The Pricing of Health Costs and its Effect on the Poor in the United Dissertation - 1

The Pricing of Health Costs and its Effect on the Poor in the United States - Dissertation Example These families must forcibly cut down on their health care costs, which may ultimately lead to dangerous health consequences. In this context, the researcher will conduct a qualitative study (secondary research), that will explore the aspect of the monetary costs and quality of life,  as regards the present US health care system. Monetary costs and quality of life  in the context of US health care: in US, health care occupies an important position within the U.S. economy graph (Fig 1). Observations by various experts reveal that every year the health related expenditure keeps on growing, often moving ahead of the expenditure made on the other service sectors. This implies that each year the percentage of the health expenditure within the overall US economy pie keeps on growing. As the cost prices within the health care system increase, there is bound to be some sort of a repercussion within the average household, especially amongst the families that fall below the federal poverty line. ... Even for those people that have insurances, rising health care costs translate into getting less benefits each year, for the same amount of money. Fig 1: The US spends more healthcare than any country in the world. The figures as shown in the graph above represents health care expenditure for the year 2006, and during this year it was observed that an average US person spends more on health care than on food, oil, or even gasoline (Source: Mckinsey & company, 2008, 13). At an average estimate, America spends nearly $7,400 annually on health care per person, which comprises of about a 16% share within U.S. economy pie (fig 2). A look at the year 2007 will show us that US health care spending was then nearly $2.2 trillion, which when evenly spread over the entire population amounted to about $7421 per head expenditure (Figure 2). This $2.2 trillion represents 16.2 percent of the nation’s total economic activity, referred to as the gross domestic product or GDP. While the spendin g figures are by themselves impressive, however the chief area of concern is their rate of rapid growth over the last few years. Fig 2: National Health Expenditures per Capita and Their Share of Gross Domestic Product, 1960-2007 (Source: Health Care Costs- A Primer, 2009, 2). The graph (fig 2) shows the rising cost of health care per person in US. The growth in the last decade, starting from around 1990, and has been exponential. In 2009, the $7421 per head spending increased to more than $8000 per head, showing a jump of more than $500 per person, in just 2 years time (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2010). Observations show that the rapidly increasing health care expenditure in US is becoming a

Which system will work best for the United States, a carbon cap and Essay

Which system will work best for the United States, a carbon cap and trade system or a straight carbon tax - Essay Example To achieve this, two paths have been proposed, cap-and-trade system and straight carbon tax. Cap and trade system provide limits on the use of fossils, it will require that industries and other main sources of greenhouse emission buy permits from the government so as to be allowed to emit the gases, in those permits they will have to establish the market. Those in support of this method argues that, it will set the limit on the amount of greenhouse gases being emitted, secondly, it is more flexible, it is fair since it will reward companies who try to reduce emission and punish those not reducing emission (Salmon 2007). The second proposed path is straight carbon tax. This gives an outright tax on fossil fuels. With this, the cost of tax is set according to the damage associated with every unit of pollution and cost equivalent to the amount of controlling pollution. Emitting a lot of greenhouse gases means paying more. Those in support of this method argues that, it is simple since it will force the people look for alternative source of energy, secondly, it is enforceable b oth in economic and political environment, and lastly, the method is transparent. The advantage of cap and trade system over straight carbon is that, it has attracted a lot of interest and attention from political, public, and industrialist. The political leaders it has attracted include president Obama, main congress leaders, and environmental crusaders. The industrialists that have attracted include General Electric leadership, Shell oil management, and Duke Energy executives (Salmon 2007). The congress key leaders have vowed to pass cap-and-trade law before the end of the year. The straight carbon tax debate was trashed out by the congress and industrial crusaders went against it claiming that it will be used by the reach and it is like the rich is buying the environment to pollute at their own pleasure. The second strength of