The healthcare system in America is skewed. I know it, my doctors know it, and privatized healthcare corporations know it, which is why they are able to take advantage of and profit from needier citizens, such as myself.
Recently, I have woken up and become more angry with the way things are for people with disabilities. Promises to make healthcare "affordable" have been made, and promptly thrown out the window. The options citizens have to get proper medical care are extremely limited if they don't make a certain income. Medicare, while a very useful service, has been made extraordinarily hard to get. The only people guaranteed to get this service are those who require kidney treatment. Medicaid is equally as difficult to come by, which begs the question, is this government truly "for the people"?
As many of us already know, Germany, Sweden and Canada all offer free universal healthcare, and are among 11 nations who currently do the same. Many other countries have been offering affordable healthcare for years. Why did it take the United States so long to get aboard?
There's been a lot of skepticism over charts released, comparing United States tax rates on healthcare to other nations. What truly sets America apart is the fact that even though we pay more for healthcare benefits, we aren't guaranteed coverage. We paid more than the United Kingdom, Italy, and New Zealand combined on private healthcare in 2007.
Thanks to Obama's Affordable Care Act, everyone at least gets the opportunity to get health coverage, and some people can get it for $20. Only recently has public healthcare spending exceeded private, and by a small margin. I can only hope that someday our leaders will realize how truly large this issue is, and erase the line between medical care being a 'basic human right' and a 'luxury.'
Although I agree that the healthcare system in the U.S. is skewed, I disagree with comparing America's healthcare to other countries, especially the countries mentioned in this post.
ReplyDelete"As many of us already know, Germany, Sweden and Canada all offer free universal healthcare, and are among 11 nations who currently do the same." This is true. However, these countries are incredibly different than the United States. They can afford giving out free universal healthcare, because they don't have that many people that they are giving it out to. Out of these three examples, Germany has the largest population with 80.62 million people.
What is the United States' population?
318.9 million.
That's 318.9 million people that you want to give universal, free healthcare to.
Another country that has universal healthcare is the UK. My boyfriend is a European citizen that lived in England from 2013-14. He got hit in the head by a golf ball (his fault honestly, what's a person doing walking on a golf course?) and got a doctor's appointment about a week later to see if there was anything wrong with him. The doctor told him nothing was wrong and to check a health website if anything came up. The doctors have a set salary and also get paid much, much less than U.S. doctors, who are known to rack in the dough. (UK doctors make between 80-120,000 while U.S. doctors make between 130K-240K)(2)
I do agree, though. Our health system sucks. Having to wait up to eight hours just to get a check up is draining, but universal health care is not the shining answer we sometimes think it could be.
(1) http://www.infoplease.com/world/statistics/most-populous-countries.html
(2) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/9300823/Most-doctors-are-not-paid-six-figure-sums-figures-show.html