Universal Health Care Insurance & Neighborhood Healthcare Centers / Video

Universal Health Care Centers -- Are Physicians Doing Their Part? / Video. Film on why health care workers and health care centers are needed to care for the uninsured, homeless and poor. From the public domain film, "A Right to Health". Creative Commons license: Public Domain. Universal health care is health care coverage that is extended to all eligible residents of a governmental region and often covers medical, dental, and mental health care. These programs vary in their structure and funding mechanisms. Typically, most costs are met via a single-payer health care system or national health insurance. Universal health care is provided in all wealthy, industrialized countries, except for the United States. It is also provided in many developing countries and is the trend worldwide. Universal health care is a broad concept that has been implemented in several ways. The common denominator for all such programs is some form of government action aimed at extending access to health care as widely as possible. Most countries implement universal health care through legislation, regulation and taxation. Legislation and regulation direct what care must be provided, to whom, and on what basis. Usually some costs are borne by the patient at the time of consumption but the bulk of costs come from a combination of compulsory insurance and tax revenues. Some programs are paid for entirely out of tax revenues. In some cases, government involvement also includes directly managing the health care system, but many countries use mixed public-private systems to deliver universal health care. The United States is the only wealthy, industrialized nation that does not have a universal health care system. The government directly covers 27.8% of the population through health care programs for the elderly, disabled, military service families and veterans, children, and some of the poor, through Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, and TRICARE. Indirectly, various governmental entities in the United States also contribute towards the healthcare coverage of many millions of federal, state, and local government employees and their families who are covered by traditional employer-based group insurance coverage with insurance premiums often substantially subsidized by the government employer using public tax revenues. Federal law ensures public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay. However, this unfunded mandate has contributed to a health care safety net that some analyses say is increasingly strained. Certain types of medical spending and particularly health insurance benefit from significant tax subsidies; in particular, employer-sponsored health insurance is a non-taxable benefit. In all, government spending accounted for 45.1% of total health spending in the U.S. in 2005. Current estimates put U.S. health care spending at approximately 15% of GDP, the highest in the world. A study of international health care spending levels in the year 2000, published in the health policy journal Health Affairs, found that while the U.S. spends more on health care than other countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the use of health care services in the U.S. is below the OECD median by most measures. The authors of the study concluded that the prices paid for health care services are much higher in the U.S.. An estimated 84.7% of citizens have some form of health insurance coverage, either through their employer, purchased individually, or through government sources. The number of uninsured, at 45.7 million in 2007, decreased slightly from 2006, because government programs covered nearly 3 million more people. It is projected that the current economic downturn and rising unemployment rate likely will cause the number of uninsured to grow by at least 2 million in 2008. One study estimates that about 25% of the country's uninsured, or roughly another 11 million people, are eligible for government health care programs, but they are not enrolled. However, assuring adequate financing to cover those who are eligible remains a challenge.

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[WeedMIC]

If u take away the financial incentives, there won't be enough people becoming doctors or companies finding evidence based cures. You will end up with queues for basic care like they have in the UK.

[rosaryfilms]

WeedMIC, the movie, "Sicko" visited the UK and reported favorably on their system.

[WeedMIC]

U have never lived in the UK then. I have. There is absolutely no comparison between the free market care system in the US and the socialist one in the UK. None at all.

[rosaryfilms]

WeedMIC, I know people who are citizens of the UK -- and their needs are taken care of for free. Yes, they pay taxes to cover the costs.

[wormer105]

Any plan to universalize healthcare is doomed to fail due to overburdening.

[rosaryfilms]

wormer105, other countries have used it sucessfully.

[phillipmarch22]

Please get on line and write your local Congressman and Senators that we will not accept anything less then a "Public Option" heathcare plan. The GOP keep saying that they do not want the Government involved in your healthcare. You all might want to know that the GOP overwhelming voted against Medicare many years ago and ask anyone over 65 how they feel about Medicare.. It has been a good deal for them. Please, do your part. Insurance companies are ripping you off!

[timbosforporn]

Whatever power anyone has over us will never violate our freedom as long as that relationship is voluntary. An employer only has power over someone as long as certain conditions are met and the employee can terminate that relationship at any moment. Our government has power over us and as long as we can terminate that relationship we will always be free. All authority has to be voluntary in order to maintain the freedom of its participants.

[Smartassawhip]

The USA has the ... "BEST SPECIALISTS" ... but our Health Care System stinks and is ranked as the Low 37th on a World Scale !! It's like saying "THE USA WON THE MOST GOLD MEDALS IN THE OLYMPICS ... SO THE ENTIRE AMERICAN POPULATION IS MADE OF TOP ATHLETES !!

When in reality we have an overweight & sick ...(cancer~heart diseases~diabetic)... population, compared to other nations. For ways in which you can contact your representatives visit my profile. Don't Fall for all the Propaganda!

[SeekerOfFalsehood]

Excellent video.

[wormer105]

rosary: Someone always has to pay. If it is set up as just one person doing it then that person or system will get burdened. As more and more people use it the system is taxed more. Prices are driven higher which inevitably fall on the consumer. ansadians come here for fast healthcare because their system is slow at working things out.