Healthcare Reform Act

The debate over health care reform in the United States centers on questions about:

• whether there is a fundamental right to health care
• who should have access to health care and under what circumstances
• who should be required to contribute toward the costs of providing health care in a society
• whether the government should support health care commerce by forcing citizens to buy insurance or pay a tax
• the quality achieved for the sums spent
• the sustainability of expenditures that have been rising faster than the level of general inflation and the growth in the economy
• the role of the federal government in bringing about such change
• concerns over unfunded liabilities

In 62% of all personal bankruptcy in the United States, medical debt is cited as a factor, the biggest single factor of all. This rarely occurs in other countries in the developed world. The United States spends a greater portion of total yearly income in the nation on health care than any United Nations member state except for East Timor (Timor-Leste), although the actual use of health care services in the U.S., by most measures of health services use, is below the median among the world's developed countries.