What makes a good health-care system, and how do we know if a health-care system is performing well in a country? These questions, the subject of public debate in most countries in the world, are especially important in the United States.

Paying for and improving health-care for all Americans is a key issue in the political playing field today in the U.S. Health-care systems are not just concerned with treating people’s’ illnesses but also improving people`s health and protecting against the financial cost of illness.

In the U.S., health care is big business and a difficult and costly proposition for many Americans. With the introduction of the Affordable Care Act in March 2010, the U.S. moved into a new era of universal health-care. The Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare joined the other U.S. health programs, Medicaid, The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Medicare.
According to medicaid.gov, a source that details the wide array of health-care policies and programs in the U.S., the Affordable Care Act provides Americans with health security by putting in place complete health-insurance reforms that will expand protection, hold insurance companies responsible, reduce health-care costs, and promise an amazing quality of care for all Americans.

Beginning in the 1980s, Medicaid and CHIP provide Americans health protection including half of all low-income children in the United States. In many states, families with higher incomes can still qualify for health protection for their children. Medicare is a health care program that provides health protection for people who are 65 or older, and also for people with disabilities.

While these policies are key facets of the U.S. health-care system, some see the newest policy, the Affordable Care Act, as a poor solution. One key person who has criticized the plan is Dr. Ben Carson. Dr. Carson was raised in a poor neighborhood by a single mother, yet he made it to be a doctor.

According a Washington Times article, Dr. Carson thinks the best way to provide good health-care to patients is through a health-care savings account. Therefore, patients will control their own account. Dr. Carson also thinks that, if the federal government provided such an account for every American citizen that was increased by $2000 in their account each year, then everyone would be covered.

Dr. Carson states “that would also be possible for them to pass their health-care accounts within family so that, in the future, families would accumulate a large amount of savings, so the government obligation would be smaller in their lives.” In his opinion, Obamacare is not an effective way to provide good health-care for it might not only affect the poor but also everyone else.