Health-Care Systems

By Quinn Phillips In the United States, chances are that when you look for a job, you will consider not just your potential salary, work environment, and duties, but one other crucial factor: benefits. In this country, the mark of a "good" job has long been that it offers health insurance (and usually other benefits, such as a pension or retirement plan, or dental insurance). While Americans tend to view employer-provided health coverage as an innate part of our health-care system, in most other rich countries no such system exists. So how did this system develop in the United States, and what are the alternatives, as practiced in other countries? First, in any comparison with other countries, it is important to note that the United States has not one, but several different types of health-care systems. Employer-provided coverage may dominate, but substantial numbers of people are insured through either self-purchased private insurance or government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 53% of US children under age 18 are covered through private insurance, while 41% are covered by public programs like Medicaid, the joint state–federal insurance program for the poor, and CHIP, which is similar to Medicaid but covers children whose families are not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid. The remainder of children, about 7%, are uninsured. Among adults ...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs