Bad outcomes and politicized debates over reform and best practices affect public understanding of the healthcare system. According to Gallup polls, seven out of ten Americans have a pessimistic opinion of our healthcare system. The Affordable Care Act changed some perceptions of the system. Nonetheless, since its implementation, its reviews have remained consistently poor. There are some Controversial Issues in the US Medical Care System. We’ll try to cover a few of them in this article.
1. Poor Public Perceptions
The general view of the health care system is influenced by unpleasant experiences and national debates on legislation and best practice. Seven in ten Americans have a pessimistic opinion of our health care system, according to Gallup surveys. The Affordable Care Act has altered some views of the scheme. However, since its implementation, its reviews have remained consistently poor.
2. Poor Patient Outcomes
Mortality rates have dropped in the US, in line with similar countries over the last few decades. Still, the tolerable mortality rates throughout the country are poor. This metric measures the death rate as it applies to preventable and treatable conditions. Moreover, the burden of illness, which has been losing in years due to injury and premature death, is still high in the US relative to neighboring countries.
3. The Opioid Crisis
Opioid misuse remains one of the biggest issues in the US medical care system. The National Institute for Drug Abuse estimates that 130 people die every day in the US from an overdose of an opioid. This includes prescription analgesics, methamphetamine, fentanyl, and other synthetic narcotics. The economic losses of the recession amounted to $78.5 billion a year. This problem started in the 1990s. At this point, health care providers were not convinced of the addictive adverse effects of prescription opioid painkillers. Then their rates of prescribing rose. 21% to 29% of patients prescribed opioid painkillers for chronic pain misuse them.
4. The Nursing and Physician Shortage
According to the American Association of Nursing Colleges, we need more than 200,000 registered nurses a year by 2026. This would be the product of population growth and aging. Older patients require greater access to care services than younger patients do. But aged doctors and nurses have an effect on the supply. These shortages could prove problematic in terms of access to services. It’s because hospitals are unable to keep up with health demands.
5. Government Changes To Health Care Policies
Health insurance has been a significant subject of discussion in the United States. Rival political parties have conflicting views on how the scheme should be run. And each seeks to pass laws that would reshape the system in their political ideology’s favor. Political health players, such as the insurance and pharmacy industry, expend millions of dollars per year on advocacy campaigns. Which also has an effect on future change. As such, it will be impossible to find long-term solutions to the challenges of our health care system. That is because ideological shifts take place during the execution of every solution.
6. Private Health Insurance and The Lack Of Insurance
Medicine is a major industry in the United States. Expenditures on health insurance, health research and other health goods and facilities have grown dramatically in recent decades. Since 1980, it has risen tenfold. And now, it costs the country more than $2.6 trillion a year. It is the highest number per capita in the developed world. Despite this spending, the United States has lagged behind numerous other developed nations in a number of critical health metrics, as we have already seen. Why is it that way?
The US private health care scheme is a vital cause. As discussed earlier, other Western countries have universal health and health insurance programs. In stark contrast to these countries, the US relies heavily on a direct-fee scheme. In this system, patients under 65 are expected to pay for medical costs themselves, aided by private health insurance, usually through one’s employer.
54% of Americans have health insurance. They either get this from their bosses or through their own money. Approximately 29 percent have any sort of public insurance (Medicaid, Medicare, other public). And 16 percent of them are uninsured. The final number is almost 50 million Americans. This includes 8 million children who are not covered by health care. Their lack of health care has fatal consequences. They are less likely to receive preventive health treatment and care for different diseases and conditions.
7. The High Cost of Health Care
As noted earlier, the US spends a lot of money per capita on health care than any other industrial country. US per capita health spending in 2006 was $7,960.
This figure was nearly 50% higher than that for the next two highest-spending nations, Norway and Switzerland. Also, this is 80% more than Canada’s spending. And that is twice as high as France’s spending, and 2.3 times more than that of the UK. Extensive spending by the US medical care system could be justified if the standard of welfare and health services in that country outstripped that of its peer nations. However, as we have seen, the US medical care system lags behind several of its peer nations in many indices of the quality of health and health services.
8. Racial and Gender Bias In Health Care
Another challenge with the US medical care system is the obvious ethnic and gender bias. Racial profiling appears to be very widespread. African Americans are less likely to have different surgical treatments than whites with the same health conditions. Gender inequality also tends to have an effect on the delivery of healthcare. Women are less likely than men with related health conditions to be referred for particular treatments, drugs, and laboratory testing. These include heart catheterization, lipid-lowering treatment, kidney dialysis or transplantation, etc.
9. Sleep Deprivation Among Healthcare Professionals
As you might know, there are many doctors who get so little sleep. Studies also found that the efficiency of surgeons and medical residents who go without sleep is significantly affected. One research showed that surgeons who have gone without sleep for twenty-four hours had affected their results as much as a drunk driver. Surgeons who sat up all night made 20 percent more simulated surgical mistakes. They also took 14 percent longer to perform the surgery.
10. Mistakes By Hospitals
Hundreds of thousands of hospital patients each year suffer from errors committed by hospital employees. This is partially due to the lack of sleep and the lack of healthcare personnel. Some people may get the wrong diagnosis, the wrong medicine. Also, some may also get a treatment performed to them that was actually meant for someone else. Some patients may have a bacterial infection.
