America's healthcare industry shows us one of the most revealing contradictions in the country's economy. Even though America claims to be the world's most advanced superpower, it is still unable to provide its entire population with healthcare and even worse, the quality of its healthcare overall is declining in many ways. Though many democratic nations provide their citizens with healthcare access, the United States tries to concentrate the control of medicine into the hands of big businesses like the insurance industry and pharmaceutical companies. The result is that the United States has a healthcare industry with a bad reputation that is getting worse. Large companies benefit but average Americans suffer from the consequences of the broken healthcare system. .
Overall, though healthcare should be a right to all Americans, it is treated more like a luxury only available for those who can afford it, creating an industry that cannot continue on its current path. This is why the Obama Administration has worked to pass a major piece of legislation designed to overhaul the ailing healthcare industries. With the focus on creating a 'public option' which would mitigate the cost of healthcare for the roughly 46 million who are reported to be uninsured today, Obama is working against a grain of industry lobbies and Republican Party leaders. These groups have argued that the new legislation would add 46 million Americans to the expenses of a welfare state. Amid these accusations and the expressed concern that the public option would promote excessive government intrusion into the healthcare industry, President Obama has advocated the public option with the justification of a severely unequal and ineffective U.S. Healthcare system. .
The discussion here provides a basis for the overhaul and the public option through a consideration of the current failures which have damaged American healthcare and which have devastated countless Americans.