Universal Healthcare

The future of the uninsured population remains grim. According to the article written by Jonathan Oberlander “The US Health Care System” in 2000 the uninsured fell to 38.7 (pg 360, in 2007 the US Census shows the uninsured as 45 millions. This increase is contributed to the number of jobs being lost; jobs being shipped oversee, since most of the health care coverage for the US population is through employer based coverage. Oberlander said that “a recession would have a strong negative impact on access to insurance”, right now this is where we are heading. Socioeconomic is one of the main indicators of how well the citizens are doing overall, with more people losing their jobs, homes, and life savings. The socioeconomic disparity suddenly within the past year has opened a gap to where we are now in a recessionary period. The uninsured population will be higher by the end of this year than it was in 2007, because of the number of jobs that have been lost not just blue collar jobs but white collars also.

Even though we are in the midst of an election year, health insurance coverage for all is always in the forefront but once in power it is again put to the side and never dealt with, as other issues take precedence. Since 1994 with President Clinton the U.S. has been trying to reform the health care system, and yet we in my opinion have not made much progress. In the 1990s the U.S. per capita expenditure on health care was $3,724 (pg 350), last year 2007 the U.S. spent $6,697 per capita on healthcare services which is more than double over the past 17 years. Canada, which is the next highest per capita for health care was only $3,326. Despite the higher spending in the U.S. health indicators for Americans were worse than they were for citizens of other countries.

Universal healthcare is one most feasible ways the US can make any impact on the number of the uninsured, as other countries have prove. Countries with universal healthcare have been more...