Essay Sample on US Healthcare System: Unsustainable and Unaffordable

Introduction

The US healthcare delivery system comprises a complex network of organizations. The objective of these institutions is to utilize resources to monitor, maintain, and improve the population's health outcomes. However, US expenditure on healthcare has sharply increased over the past decade and thus raising concerns on its sustainability. The current situation makes medical services unaffordable, especially to low-income families that lack health insurance. In this regard, the present-day healthcare system is technology-focused, has limited access, and governed by a central agency. However, healthcare ought to be a fundamental human right instead of being a privilege. The strategy is necessary to make healthcare services affordable, enhance health equity, promote positive health outcomes, and build a robust healthcare system.

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Healthcare as a Human Right

Access to medical services should be a human right. This strategy is necessary for enhancing health equity in the US, where a significant proportion of low-income families cannot afford medical services. Making healthcare services a privilege, according to Maruthappu, Ologunde, and Gunarajasingam (2013), is not only an injustice to low-income families but also raises concerns on how ethical the system is. Therefore, making healthcare a fundamental right is an approach to get rid of a system that distributes care services unevenly. Maruthappu, Ologunde, and Gunarajasingam (2013) further argued that many US citizens fail to receive medical services that they desperately need because of disparities in the healthcare system.

The government can enhance health outcomes by making healthcare a human right. Its key results are a decline in mortality rates and readmission. Also, it improves patient experience, timeliness, and safety. A study by Wilper et al., (2009) indicated that about 44,800 annual deaths in the US are directly associated with the inability to access medical services. Moreover, the degree of morbidity escalates, where citizens cannot access care services at an early stage of medication. The outcome is the consumption of a higher proportion of healthcare resources, which consequently drives the burden of healthcare provision. The argument, in this perspective, is that the cost of medication is high among low-income families that do not seek healthcare services at an early stage.

While it is beneficial to make care services a fundamental right, some researchers have argued that it leads to over-utilization of healthcare resources (Papadimos, 2007). The argument further goes that high consumption of the underlying resources does not result in measurable gain among individuals seeking such care services. Another difficulty associated with upholding healthcare as a universal right is that it is highly dependent on the country's resources. Thus, it implies that still there would be a disparity in the provision of care services between different classes of people in a community. The solution, according to Papadimos (2007), is to study and implement the factors that encompass a fair system of care services distribution.

How to Improve Public Health Outcomes

The United States has invested a significant proportion of its resources in healthcare. However, it is necessary to implement strategies that enhance public health outcomes in the population. First, improving the affordability and the accessibility of preventive care is critical for improving the nation's health outcomes. The US, in this case, should increase access to affordable checkups, screening to prevent illnesses and counseling to populations. The approach entails the provision of adequate medical facilities and infrastructure that would enable the citizens to prevent diseases and seek care services at an early stage of the disease manifestation.

Secondly, access to nutritious foods has a direct correlation with health outcomes. Such food enables people to prevent chronic diseases besides maintaining a healthy weight. The government, therefore, should control the cost of foodstuff to allow citizens to access affordable and nutritious foods. Also, the authorities should continuously check the quality of food in retail stores besides improving physical access to such facilities. Thirdly, there are needs to implement safe housing strategies. A critical factor that directly impacts on health outcomes is housing designs. As such, the US should legislate on housing designs that prevent overcrowding, injuries, and exposure to adverse atmospheric conditions such as cold and excess sunlight.

Fourthly, authorities should create awareness on factors that promote a safe environment. Some of the approaches are providing citizens with affordable and clean energy as a strategy to improve the quality of air. Schneider (2016) argued that it is necessary to enhance both indoor and outdoor quality of air to promote breathing of clean air. Also, it is essential to improve workplace safety by providing citizens with affordable household disinfectants.

Critique of the Current Healthcare System

The US health delivery system has multiple problems that adversely impact its effectiveness in addressing health-related issues facing American citizens. First, the system is bureaucratic and complex, which makes it difficult to control costs. In 2016, for instance, the US government's expenditure on healthcare was 17.8% of the GDP while that of Switzerland was 12.4% and Australia was 9.6%, respectively (Papanicolas, Woskie, & Jha, 2018). The health outcomes of Switzerland and Australia are significantly higher than that of the US, even if the proportion of their expenditure in healthcare is lower. This scenario suggests that US healthcare is ineffective in promoting healthy living despite having a significant allocation of resources.

Secondly, while 90% of the US population has health insurance, a significant proportion of low-income families do not have it (Papanicolas, Woskie, & Jha, 2018). This aspect is a problem since health insurance in other developed countries such as Australia range 99%-100%. Thirdly, the system lacks central planning, management, and coordination. The other challenges are a high cost of the insurance premium and drug abuse, especially among the youth.

The government, however, can reform the system by consolidating healthcare facilities as a strategy to control costs and improve efficiency. In this case, the in-patient was relatively inexpensive decades ago when the government constructed a significant proportion of hospitals. The recent advancement in medical services has led to a shift of care services to outpatient, and thus, preexisting conditions are no longer efficient. Also, the elimination of perverse fee-for-service payment will address the problem. The approach for reimbursements should depend on hospitals' quality of outcome rather than the volume of services. However, there are also needs to control private health insurance cost to encourage more people to acquire the cover. Medicare should also focus on the care needs among low-income families and societies.

Conclusion

The US has one of the most complex healthcare systems in the world. The government spends a significant proportion of its income to improve care services, but health outcomes are lower than that of other similar developed countries such as Canada, UK, and Australia. However, access to care services should be a fundamental human right. This aspect is necessary to reduce disparities in the delivery of care services to the population. The government can address the issue by expanding Medicare health insurance to low income-families besides controlling the cost of premiums charged by private health insurance companies.

References

Maruthappu, M., Ologunde, R., & Gunarajasingam, A. (2013). Is Health Care a Right? Health Reforms in the USA and their Impact upon the Concept of Care. Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 2(1), 15-17. DOI: 10.1016/s2049-0801(13)70021-9

Papadimos, T. J. (2007). Healthcare access as a right, not a privilege: a construct of Western thought. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 2(1), 2. DOI: 10.1186/1747-5341-2-2

Papanicolas, I., Woskie, L. R., & Jha, A. K. (2018). Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries. JAMA, 319(10), 1024. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2018.1150

Schneider, M. (2016). Introduction to Public Health. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Retrieved 12 July 2019, from http://jbpub.com/9781284089233/FrontMatter.pdf/url/

Wilper, A. P., Woolhandler, S., Lasser, K. E., McCormick, D., Bor, D. H., & Himmelstein, D. U. (2009). Health insurance and mortality in US adults. American journal of public health, 99(12), 2289-2295. Retrieved 12 July 2019, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2775760/url/