Introduction:gross domestic product (GDP)
The one commonality with all of the world’s healthcare systems is that they all have consumers or users of their systems. Systems were developed to provide a service to their citizens. However, the U.S. healthcare system, unlike other systems in the world, does not provide healthcare access to all of its citizens. It is a very complex system that is comprised of many public and private components. Healthcare expenditures comprise approximately 17.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) . Health care is very expensive and most citizens do not have the money to pay for health care themselves. Individuals rely on health insurance to pay a large portion of their healthcare costs. Health insurance is predominantly offered by employers. The uninsured rate remains at an all-time low with 9.1% of under 65 uninsured as of the end of 2015 according to CDC.Gov data. Generally, 2016 saw a rough increase of all the 2015 numbers. (Obamacare enrollment, 2016). The government believes this is the result of the universal mandate for individual health insurance coverage.
In the United States, in order to provide healthcare services, there are several stakeholders or interested entities that participate in the industry. There are providers, of course, that consist of trained professionals such as physicians, nurses, dentists, and chiropractors. There are also inpatient and outpatient facilities; the payers such as the insurance companies, the government, and self-pay individuals; and the suppliers of products, such as pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment companies, and research and educational facilities (Sultz & Young, 2006). Each component plays an integral role in the healthcare industry. These different components further emphasize the complexity of the U.S. system. The current operations of the delivery system and utilization statistics will be discussed in depth in this chapter. An international comparison of the U.S. healthcare system and select country systems will also be discussed in this chapter, which provides another aspect of analyzing the U.S. healthcare system.