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Health care in this country sucks. Insurance rates are prohibitively high, making quality care inaccessible. Although programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act have decreased the uninsured population, 26 million Americans remain uninsured. This exacerbates socioeconomic disparities and secures the United States a spot at the bottom of the list for quality, reasonably-priced health care in high-income countries.
The United States spends far more than comparable countries such as Canada, New Zealand, the U.K. and France on health care. Specifically, private and out-of-pocket spending is significantly higher, with private spending being five times that of Canada and out-of-pocket spending over twice that of France and New Zealand. This nightmarish level of spending for access to necessary medical attention is cruel and unusual, to say the least.
These high costs cause many Americans to seek medical care less often than they should, waiting for conditions to worsen before getting help. Not everyone can afford to spend precious dollars on investigating a nagging cough. Money should not be a barrier to receiving necessary care.
Despite high rates of spending, health outcomes in the U.S. are among the worst. The United States has the highest rate of preventable deaths, suicide, obesity and chronic disease among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Unfortunately, it isn’t shocking to add the lowest life expectancy and highest rate of hospitalization for preventable diseases to this list as well. Getting the least bang for your buck is the name of the game in American health care.
These statistics concern mainly white Americans. For African Americans, the numbers are even worse. The uninsured rate for African Americans is almost double that of white Americans, and average spending on health care premiums is almost 20% of the typical household income as opposed to 11% for the average American. Infant and maternal mortality rates are also doubled as compared to whites. The reason behind this comes down to high poverty leading to decreased health care access. Not only are doctor visits unaffordable, but in poverty-stricken areas they are hard to physically come by.
17.1% of African Americans live in poverty while only 8.6% of white Americans are impoverished. This is likely a result of lower education rates in African Americans leading to lower income levels. Unsurprisingly, this correlates with less money to spend on doctor visits and an inability to live in wealthy areas where quality healthcare is readily available.
Clearly, priorities are out of whack when it comes to allocating medical services. Those who need it most have the least access, and oftentimes the system values profitability over saving lives. Doctors are incentivized by high pay to become highly specialized and treat advanced-stage diseases rather than simple nutrition, exercise and primary care that would prove far more practical. Drugs and quick fixes are repeatedly pushed onto patients when simple and equally effective alternatives are available. It is more profitable to keep the public reliant on medication than anything else.
Furthermore, prior authorization policies keep many from being seen by a doctor altogether. Even for insured Americans, not everyone has access to every health care facility. If a certain doctor’s office does not take your insurance, you can be barred from being seen altogether. Someone could walk into urgent care with a broken leg and be sent right back home with no treatment. I’ve seen it happen.
Working at an urgent care, I have seen people turned away for not having certain paperwork or not owning the right insurance to be seen by the facility. People with clearly swollen arms or legs, breaking down in tears from the pain they are experiencing have been told, “there’s nothing we can do.”
Fixing these problems requires a major reform in every facet of the healthcare industry. Some good places to start would be expanding public health insurance to cover the entire population, investing in mobile clinics to cater to underserved areas and incentivizing doctors to do what’s best for their patients without worrying about their pay or job security. As it stands, this system benefits nobody except those who stand to line their pockets from the suffering of others.
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