Universal Health Care: A Case Study

Lack of health insurance for low-income families has been a major issue in the entirety of the United States as of late. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, premiums for family health plans have risen 20% since 2011 and 58% since 2006. Additionally, 51% of American workers have a single coverage deductible of $1000 or more, and 38% still have a deductible of greater than $1000 after employer contribution is taken out (“2016 Employer Health”). North Carolina also made the decision to not expand Medicaid, which left an insurance coverage gap that includes childless adults earning less than the Federal Poverty Level and parents earning between 43% and 100% of the FPL (“How Will the Uninsured”). Because of this, low-income North Carolinians …show more content…
With universal health care, people will have easy access to proper medical services without having to worry about any negative effects on their finances. Furthermore, employers would not need to cover part of the cost of healthcare anymore, meaning it frees up money for individual firms, and employers would stop losing money because employees would not be sick as often. The government will also save money in the long run, as the initial increase in cost associated with providing healthcare for all citizens will decrease once access to health care results in fewer people getting sick. Alongside the economic benefits arising from universal healthcare, individuals and low-income families will also not need to worry about going into debt because of medical bills. This relates back directly to our specific goal, which was to help low-income North Carolinians gain affordable access to health insurance. We are confident this method will succeed based on the success of universal health care in other countries. According to the World Health Organization’s study on the performance of 191 countries’ health care systems, the top three countries all offer universal healthcare; the U.S. ranked 37th. The United States has health care costs higher than every other developed country and spends more money on healthcare per capita than any other country in the world at $9,237 (Brink). However, the spending does not translate into a more effective healthcare system, as America ranks last in life expectancy among the 12 wealthiest industrialized countries. Although this solution does face the issue of causing the federal debt to rise and could be difficult to implement within a given time frame, other solutions have much bigger issues ranging from massive layoffs or a scarcity in available health care, which is why we believe universal health care is the best

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