Medical Bills and the Health Care System

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Written by

Psychology student/Writing enthusiast/Medical nerd

4 years ago

In community: Healthy life(d50e)

Medical bills are often the most frowned upon expenses by the common household. With the heavy brawling in the US Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States, one could not negate and deny that universal health care is one of the most talked about topics with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders leading the conversation since his bid last primary cycle in 2016 against Democratic juggernaut, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. But, one question comes into mind.

Why talk about it?

Medical bills are the bane of every household in the modern world. While strides in modern medicine is indeed marvelous, it can come with a hefty price especially if your paying out of your own pocket.

Private insurance companies have blunted this blow to the consumer by paying for these expenses but sometimes it's not enough.

That is why there is a need for a statewide or national insurer for all the country's citizens.

I actually laud the European health care system for its efficiency in providing adequate health care to its citizens, but, for the rest of the developing world this is still far from the utopia that we are dreaming.

What is the US and other developing country's model?

For starters, the US has Obamacare which is an expanded Medicare program initiated under the administration of US President Barack Obama. Though a whopping 27.5 million Americans, according to the latest statistics, are still left uninsured.

Despite providing protections for preexisting conditions and a lot more, Obamacare still has a lot of spaces to fill to provide every American health insurance.

For the developing world let's cite the Philippines.

In the Philippines, a developing country in Southeast Asia, under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, the Universal Health Care Law was enacted in 2019 thus providing health insurance coverage to all Filipinos.

Despite being a giant leap towards the dawn of health care in the country, Filipinos are still flocking to private health care institutions to be treated for their various health conditions due to congestion and lack of facilities in government health care institutions.

Out of pocket expenses are still a problem in the Philippines since private institutions charge more for the services that they provide.

What's the measure of an efficient health care system?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the key indicator of an effective health care system are low out-of-pocket payments (OOPs).

The WHO defines OOPs as, "Out-of-pocket payments (OOPs) are defined as direct payments made by individuals to health care providers at the time of service use. This excludes any prepayment for health services, for example in the form of taxes or specific insurance premiums or contributions and, where possible, net of any reimbursements to the individual who made the payments."

Let's start from the low-end of the spectrum moving upward, shall we?

The Philippines in 2018 bore 58.6% in OOPs. This is a large number, but take note that this was before the Universal Health Care Law was enacted in 2019. This means that a majority of health expenses and medical bills are shouldered by households not insurers.

In the US, from 2016 to 2017, 4.1 million Americans spent 10% of their income on OOPs. This figure is monumentally better than that of the Philippines, but let's face the fact that 10% of their income could mean thousands of dollars. That can be difficult to stomach especially if you're hard up.

We can see a downward trend using this metric. This means the lower the OOPs the better the health care system.

How can we improve and lower OOPs?

According to the WHO there are ways to lower OOPs and further improve our health care system. These are listed in their website and are listed as follows:

abolish user fees and charges in public health facilities;
target and exempt specific population groups such as the poor and vulnerable, pregnant women and children from official payments; and
target and exempt a range of health services such as maternal and child care from official payments and deliver them free of charge.

These require political will and determination to pass this through the intricacies of government. However, doing so will drastically improve life expectancies and quality of life of the citizens living in that particular country.

Conclusion

Medical bills and the health care system are closely tied together. The better the health care system the lower the medical bills that people need to pay.

With several strides by governments around the world to improve their country's health care system, we can have a positive outlook towards our future ahead.

Take care of yourself!