Financing of the US Healthcare System (Essay Sample)

Policy and Environmental Issues –Financing of the US Healthcare System
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Policy and Environmental Issues –Financing of the US Healthcare System
Many people agree that the costs of healthcare in the US is exorbitantly expensive, and unnecessarily complex. As Magee (2019) explains, the country’s healthcare ecosystem comprises a blend of public, private, non-profit, and for-profit healthcare institutions, and medical insurance providers. The federal government provides healthcare cover through the Medicare program to only special groups within the population. According to Madden et al. (2021), these special groups include: veterans, some persons with disability, and adults older than 65 years. In contrast, a large majority of the population finance their healthcare needs through a combination of out-of-pocket insurance payments, healthcare taxes, and government subsidies.
Most of the above provisions are safeguarded in the Affordable Healthcare Act which came into effect in 2010. The effectiveness of the reforms are most notable in reducing the uninsured rate from 16% to around 8.5% of the population (Madden et al., 2021). The fact that the people without access to healthcare insurance has been halved thanks to Medicare goes to prove its effectiveness. However,