Health_Care

Health care is expensive and getting more so, squeezing private enterprise and driving up the deficit. Millions of Americans are uninsured which leads to bankruptcies and anxiety. There are many problems that are associated with the expensive health care. One thing is the cost. The share of the economy devoted to health care increased from 7.2% in 1970 to 17.9 percent in 2009 and 2010. Costs are projected to rise to 25% of GDP in 2025. The two main drivers of cost are improvements in technology and the uninsured. A systemic driver of high costs is America's fee-for-service healthcare system, in which providers are compensated for each procedure, not for the outcome of care. The high cost of care and inefficiency is a drag on business productivity because those dollars cannot be spent on investment and employees. Coverage is also another issue that has to be addressed. Among the 34 OECD countries, only Mexico, Turkey, and the United States not have universal health care coverage. Almost 50 million Americans did not have health insurance in 2010 which is 16.3% of the population. The percentage of uninsured individuals varies greatly on a state-by-state basis. The biggest gaps in coverage were seen among foreign-born non-citizens, low-income families, and young adults between 19 and 25. America has a growing shortage of primary care physicians who can help curb medical costs by addressing problems before they require the expensive intervention of a specialist. The American Association of Medical Colleges has forecast shortage of 124,000 physicians by 2020, with 37 percent of that shortage in primary care. Due to the high cost of a medical degree, many graduating physicians choose the more-lucrative path of a specialist instead of a general practitioner.