艾瑪的美國時間 我要賺錢!

Emma

A/W5 Research Paper

Due: December 1, 2006



Most citizens in the United States are concerned with what the health care
system can provide them, the cost of good quality medical treatment, and
what Medicare will provide after retirement. However, according to Mark
Pazniokas, a reporter informed in “Report Details Health Spending” from
Knight Ridder Tribune Business News pointed out that American families need
to spend approximately $10,888 per year to cover their family’s
healthcare. This expense is more than the entire annual income of a minimum
wage worker, or nearly one-forth the salary of the average income of a
person living in the United States. Although there are many factors that can
affect the health care system, political factors such as circles of
influence, arbitrary focus based on public opinion, and the national budget,
are three points that have a significant influence on the United Sates
health care system.



Circles of influence will be defined as the person or group that protects or
strengthen their power and position by influencing the government. Today, in
the United States, money is the strongest form of influence which influences
the health care system. The article “Money Is the Best Medicine” a
doctor, Kate Scannell stated in SFGate.com that the United States drug
company trade organization, which is Pharmaceutical Research and
Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), budget for lobbying activities while the
fiscal year in the beginning of July 2003, increased twenty-three percentage
over the previous year. The budget includes a $72.7 million for the federal
level, $48.7 million for states, and $4.9 million to the Food and Drug
Association. Even though the lobbying activities to try and reduce
healthcare costs have increased the costs for healthcare is still on the
rise. Furthermore, drug companies are experiencing multibillion dollar
profits while citizens are forced to keep paying more and more healthcare
related costs. Furthermore, 342 of the 675 lobbyists hired by PhRMA in 2002
tied to the federal level, 26 of them were the members of Congress. As a
result, PhRMA had succeeded in winning of tax breaks, extended patent, the
benefit policy of Medicare drug, overall control on medicine pricing, and
protections of profit. All of these factors that appear to be successful in
terms of lowering healthcare are really tuning out the benefit for citizens
that purchase healthcare.



Similarly, George W. Bush, president of the United Sates, Stated in
“President’s Letter” from WhiteHouse.gov that “We will … make
insurance coverage portable, so workers can change jobs without having to
worry about losing their health insurance, and will … help reduce costs,
save lives, and improve quality of care.” The idea the President announced
is wonderful, however, today the opposite is occurring, since companies own
the power and money to affect the result of lobbying activities and gain
benefits.



According to Henry E. Simmons, President of National Coalition on Health
Care, stated in “Leap in the Number of Americans Without Health
Coverage” from NCHC.com that 1.3 million more citizens in the United
States lost health in 2005, and the number of American with non health
insurance has increased 6.8 million from 39.8 million in 2000 into 46.6
million in 2005. Citizens that are losing healthcare needs to be something
that the government needs to prevent as well as not to be influenced by
groups that are only trying to protect their interest to maximize profits.
Specifically, the well-known company Wal-Mart has almost 1.3 million
American employees, but only covers forty-eight percent of their employees
with health insurance. Nevertheless, Wal-Mart provides a low percentage of
employees with health insurance and a high price for insurance. Since
Wal-Mart makes so much money each year it has been able to influence several
cities to allow a Wal-Mart to be built in their town and more and more
citizens that become employed by Wal-Mart do not have the health insurance.
Therefore companies that have influential power to change the government’s
decision benefit and the citizens suffer with less and less healthcare.



In the same way, arbitrary focused based on public opinion is also a problem
that has been affecting the health care system in the United States. Public
opinion is a strong and significant way to lead many people to care more
about the healthcare system. Special events, News, international events
usually guide the public opinion. For example, during the time of Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the United States supported $16
million for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assisting in the
research in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and East North Asia. Also
in the investigation in the United States, according to Matt Mientka,
reported in “U.S., World Continue To Research SARA” from USmedicine.com.
SARS was an important event in the United States that changed the direction
of public opinion since America had been paying extensive attention on the
terrorist of attacks of the September 11, 2001. Therefore, when the public
opinion changed, it pushes both the government and citizens to notice the
current events, and then ignore other issues. Since the terrorist of attacks
happened in the United States, the direction of public opinion has focused
on national defense. The United States government started spending large
expenses on military equipment. In 2005, the Department of Defense in the
U.S. spent over 2.8 million for training the military men, and the missile
defense program had been increased $1.5 billion into $9.2 billion, according
to Michael Kilian, Washington Bureau reported in “$402 Billion Sought for
Military Spending: During this time companies such as CNN benefited from
advertisement, while the healthcare system once again was left unnoticed and
under funded. Therefore, the public opinion also causes the health care
system to have many problems.



Furthermore, the national budget is the most effective factor that directly
influences the health care system. According to “Kerry Campaign: George W.
Bush: Miscalculator-Chief On Health Care” from Releases.USNewswire.com,
reported that President Bush planned to build 1,200 new and expansive health
centers to provide medical treatment for over 6.1 million citizens by 2006,
and make the price of health care affordable for all citizens. In fact, in
2004, President Bush proposed to increased the defense budget 7 percent or
approximately $401.7 billion, according to Michael Kilian, The gross cost of
defense spending since the terrorist attacks rapidly increased from $562
billion in 2003 to $672.1 billion in 2004 while the gross cost of health and
human service spending only increased from $542.3 billion in 2003 to $583.9
billion in 2004, according to “United States Government: Statements of Net
Cost for the Years Ended September 30: 2004: and September 30: 2003” from
GAO.gov. Clearly, the national budget is the most direct way to start
solving the current healthcare problem, but each year the budget does not
support the amount needed to provide average healthcare to the citizens of
the United States



Moreover, 15.7% of citizens without healthcare that were also employed
reduced by one percent in 2004, according to “Income Stable: Poverty Rate
Increases: Percentage of Americans” from Census.gov. In other words, 5.2
million citizens had lost their medical insurance, and uninsured citizens
had increased to 45 million in 2004, after President Bush took office.
Specifically, according to “Fact Sheet: Improving Access to Quality Mental
Health Care” from Whitehouse.com, President Bush announced the plan of
improving mental health care will work on raising the coverage for mental
health benefits. At the same time, President Bush proposed to reduce $9
million budget in the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in 2006,
according to “$9 Million to be Cut From US Mental Illness Reseach
Budget” from Schizophrenia.com. Therefore the budget for health care
continues to get cut and the national budget focuses on other issues even
though the United States government proposes change to the citizens.
According to “Office of Management and Budget” from Whitehouse.gov, in
2006, the budget for defense has increased 5% from 2005, into 419.3 billion,
instead, the budget for health and human service has decreased 1% from 2005,
into 67.2 billion. Therefore it is clear from the results that the health
care system in the United States have shown decreased funding year after
year and the healthcare system continues to suffer.



The factors such as circles of influence, arbitrary focus based on public
opinion, and the national budget, are three points that influence the United
Sates health care system today. These three points all related to each
other, and have increased the cost of health care more and more in America.
Even so, many experts stated ways of improving the health care system, some
of which include changing the knowledge, attitude or behavior from person to
country. However, it would be difficult to change and challenge the
political power as an individual. Therefore, the solution must be a
cooperative effort among all citizens, which will use civil rights to gain
power and begin influencing the government. Therefore the government will
start listening to the citizens, and begin improving the healthcare system,
instead of causing the healthcare system to suffer because of outside
influences on the political system.