The healthcare system in the United States possesses the leading place in the world on the basis of the concentrated resources. The number of the individuals employed in the sector exceeds 10 million people. The United States is at the first place in the world on the basis of the expenditure provided onto the medicine in both the absolute terms (2.26 trillion dollars, or 7,439 dollars per person) and as a percentage of GDP (16%). According to the forecasts made by the national government, by 2015 the spending onto the medicine will have grown to $ 4 trillion or $ 12,000 per capita.
According to the researches by the World Health Organization, in 2012 the United States had the most stable medical system capable to provide the rapid response to the changing conditions and infrastructure. The United States are supposed to be the leader in the provision of privacy as well as on the timeliness of care, the respectful attitude towards the patients and their satisfaction. However, the United States took only 37th place on the level of care and the 72nd by overall level of health.
The levels of the U.S. medicine can be classified as the following (Chua, 2006):
- the family medicine, i.e. the doctors perform the general inspection of the patients and direct them to a narrow specialist if necessary.
- the hospital care, i.e. it is supposed to be the centre of the medical system, although in recent years its value has reduced and replaced by the activities of clinics, emergency rooms and nursing homes. The Hospitals are divided into the commercial and non-commercial healthcare centers.
- the public health.
The healthcare system provides the numerous services, which are offered by the different organizations, including the following:
the services of public health and preventive medicine, i.e. the disease prevention, surveillance of the environmental situation, the quality control of food, water, air etc;
- the non-emergency outpatient care services;
- the patient services which specialize on the short-term hospitalization;
- the complex patient care, i.e. the provision of the long, highly qualified and technically complicated treatment in hospitals.
The U.S. healthcare system is pluralistic in nature. It implies the lack of the unified and centralized management of many types of health facilities. However, all medical services are provided on the commercial basis, i.e. for a fee. Nevertheless, the costs are compensated by the State or by special funds for some categories of citizens, which are treated free of charge.
Part 2
Is there a product you routinely buy that is designed to be thrown away after one or two uses? Have you ever considered where those products go after you toss them out? Are any areas of your life in which you are guilty of overconsumption? Explain
I suppose that the perfect example of the product which I routinely buy, but it can be thrown away after one or two usages, is the bottled water. Hopefully, as my family uses the separate can for different types of garbage. It means that the plastic garbage is thrown into the separate can so that it can be recycled. However, the usage of the glass bottles is supposed to be more environmentally friendly so that I feel guilty when I buy water in plastic bottles rather than in glass bottles. There are no microorganisms which could recycle plastic for the short time in the nature. The natural recycle of plastic needs hundreds or thousands of years. However, all this time the plastic will release the hazardous substances, which are poisonous to the oceans and land as well as the live creatures.