The cost of healthcare services in the US has been on the rise, and it is expected to go higher soon. The effects of the upsurge in the price of the essential services are felt by the American families (Campbell, 2016, p. 16). The growth in healthcare costs has a direct impact on the daily lives of the American citizens. The expenditure at a family level is highly dependent on the family's healthcare needs. People are forced to minimize their costs on other products like food, and clothing to cater for their health bills. The essay will focus on informing the audience concerning the unswerving impacts of high-cost healthcare on their daily lives. The audience will realize how their daily lives are reliant on healthcare expenses.
Several organizations, for example, Kaiser Family Foundation, and RAND Health researchers have collected and analyzed data from various sources to paint the accurate picture of how the costs of health services are shaping the finances of typical American families especially the median-income families under employer-sponsored insurance cover. American families feel the pinch of ever-rising health care costs in different ways depending on employment status as well as family's other sources of income (Ganguli, Thompson, " Ferris, 2017, p. 212). The finances of a family are affected by the cost of health services through the out-of-pocket spending. The expenses can be for deductibles, copays, as well as prescriptions. The prices can as well affect the finance of the American families through the share of a family in the health insurance premium. The spending of the members of the population is also affected through the percentage of the state and federal taxes of the family devoted to the government health programs, for instance, Medicare, Medicaid, public health, in addition to Veteran's health care. Families are also affected via the share of the employer of the health insurance premium (Rosenthal, 2017, p. 23). The out of pocket premiums expenditures and the family premiums are directly noticeable to the families. The portion of the family's taxes dedicated to government health programs and the share of the employer on health insurance premium is mostly concealed from the view of the family. The costs have a secondary outcome on the wages of workers in the US. Employers pay the most significant share of health insurance premiums of their employees hence, reducing the amount of money paid to them as wages. Many economists suggest that the money spends by employers to cater for insurance covers of their employees could be paid as additional wages (Harrington " Estes, 2008, p. 44).
The high cost of healthcare has affected the buying power of families. Since 1999, the money that families spend on other commodities has drastically changed. The increase in the income tax by $1910 has affected the amount of money that stays in the family's coffers. The cost of healthcare has resulted in increased prices of essential commodities like foods, clothing, and rent. Families are forced to cope with the augmented expenses because their health care needs come first. Besides, the little amount of money left for other expenditures other than health services has made families minimize their daily spending to settle their medical costs (Ganguli, Thompson, " Ferris, 2017, p. 206).
The current trend of rising costs of health care services indicates that it will continue to upsurge. The expenses have significantly affected the spending patterns of families because they need to minimize other expenses to afford health care services. The high health care costs also affect employee wages because the money spent by employers for health insurance covers could be used as additional wages.
References
Campbell, K. R. (2016). Losing our way in healthcare: The impact of reform.
Ganguli, I., Thompson, R. W., " Ferris, T. G. (2017). What can five high cost patients teach us about healthcare spending? Healthcare, 5(4), 204-213. doi:10.1016/j.hjdsi.2016.12.004
Harrington, C., " Estes, C. L. (2008). Health policy: Crisis and reform in the U.S. health care delivery system. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Pub.
Rosenthal, E. (2017). An American sickness: How healthcare became big business and how you can take it back.
