Healthcare Within Countries and It’s Uses

Healthcare+Within+Countries+and+It%E2%80%99s+Uses

Healthcare is a word that confuses many people due to the price, the help that it gives, and so much more. So what is healthcare? Why must we pay for something we don’t know about? Well, healthcare is a controversial topic with people going at odds with each other on whether it should be free or not. It might surprise you that it is free; in 32 different countries. 

 

Countries such as the UK, Canada, and Australia- to name some of the bigger ones- offer free or very low-cost healthcare. Even in these 32 countries, there are still possibilities of having to pay co-pays and such, but the point is to have healthcare to be as free as possible to as many people as possible. 

 

So what does the United States have to offer concerning healthcare? Well, we do not have free healthcare, but we do have the Affordable Care Act (or better known as Obamacare). This law helps to lower healthcare costs, make it more affordable, and to expand the Medicaid program. Since its creation in 2010, it has covered millions of people. 

 

Now, the cost of healthcare is what throws a lot of people off. Most of the time you can get plans off of your job, but the sight of all of the packages can stress you out. There are four packages, the individual plan, the individual + child(ren), the family plan, and the domestic partner/spouse plan. I wish that I could give you a set amount of money that you would have to pay for each plan, but I can’t. These plans change costs depending on the provider that you’re using. The individual can cost at a low of $31.21 while the family plan can have you spending at least $218.70 and both of those numbers are without co-pays. 

 

Even with the ACA, 26.1 million people were without healthcare and 29.6 million people were without access when the Census Bureau interviewed them; mind you that was just in 2019. With Covid-19 numbers going up as the second wave hits America, who knows what our numbers will hit. We can only hope that once things get back to normal, we can provide adequate healthcare to those who cannot afford it- but need it.