One of the biggest topics in the news and the presidential race today is about the failing healthcare system in the United States. At Afia we strive to have universal, integrated healthcare coverage and healthcare parity throughout the United States and the world. The burden the current U.S. healthcare system generates is enormous and Life threatening.
- 54% of all bankruptcies are directly caused by medical expenses that cannot be paid.
- The average family premium for medical “coverage” is $12,000 annually, almost the full annual earnings of minimum wage workers.
- 18,000 people per year die in the U.S. because they do not have adequate health coverage.
- 40% of our health related costs (a total of $2,400 per year per citizen) go toward “administrative overhead”.
Why is this acceptable? Why is this okay? This isn’t the kind of world I want to live in and this is NOT acceptable to me. The U.S. was ranked 1st in healthcare spending and 37th in the world in overall quality of health care. Why are we not getting the return on our investment? The reason is that when you average out numbers like “healthcare costs/year”, you lose a very important fact – millions of people are not getting any care at all (or only receiving emergency care). If you are well covered in America, the system really is one of the best in the world. If you are not covered, the system only exists when an illness is so bad that you go to the E.R. (driving costs even higher). The people without care are not happy with the system. They are the ones dying younger, with higher infant mortality rates, and are more frequently disabled. I don’t believe that only the wealthy and well-connected people should survive and get the best care.
I believe healthcare is a right and should be provided to all people. Especially children and older adults, there is no excuse for them not being covered. Universal healthcare is as simple as that – Do you believe that every person should have access to quality, preventative, integrated care or not? Period. How it gets implemented is another challenging question, but admitting we have a problem is the first step. We have to first agree that we need to cover everyone (i.e. universal care) before we can decide to do something about it. These will be challenging and exciting times and we will have to work effectively with everyone to help the people fit the technology and help the technology fit the people. My advice to you:
- Demand a better healthcare system for everyone!
- Demand that your government and your healthcare providers use their financial resources effectively and appropriately
- Seek out providers who are willing to challenge the status quo, and to make difficult changes on behalf of their patients!