President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney both agree that the health care system has problems, but each candidate has his own ideas on how to improve the system.

Health care reform is a complicated issue and a high-priority topic in the presidential election.

Laura Dague, a professor at the Bush School who specializes in health care policy, said Americans need to understand the problems of the health care system to evaluate the candidates plans.

There are really two big issues that the U.S. faces with respect to health care policy, Dague said. One of them is that we have a lot of people who do not have access to the health care system. The second problem is that costs of health care are increasing at a high rate.

Dague said customers who want insurance the most are also those who need it the most, so they will be the most expensive to insure. This problem is called adverse selection and is one contributing factor to why it is expensive to buy insurance on the individual market.

Economic policy says we can make it cheaper, require it or give it away, Dague said. Unfortunately, the cost problem is really hard to fix.

Dague said part of the problem with the high cost of health care comes from uninsured people who cant pay hospital bills and the hospital having to cover the cost.

The idea is that somebody has to pay for people who get sick when they are uninsured, Dague said.

Public emergency rooms have to treat anyone who walks in the door. When uninsured people cannot pay for care, the hospital or a charity organization gets stuck with the bill, Dague said.

The Affordable Care Act, referred to as Obamacare, is the Obama administrations health care plan that has been initiated.

Go here to read the rest:

Presidential candidate’s polarized positions culminate on health care