Soc 490: U.S. Hospitals and American Health

It seems that there are many reasons for why people from all over the world would want to come to U.S. hospitals such as the Cleveland Clinic. They may have a rare disease, they may be on a waiting list in their own nation, or maybe they are just wealthy enough to afford the expense of being treated in the U.S. Whatever the reason is, there are many people who want to be seen in U.S. hospitals to be made healthy again. However, there is somewhat of a paradox here. While people do come from all over the world to be treated in American hospitals, large portions of the American population remain unhealthy or untreated and as a result the U.S. lags behind some other nations in health care status even though we have some of the best hospitals.

Certain hospitals and procedures are financially out of reach for some Americans who do not have adequate health coverage. In the article, “The U.S. Health Care System Needs to Change” the author, Ben Furnas said, “Since 1994, the cost per person of American health care has more than doubled…fueled by rising costs of prescription drugs, inefficient outpatient care, expensive and unnecessary medical procedures, and ballooning insurance premiums, these costs are a burden on state and federal governments, businesses, and families” (23). Even though we may have some of the best hospitals in the world many cannot get access to them.

In an article written by Clark Newhall called “Too Many People Do Not Have Health Insurance” he stated, “We don’t have a health care problem. We don’t have a health care crisis. What we have is a health care famine”(36). What he means by a health care famine is that the opportunity for coverage is available, but not enough people are able to afford it and therefore use it. In class we brought up the issues that people have when it comes to the possibility of the government regulating and distributing healthcare. However we also discussed how health care was already regulated and distributed, it is just done by health insurance companies. They are able to either approve or deny procedures or medications based on their discretion; however by denying preventative care measures in the present, a person may need more expensive treatments in the future if they do end up becoming sick. This ends up costing the insurance company and the patient more money at a later time.

Sometimes people bring up this point: they say that the American lifestyle is a very unhealthy one compared to other nations especially when it comes to nutrition. There may be some validity to this; it would be in everyone’s best interest to eat better, exercise more and generally avoid the things that are bad for us. I will not argue against this. However, this cannot be the only point with which someone can argue. When comparing the U.S. to other nations that have adopted some sort of universal healthcare system, our health numbers fall behind in things such as life expectancy, newborn infant mortality rates, and others. This cannot all be due to lifestyle differences. The difference is that more people, in the nations that we fall behind to, have access to affordable healthcare.

Despite the fact that the U.S. has some of the best hospitals in the world and people come from all over the world to use them, our population is not overall the healthiest. Many do not have adequate coverage or any coverage at all. Some of our own best hospitals are not financially available for some Americans to use.