. Indeed, we all have had medical treatments before either it be in a hospital,dentist,pediatrician, etc but many of us never actually get into depth and try to learn a little more about our healthcare in America. While this may seem for many young people a boring topic, I believe it is important to always be informed in order for us to make our own conclusions in many topics of today. In 2016 my older brother got injured on the job. He injured his back and right arm. He had to receive various treatments which were pretty expensive. Up to date he is still paying his treatments but unfortunately not many people are able to pay there expensive medical bills and that is when I decided to investigate and learn a little more about our healthcare system. Today I will explain to you how much as a country we spend on healthcare, our outcomes, and how we compare to other major industrialized nations. Let us start.
First, I will begin to talk about how much as a country we spend on healthcare. It may seem surprising but there is a particular bipartisan agreement between our leaders and that is that U.S healthcare spending is too high. Not only that but it fails to deliver value for money. Today, our healthcare spending accounts for approximately 18% of our gross domestic product (GDP). Next, spending on healthcare has outpaced overall economic growth in the U.S for more than 5 decades. Also, the cost of healthcare in America has greatly exceeded wage growth. From 2001-2016, the cost of health insurance for a family of four has grew from $8,414 to $25,826- a 200% increase. Lets see how we compare.
When we compare to other major industrialized nations on the basis of money spent, we see a huge difference. At nearly 18% of the GDP, we outspend our OECD counterparts by a huge margin. When I say other major industrialized nations I refer to countries such as Switzerland,UK, Germany, etc. So when comparing America to other industrialized nations, on a capita basis, the U.S spends almost twice the average compared to them.
Also, here in America we have the highest prices for medical good,services and labour across all OECD countries. We pay twice as much for medicine compared to other nations. After knowing that we spend twice as much as other major industrialized countries lets see if our outcomes are better.
Spending twice as much in healthcare makes us believe that we might have better outcome than the other countries that spend less but unfortunately this is not the case in a lot of aspects. According to the CIA world factbook we the United States rank 43rd in life expectancy which is lower than the other countries mentioned above, also we rank higher in infant mortality rate, and also we have the highest rates of medical,medication, and lab errors compared to the other nations. Although our current healthcare system has many negative aspects, on some key outcome, the U.S is a true global leader. While we have more heart attacks, per population than most other advanced countries we also are the most likely to survive them, and it is true with strokes too. So to conclude
We have seen how much we spend all together as a nation on healthcare and how we compare to other nations, also we have seen the outcomes and how this too is compared to other nations.So know that you have some facts about our healthcare system let’s all make our own conclusions and try to learn more of this topic.
