The Price of Health
To be healthy in America, you must have money. The high cost of health insurance is negatively affecting a majority of our citizens, even with the Affordable Healthcare Act, we are still leaving many Americans behind. According to the article, Americans with Healthcare Costs, “About half of U.S. adults say they have difficulty affording health care costs” (Montero, et al. 2022) People are not seeking medical help when needed, leading to worsening conditions, high-cost emergency room visits and even death.
Medication cost is also a great concern, most insurance companies have separated healthcare cost and medication cost, meaning people have to pay for separate plans to be covered for both. Then of course the cost of medication itself in this country is astronomical. According to Bloomberg, “Americans spend more on prescription drugs -- average costs are about $1,300 per person per year -- than anyone else in the world. The median launch price of a new drug in the US in 2021 was $180,000 for a year’s supply” (Bloomberg 2022). Drug companies in this country hold a lot of power which makes it easy for them to set high prices and receive enormous profits.
During the COVID-19 pandemic a majority of insurance companies waved COVID-19 related fees. That was appreciated by those who have insurance, but it as it turns out, it was not a free gift as Insurance premiums are rising because of it. In the article, Why Are Americans Paying More for Healthcare, they state, “The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the trend in rising healthcare costs. In 2020, the year-over-year increase in national healthcare costs as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) was over 2 percentage points — the largest increase since 1960” (Peterson 2022). People with insurance are now paying for the COVID-19 waivers that were given over the last three years and those without insurance who needed COVID-19 related care (aside from vaccines and government issued tests) racked up hefty health care bills.
The best way, but by far the most difficult, would be for America to implement a universal healthcare plan. Other countries are having much success with Universal healthcare and are medically taking care of all of their citizens. As the World Bank website states, “Universal health coverage (UHC) is about ensuring that people have access to the health care they need without suffering financial hardship” (UHC 2022). Unfortunately, taking care of its people is not high enough on America’s priority list, or at least not a high priority to those who have the majority of power.
We would have a much healthier country, literally and figuratively, if we had a healthcare system that didn’t leave anybody behind. Our homeless population desperately needs medical and mental health care, but there are not enough systems put into place to take care of them. I believe a universal healthcare system could possibly prevent homelessness in many cases. If people can get the medical/mental help they need before they reach the point of having no choice but to live on the street, it could be avoided altogether.
Healthcare has always been a major topic in government and there have been strides to make things better, but we are still so far off from having a fair health care system, it is still a privilege and not a right. The American College of Physicians puts it in perspective, “our country’s current pluralistic system without universal healthcare coverage is unacceptable and puts us behind other countries” (Tanne, 2007). The college offers a solution of a single payer plan and a pluralistic system, but the problem isn’t a lack of solutions, the problem is getting the solutions enacted into law. The underdogs (the middle class and below) need to be louder than the top dogs (the ruling class) in order to be heard enough to make changes. A major movement may help people be heard, but people have been shouting about America’s broken healthcare systems for decades and it has been falling on deaf ears, powerful deaf ears. The best way to get things done in government is to have enough people in government seats that will vote for a universal health care system, which means the best thing we can do is vote.