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America’s S***ty Healthcare

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Jacob Francy, 26

If America is said to be the “greatest” nation on Earth, why is one of the biggest problems historically for citizens access to healthcare?


History:

Following the passing of the Stabilization Act of 1942 under President Franklin Roosevelt, many employers who couldn’t provide higher salaries to keep employees or attract new ones began to offer insurance plans. They included healthcare packages as a benefit, which began the practice of employer-sponsored health insurance, almost a social norm in the work culture of today. The Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 encouraged the development of managed care as medicine quickly evolved. In the 21st century, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) under President Barack Obama was passed in 2010, expanding healthcare coverage to millions of uninsured Americans and reforming the system to improve quality and reduce costs.


America's Health:

Every year there are over 30 million hospital visits. Over 10% of the population has at least one hospital stay, with an average of $15,000 per stay.


In 2017, a group plan via an employer was the most common way Americans acquired health insurance with over 150 million people. Medicaid covered 70 million, Medicare covered 50 million, and health exchanges by the ACA covered 17 million people. That same year, it was reported the remaining 28.5 million people, accounting for almost 10% of the country, did not have health insurance. Of those 28.5 million, ¾ were below 200% of the federal poverty level, making it obvious that healthcare still has an income gap.


A large factor in healthcare access has been whether a state has adopted Medicaid expansion under the ACA, which averages a 60% increase in the ability of citizens to afford healthcare. The ten states without Medicaid expansion (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming) are all at the bottom of the country’s healthcare access and quality.


Although Medicaid expansion requires trillions of dollars nationally, it is still the most cost-effective policy with regard to mortality. Medicaid costs the public around $700,000 per life saved compared to other public policies which have cost $7.6 million per life saved.


Healthcare access and quality are important, however, medical debt accounts for half of all personal bankruptcies and ⅔ of bankruptcy filers claim “high medical expenses”. Plus, a quarter of all seniors declare bankruptcy due to “medical expenses”.


America vs the World:

In 2021, the average U.S. life expectancy was 76.4 years, keeping in mind the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects. This ranks the United States 42nd out of 224 nations and 22nd out of the major 35 countries. Other citizens of countries like Japan and Switzerland average almost 84 years of age. America ranked one of the worst under-five child mortality rates among major countries with 6.5 deaths per 1000 births.


A Better Solution: Universal Heallthcare:

While America has done its best with the current healthcare system, it may be time to start from scratch. Medical debt and loopholes have made 40% of below-average-income Americans not trust or choose not to go to the doctor when injured or in pain. By creating one universal healthcare program, there could be one payroll tax instead of multiple taxes on citizens, saving Americans more while generating greater revenue by cutting more costs of extra healthcare programs. Being the only major country without such access to healthcare is embarrassing and shows how little capitalism cares about the citizens’ livelihoods. It should be one government program paid for by one tax to take care of the entire population no matter their socioeconomic status. Based on every other major country’s healthcare statistics, it definitely works better than ours.

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