Did you know that America spends a lot more money on healthcare than other advanced countries, yet Americans suffer from poorer health and lower life expectancy?
While American healthcare prices are spinning out of control, most Americans even with insurance plans cannot afford to pay for their medical bills. In fact, most bankruptcies in US are to do with medical bills the US population cannot afford to pay, and these are people who already have an insurance plan but their insurance coverage wouldn’t pay for their medical bill.
With all the money Americans spend on healthcare, the US population has poorer health and lower life expectancy than other countries. The opioid crisis has also worsen in the recent years, causing even more death and overdose crisis.
The U.S. spends 18% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare:
Recent study suggests that Americans spend 3.5 trillion dollars on healthcare annually and the healthcare spending has been growing even faster than the economy. Keep in mind that the drug prices are a lot more expensive in America than other countries and while doctors get paid more, hospital services and diagnostic tests also cost a lot more in America.
Americans have also the lowest rate of coverage while millions of Americans cannot afford to pay for a healthcare insurance plan. Lack of cost transparency in our healthcare system, ridiculously high drug prices, and inflated billing are the main indicators on how the US healthcare system is broken.
Keep in mind that 8% of Americans aren’t taking their prescribed medications simply because they cannot afford it and more than 15% of Americans request their doctors to prescribe a different medication that costs less than the original drug prescribed by their doctors.
Our healthcare system is designed to be broken:
It’s true that many people from other countries come to America for medical treatment because our doctors and hospital facilities are exceptional, but these people are the relatively wealthy who can afford to pay for medical treatment abroad.
The fact is that people who can afford a good healthcare plan receive one and a big faction of the society who cannot afford a healthcare plan are simply marginalized.