Different Assumptions About the US Healthcare System

U.S. Health Care Delivery Systems
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The United States (U.S.) has a unique healthcare delivery system that continues to evolve. Despite the healthcare delivery system changing in response to cost, accessibility, and quality demands, many arguments concern its efficacy and sustainability. For example, research indicates that the U.S. healthcare expenditure surpasses peer nations, although the country experiences deteriorating life expectancy and health outcomes (Mahon, 2015). There is a need to develop an understanding of the attributes and critical issues impacting the delivery of health care in America. This paper evaluates different assumptions about the U.S. healthcare system to determine their authenticity based on credible scholarly research.
The U.S. spends too much on health care services.
It is true that the U.S. spends too much on healthcare services. Research indicates that although the U.S. records the highest healthcare expenditure per capita globally, more than 37 million Americans lack access to medical insurance, and over 41 million lack adequate access to quality healthcare (Galvani et al., 2020). Hartman et al. (2022) state that the country's national expenditure increased by 9.7% to 4.1 trillion dollars in 2020, whereas the gross domestic product (GDP) dropped by 2.2%. This increased healthcare expenditure GDP share from 17.6% to 19.7% in 2019 (Hartman et al., 2022). In addition, federal government healthcare spending increased by 3.6% in 2020 from 5.9% growth in 2019, with this increase not directly associated with patient care outcome improvement (Hartman et al., 2022). Therefore, the above statistics indicate that the U.S. spends a significant share of its revenues on healthcare services.
The poor lack health care.
It is false to state poor Americans lack health care. However, economically and socially marginalized people reside in poor neighborhoods, contributing to deteriorated health (Prasannan et al., 2021). It is fallacious to suggest that these people lack health care because many federal and state government programs have been designed to augment healthcare access to economically disadvantaged groups. For example, delivery system and payment reform is a Medicaid initiative tailored to social needs and health care, thus ensuring everyone has access to high-quality care irrespective of their economic or social background. In addition, Oregon and Colorado have implemented Medicaid reimbursement and delivery frameworks to offer care via regional organizations that emphasize integrating social, behavioral, and physical services as well as community collaboration and engagement (Artiga & Hinton, 2019. In an environment characterized by these initiatives, it is fallacious to indicate that the poor lack health care.
The systems in other countries are better.
It is true that the systems in other countries are better than the U.S. For example, single-payer countries such as South Korea and Taiwan are performing better in terms of coverage, equity, affordability, and access compared to America. Under the single-payer system, the citizens of these countries enjoy the same coverage irrespective of their income and racia...