Text 1: Health Care System in the USA

Health Services in the USA

Лабораторная работа

по английскому языку

длястудентов IV курса Восточного института

Владивосток

Издательство Дальневосточного университета

ББК81.2

УДК 802. 0: 910 (076.5)

Данная лабораторная работа предназначена для студентов IV курса и является продолжением вышедшей в 1999 году работы «Здравоохранение в Великобритании». Целью данной работы является овладение студентами лексики по данной теме. Комплекс упражнений, представленных в работе, способствует активному усвоению лексики, расширяет словарный запас, закрепляет навыки устной речи и обеспечивает их дальнейшее развитие.

Подготовлена на кафедре английского языка Восточного института ДВГУ.

Составители: Н.Г.Зверева, В.В.Горбенко, И.В.Нагиба, О.И. Сурожская.

Печатается по решению учебно-методического совета ДВГУ.

© Издательство Дальневосточного института, 2001

Introductory Text

In the final decades of the 20 century, Americans increasingly view good health as something to which they have a right. They believe they have a right to good health because widespread advances in medical research have made it possible to treat many previously "untreatable" diseases, and because the constitutional responsibility of the American government to "promote the general Welfare" is far more broadly interpreted today than it has been in the past. These rising expectations regarding health care in the United States are a result of vastly increased medical knowledge; and the belief that in an affluent and democratic society all people should have access to well-trained physicians, fully equipped hospitals and highly sophisticated procedures for the treatment of disease.

Text 1: Health Care System in the USA

The United States today has evolved a mixed system of private and government responsibility for health care. While private citizens and health insurance companies spent about 230 thousand million dollars on health care in 1986, federal, state and local governments spent 179 thousand million dollars for medical services of all kinds. Public funds financed much of the research on the artificial heart, but it was a private corporation, Humana, which paid for artificial heart surgery and patient care. This interchange between the public and private sectors is typical of how the United States provides many kinds of health and medical services.

How do most Americans pay their medical bills? For the vast majority, the answer is medical insurance. About five out of every six workers, along with their families, are covered by group health insurance plans, paid for jointly by the employer and employee or by the employee alone. Under the most common type of health plan, the individual pays a monthly premium, or fee. Typically, employees who wish more extensive medical coverage will choose a plan requiring higher premiums.

In return, the insurance company covers most major medical costs, except for a minimum amount, called the "deductible", which the employee pays each year before insurance coverage begins. Benefits then cover a certain percentage, often 80 percent, of the patient's bills in excess of the deductible. Some policies provide that after the employee's bills have reached a certain amount, the insurer covers 100 percent of all additional costs.

Depending on the plan, deductible amounts on most health insurance policies range from $50 to $300. Insurance plans vary considerably, with some offering coverage for dental costs and others providing for mental health counseling and therapy.

Another type of health care plan available to many workers is a Health Maintenance organization (HMO). An HMO is staffed by a group of physicians who agree to provide all of an individual's medical care for a set fee paid in advance. HMOs emphasize preventive health care, since the organization loses money rather then gaining fees when it is necessary to prescribe treatment or place someone in the hospital. For this reason, medical experts generally credit HMOs with helping to hold down overall medical costs. In 1987, about 660 HMOs served about 29 million people.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16