Some say that the best way to judge the character of a nation is by looking at its healthcare system. The U.S. is known worldwide for being the land of opportunity. The American Dream is built on this idea of everyone having "equal access" to all of the land's wealth and opportunities. But that is not the case when it comes to our health care system. The way we treat our citizens and the people who live here completely differs from our country's ideals. Healthcare here is not equal opportunity and access for all. My own experiences and other factors such as detriments to health and social justice are a testament to this. Overall, this viewpoint opens up the door for a discussion of potential reforms that could be made to the system.
If someone …show more content…
How is everyone supposed to have an equal opportunity to affordable and accessible health care if there are people like me who can barely afford it? There are so many other people who are probably in the same situation as me. You can't win because you're not poor enough to get government assisted health care and you're not rich enough to afford to go to the hospital and to have the coverage you need. So where does that leave us? Stuck trying to figure out how to make the system better for everyone.
Some suggestions include focusing on the determinants of health. There are a good number of determinants that the U.S. deals with. An example would be access to health services. While the law does require, everyone to get health insurance under the Affordable Healthcare Act, there are still many people who lack good health care. Another example would be the countless number of social factors. All of which contribute to poor health such as socioeconomic conditions or availability of resources to meet daily needs. The idea is that if we can account for these determinants of health then we can improve the …show more content…
system go so much deeper than the prior factors. I think we need to change our approach altogether. There are modern countries who don’t spend nearly as much on health care as we do and manage to have better functioning systems than ours. One country that we could learn a lot from would be Germany. They offer a market approach to healthcare in which there are private doctor and private hospitals. They have a negotiated standard for their health care procedures that vary from state to state. The result is a system which covers everyone --- in fact, 90% of Germans choose to stay in the system. What we can learn from Germany is perhaps our healthcare procedures need to have prices that are negotiated so that everyone can afford them. I wouldn’t say for every procedure but probably for the most common health care procedures such as routine checkups. For instance, the last time I had a check-up in the U.S. because I felt very sick, the doctor didn’t find anything wrong with me and still charged me a ridiculous fee for the 30-45 minute visit. Another country we could learn something from is Great Britain. They have a system which is ran by the government, which means all the hospitals are government funded and the doctors are essentially public employees. The pros of the system is how their people have no medical bills and no medical bankruptcy. One tactic from Great Britain which I feel can be copied in the U.S. is their
If someone …show more content…
How is everyone supposed to have an equal opportunity to affordable and accessible health care if there are people like me who can barely afford it? There are so many other people who are probably in the same situation as me. You can't win because you're not poor enough to get government assisted health care and you're not rich enough to afford to go to the hospital and to have the coverage you need. So where does that leave us? Stuck trying to figure out how to make the system better for everyone.
Some suggestions include focusing on the determinants of health. There are a good number of determinants that the U.S. deals with. An example would be access to health services. While the law does require, everyone to get health insurance under the Affordable Healthcare Act, there are still many people who lack good health care. Another example would be the countless number of social factors. All of which contribute to poor health such as socioeconomic conditions or availability of resources to meet daily needs. The idea is that if we can account for these determinants of health then we can improve the …show more content…
system go so much deeper than the prior factors. I think we need to change our approach altogether. There are modern countries who don’t spend nearly as much on health care as we do and manage to have better functioning systems than ours. One country that we could learn a lot from would be Germany. They offer a market approach to healthcare in which there are private doctor and private hospitals. They have a negotiated standard for their health care procedures that vary from state to state. The result is a system which covers everyone --- in fact, 90% of Germans choose to stay in the system. What we can learn from Germany is perhaps our healthcare procedures need to have prices that are negotiated so that everyone can afford them. I wouldn’t say for every procedure but probably for the most common health care procedures such as routine checkups. For instance, the last time I had a check-up in the U.S. because I felt very sick, the doctor didn’t find anything wrong with me and still charged me a ridiculous fee for the 30-45 minute visit. Another country we could learn something from is Great Britain. They have a system which is ran by the government, which means all the hospitals are government funded and the doctors are essentially public employees. The pros of the system is how their people have no medical bills and no medical bankruptcy. One tactic from Great Britain which I feel can be copied in the U.S. is their