Analysis of the Major Challenges in the US
The society that we live in today is constantly changing and evolving. When situations begin to change, problems start occurring. Today’s constantly changing society causes the United States to face many major challenges such as health care, immigration, and debt.
Health care has been around since the late 1800s; back in this time fame, there was not an organized structure of any kind, everything was done on a trial and error basis. Over time the system become more organized and complex. Before the 1920s there were proposals of health care insurance from private sectors, however, nothing ever got passed due to the contract in beliefs from the different sectors. In the 1920s, health care insurance became a big debate because hospitals and physicians started charging more than average citizens could afford. After the 1930s, most people agreed it was time for the government to take control and create a health care program(“PNHP”). The next big debate was centered around the question of who this health care program would cover; this question still has not been answered, and the debate about solutions is still going on today.
Due to ever-increasing costs, providing affordable health care to all Americans is one of the most daunting challenges facing our lawmakers. The price of health care in the United States is already double what it is for a single person in other countries. An explanation of this would be that 30% of all medical costs are due to medical errors and unnecessary testing. There are numerous examples of unnecessary hospital charges and nonessential referrals and testing that go into making the cost of healthcare completely unaffordable to average citizens. With health care being outrageously overpriced and insurance companies only paying, if any, a small set amount, this leaves lower-income citizens in major debt. This is the challenge that the government needs to take control of; the government needs to find a way to make health care affordable for everyone.
An additional major challenge that the United States is facing is immigration. The present immigration law is very complex; therefore, many questions occur about how it works. The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) controls the current immigration policy that makes most of the decisions. The immigration policy provides an annual limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants to enter the United States, with exceptions for close family members. The people who are lawful permanent immigrants can obtain or apply for just about any job and are still allowed to remain in the United States if they become unemployed. Immigration is based upon reuniting families, allowing immigrants with skills that are valuable to the economy to enter, protecting refugees, and overall just supporting diversity.
Immigration has become a major challenge in the United States because there are more than 10 million undocumented illegal immigrants in the United States. With this many people illegally entering our county, it shows us just how dangerous and unprotected our borders really are. Even the illegal immigrants that cross over and pose no direct threat on our safety still cause danger to our country. These undocumented immigrants, regardless if they pose a threat or not, still distract resources and effectively create a cover for terrorists and criminals. Overall, immigration is definitely a challenge that the United States is facing today. This challenge needs to be handled as soon as possible for the safety of the country.
Another major challenge the United States is facing today is the national debt. As of right now, the United States is $22 trillion in national debt; this number continues to climb from year to year. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), America will continue to spend more money than the country acquires, resulting in a 9% increase of the national debt by the year 2026. This number is only the amount of money the government has borrowed; this number does not include the amount of money the government has obligated to spend in upcoming years.
There are many solutions that the government could consider in order to lower our nation’s national debt, or at the very least, stop inflation. One of these is to stop the excess spending. The government should control the habit of spending billions of dollars on programs that are not necessary to the government. Secondly, the government could allow the American people to take control of the biggest programs in the budget, such as health care. By allowing the American people or private sectors to come in and take control of these programs, we might see a different and more productive perspective of spending.
There are many actions that the United States Chamber of Commerce is taking to help with these major challenges, such as the challenge of making health care more affordable, accessible, and overall more reliable for all Americans. The Chamber is trying to promote the place of the private sector as the solution. This will help control cost, expand access, and improve the quality of American health care. For the challenge of immigration, the Chamber is taking charge of the commonsense reforms. These include green card reforms, access to temporary worker programs, a national employment verification system, improvement to law enforcement to protect borders, and lastly a fair process for the undocumented immigrants already in America. For the debt challenge, the Chamber is calling for government reforms that will decrease spending for years to come and help with lowering the overall national debt.
All in all, America has many challenges, and these are just a few of the pressing problems that the United States faces. In today’s constantly changing society, the United States has done a good job of keeping policies up to date, and in time, these challenges will be handled in the correct way. There are always going to change that lead to challenges, even for the United States of America.
