Report on the Cost of Health Care in the United States Research Paper

Report on the Cost of Health Care in the United States - Research Paper Example There have been many controversies as well as dissatisfactions regarding the health care system in the United States. These controversies would be taken into consideration in this paper1. Thesis Statement The paper aims at discussing the health care system of the United States of America. The paper intends to illustrate the trends regarding cost and expenditure in the American health care system and recommends certain inputs to improve the drawbacks associated with the prevailing system. Data and Explanations Health Care Cost and Expenditure in the United States It can be stated that cost and expenditure related to health issues of human beings is one of the prime concerns for the United States. The cost and expenditure in the health care system of the United States of America has seen fluctuations over the years. It has been observed that the health care expenditure of the country was recorded to be around US$2.6 trillion in the year 2010 which as compared to 1980 report of expendit ure had seen an increase of over ten times. As it can be noticed from the table below that the health care expenditure of the company is in a constant rise from the year 1960 till date. It has been learnt that the United States has always noted to be spending more on health care than any other nation of the world. From the report of a survey, it has been recognized that half of the population of the United States spend a very little amount on health care while only 5 percent of the population of the country spend half of the total amount recorded as health care expenditure. However, the increase in expenditure of health care can be up to an extent justified from the fact that the population of the country has also increased form the year 1960 to till date. The table below depicts the increase in health care expenditure in the past 50 years2. Figure: Health Care Expenditure in United States3 Comparison of Health Care Expenditure of the United States with Other Countries It has been m entioned earlier that the health care expenditure of the United States of America has seen a considerable rise over the years. The health care expenditure of the United States of America is quite high as compared to other countries of the world. It can be observed from the table below that the health care expenditure per capita of the United States is quite high as compared to countries like Japan, Germany and France among others. The rise can be demarcated to be double the expenditure of other countries4. Figure: Health Care Expenditure of Certain Countries of the World4 In addition, it has further been learnt that in spite of having similar Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of other wealthier countries, the health care spending of the United States is quite high from those countries. The graph below would be providing a lucid picture about the mentioned fact4. Figure: Comparison of GDP Per Capita of the US with Other Countries4 It has been further observed that the total health care ex penditure of the United States annually is also much more than that of the other similar wealthier nations. The increase in expenditure is depicted to be at a much rapid pace and by a broad margin.