Most surprising of all perhaps is the fact that the United States, which many regard rightly or wrongly as the world’s richest nation, is ranked far below the average of developed nations for its health care performance by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Time will show the direction in which health care in the United States is headed but the health of its people is fundamental to the growth and prosperity of the nation and Congress is eventually going to have to accept that a total overhaul of the nation’s health system is going to be necessary.
At the end of the day this will almost certainly mean adopting a publicly funded health care system and, even if this does happen, it is going to be years away and it is not going to help the average citizen today when it comes to finding suitable health insurance. In the meantime therefore we will have to make the most of the system we have and sift through the many choices available to find the solution that best meets our individual needs.
Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS): A program of medical benefits available to inactive military personnel and military spouses, dependents, and beneficiaries through the Military Health Services System of the Department of Defense.
Generic substitution: The dispensing of a drug that is the generic equivalent of a drug listed on a pharmacy benefit management plan's formulary. In most cases, generic substitution can be performed without physician approval.
Member services: The department responsible for helping members with any problems, handling member grievances and complaints, tracking and reporting patterns of problems encountered, and enhancing the relationship between members of the plan and the plan itself.
Section 1115 waivers: Waivers that states could obtain from the federal government which allowed them to set up managed care demonstration projects.
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