I. Introduction
A. Provide background: Governments have gotten much more involved in the regulation of healthcare over the last few decades. In countries around the world, including the United States, governments are now dictating policy, forcing citizens to purchase insurance or even providing a state-run healthcare system for those individuals to take advantage of.
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B. Arguable Thesis: The government’s role in countries like the United States, the UK, Germany, Canada, and France, in managing and directing healthcare resources can have a major impact on that country’s economic outcome when compared to the government’s choice not to be involved in shaping health care policy.
II. Body Paragraph #1
A. Topic Sentence: Governments can save their country money by getting involved in health care policy.
i. United States spends more money on health care as a function of GDP than any other developed nation in the world.
ii. One of the bases for establishing the Affordable Care Act was looking to reduce the amount of money spent by citizens on their health care.
iii. Governments with more efficient systems are spending less money than the United States on health care provisions.
B. Summary Sentence: Evidence suggests that when governments have the opportunity to get involved in health care policy, they have the chance to save their countries money.
III. Body Paragraph #2
A. Topic Sentence: Governments without much government involvement in health care can see their costs rise, causing problems with GDP.
i. Much of America’s struggle with its economy has been linked to the large amount of money that the country spends on its health care per capita.
ii. These costs can be attributed not just to a lack of government involvement in providing health care systems, but also to a lack of government involvement in setting overall health policy. When overall health policy is not dictated from the top, people have bad habits, and they tend to have more expensive problems in healthcare.
iii. Without government involvement in health care, individual insurance providers and doctors tend to do very well economically, but at the same time, the people who depend upon the health care system can find their situation to be a major struggle overall.
B. Summary Sentence: Countries that lack the infrastructure to have involvement of the government in setting overall health policy can see problems with their economy, with the United States being a great example, as the country has lagged behind from an economic perspective because the citizens of the country have spent entirely too much of their money on health, depriving them of the ability to pour their money back into the economy in other, more productive ways.
IV. Body Paragraph #3
A. Topic Sentence: Governments can sometimes use health care policy to help bring about positive economic outcomes over the long-term when they are facing financial pitfalls like recessions or mini-depressions.
i. One of the reasons why the United States passed the Affordable Care Act was the country’s decision that it needed something to help pull it out of the recession that was going on.
ii. Proponents of the policy decided that one of the primary reasons why the country had fallen into a long-term financial pit had to do with the fact that people were not able to spend like they normally would because of their high health care expenditures.
iii. As a result, the Affordable Care Act was crafted, and people were given the opportunity to take advantage of more affordable health options overall. This, in turn, gave them more money to go out and spend in stores, boosting the economy. It also allowed for more investment in things like homes.
iv. Evidence suggests that these kinds of policies, in which people are much more secure in their health situation, allow them the unique ability to invest in homes or put their money into other securities. When they can invest, the country becomes a more fluid machine from an economic perspective.
v. Perhaps most importantly, people who put forward this policy determined that one of the benefits of this kind of healthcare arrangement was the fact that people would be far less likely to go through a bankruptcy or foreclosure as a result of problems with health costs. This made the economy more secure overall, helping out both the individual consumer and the banks, which were in some respects very important to the recess overall.
vi. There are other countries, including Germany and the UK, that have used their health policy in order to help boost the country out of a recession over the long term.
B. Summary Sentence: Countries have, at times, used their health policy in order to bring about a long-term boost to their situations, lifting them out of their problematic recessions and giving them an opportunity to secure prosperity. While the numbers from the US’s new efforts have not yet come in, this was the goal of some people who believed in passing this particular law.
V. Conclusion
A. Recalling the background behind this policy initiative: Discussions of the reasons why governments tend to get involved in health care provision, including a discussion on why it is necessary for governments because of their interests in promoting public health. Discussion of the economic issues that can sometimes come up when governments are having these kinds of discussions.
B. Re-arguing the thesis: An opportunity to re-argue that governments can play a role in changing their economic stars if they are able to get involved in a direct way in health care policy.
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