American Health System Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

American Health System - Research Paper Example The United States of America spends almost two trillion dollars on health care making it the country spending the most money per capita and with the most technologically advanced medical practice. Despite this, it only ranks 37th in the World Health Organization’s ranking of the World Health Systems. (WHO, 2000) Such state of affairs exists primarily because the American system of health is extremely fragmented. Along with past of half-hearted efforts to form a universal system of health while at the same time bending to the interest of large private sector insurance companies has reduced the American health system to a patchy arrangement with complicated rules ( which differ in different areas) and huge wastage of resources. This fragmentation of the system has developed due to the multiple stakeholders in the system coupled with the rising costs for healthcare provision. (Arthur Garson, 2010)   One fact that cannot be ignored is that a lot of money is being invested each year on healthcare in America. More percentage of GDP is spent on health care than on food. The governmental expenditure on healthcare sums up to 18.9 percent of the total federal and state budget (WHO). Then there are the private and employment-based insurances which are continuously rising. Despite the increased spending on health care, we find that it has not translated into a universal or better health system. This is partly due to the gross inefficiency in the system. As the health sector becomes a larger fraction of the economy the inefficient functioning of the sector become even more costly. Despite this, some health policy analyst argues that increased expenditure on health is necessary to cover the population and continue the cutting edge advancement in technology.