First Name:
Dennis
Last Name:
Dorsey
Major Department:
Risk Management and Insurance
Thesis Director:
Karen Epermanis
Date of Thesis:
May 2009
The United States’ health care system is in the national media now more than it has ever been. In 2007, 45. million (or 15.7%) people were living in the United States without health care insurance (Health Insurance Coverage). In response to the high number of uninsured Americans, U.S. Representative John Conyers(D-Michigan) has introduced H.R. 676 “The United States Health Care Act.”
This bill proposes the establishment of a single-payer health care insurance plan, “To provide for comprehensive health insurance coverage for all United States residents, improved health care delivery, and for the other purposes” (H.R. 676). If H.R. 676 is passed it will create a system that eliminates the need for private market health insurance.
While providing an overview of the current health insurance system, this thesis will illustrate that the country does not need H.R. 676, but instead can increase accessibility of coverage and decrease cost by simply reforming the current system. The total size of the United States’ health care system makes a bill like H.R. 676 destined to fail. The size of the health care system is not the most daunting; it is the way the United States’ health care system is so disjointed that would take a tremendous effort from all concerned parties to accomplish a complete overhaul. The solutions to the health care problems faced today should be smaller in size, and lead to more immediate results, than those proposed by the United States Health Care Act. By reviewing the history of health care insurance, other forms of private market insurance, and the United States Health Care Act, I propose other alternatives to H.R. 676 “The United States Health Care Act.”