Health care should be a basic right for every American
Comparing the quality, cost and outcomes of health care with other highly-developed nations can prove embarrassing if you are an American. We pay almost double the amount the next highest nation, France, pays for health care and many times more than some other industrialized societies.
But American healthcare representatives respond, “Yes, but for those high costs we get the world’s best health care.” Baloney! By any independent measurement of which
I am aware, just the opposite is true. I invite readers, if they honestly care, to verify this on their own.
I largely discount our low ranking (37th, just below Costa Rica) in a published outdated study by the World Health Organization. Republicans and the AMA claim the WHO is an organ of the dysfunctional United Nations, and maybe so. But the respected American think tank, the Commonwealth Fund, ranks us last in their recent eleven-nation study based on more recent data.
What factors figured into these rankings? Life expectancy and infant mortality, of course. Also considered were healthcare provider responsiveness, access, equity, coverage, and health care outcomes. We ranked last or close to last in these crucial areas. That doesn’t speak well for the world’s wealthiest and most powerful nation. The Commonwealth study indicated the U.S. has the highest costs and the lowest overall performance in the study. Included were Australia, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.
In 2016 we spent $8,364 per person on health care compared to the U.K.’S $4,094; that’s over twice as much. And the U.K. ranked first in overall healthcare performance that year. Of the 11 high-income countries studied, the U.S. is the only one without universal health insurance coverage. But what must we
do to become at least respectable?
First, we must adopt a new philosophy, one that views health care not as a privilege determined by an individual’s income but as a basic right of every American. The rest of the world’s high-performing countries have universal coverage at affordable costs, why can’t we?
We also desperately need to expand and improve our primary care facilities, staffing and coverage. Greater accessibility, including nights and weekends, keeps people healthier and reduces overall healthcare costs in the long run. The emergency rooms being misused today to treat indigents’ routine illnesses are the most inefficient and expensive way to meet this need.
We also rank at the bottom on administration. We can and must reduce the tons of bureaucratic, unnecessary paperwork now choking our healthcare system. The U.S. leads the world in unnecessary time and effort spent in wrangling with the cumbersome, overpriced health insurance companies, mostly in trying to avoid charges or shift them elsewhere. We are also wastefully overburdened with duplicative and unnecessary testing to avoid liability suits.
Better health care outcomes are a must. We rank dead last among industrialized nations in infant mortality, life expectancy and preventable deaths through better access to health care. We have the technology and training to do this, but lack the organization and commitment. We spend the most time on paperwork yet have the poorest overall results.
Then of course, there’s the horrendously out-of-control medical liability fiasco. But that’s another subject for another time.
Health care will again be a major issue in the upcoming presidential campaign. We need to start paying attention now.
George B. Reed Jr., who lives in Rossville, can be reached by email at reed1600@bellsouth.net.