Americans spend money on health care to increase the quality and the quantity of their lives. This is done to improve their life and perhaps to prevent death from occurring for as long as possible, to give them more time to stay away from the unknown that they fear. Americans can be thought of as selfish because they spend so much on health care which will only benefit the privileged, when they could spend less on prevention strategies and behaviors to increase the health of the whole population. In the U.S. health care is split between public providers , private nonprofit providers , and private for profit providers . The majority of Americans get their health care through their employers.
Many employers use some form of managed care.
Managed care is when a large insurance company insures a large group of people. Managed care companies promise an employer to insure his employees for a set fee. These fee s are set by performing an estimate, called a capitation , on what the employees will spend on health care. The estimate is determined by looking at previous expenditures of the employees and comparison groups on health care. In order for the Managed Care Company to make a profit they must make an accurate estimate.