America is Failing its Citizens: How A Basketball Accident Opened My Eyes to Harsh Realities
Erika Pietrzak (PPS ‘25)
In January, my head split open after hitting a wall while playing basketball. My friends rushed to get paper towels to stop the bleeding while one stayed behind and asked if he should call an ambulance. After I replied yes, he said “Are you sure? They’re really expensive. Do you want me to call someone to drive you?” I have insurance, yet I still hesitated to call an ambulance while blood poured from my forehead. I now regret calling an ambulance because it took 40 minutes to get to me (2 miles from the hospital) and cost thousands. The person meeting me at the hospital even beat me there after playing a round of video games and preparing an overnight bag. After giving me morphine, my gash still looking like a bullet wound, I was asked how I would like to pay.
America’s denial of universal healthcare is a denial of human rights. The United States is currently ranked 29th globally in the Healthcare Access and Quality Index, receiving a score of 89 out of 100, lower than the majority of other similar nations. The lack of health insurance costs America 200 billion USD per year. Consequently, medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US. 33% of Americans with medical bills reported being “unable to pay for basic necessities like food, heat, or housing” in 2017. Thousands of dollars for an ambulance ride and morphine is not available to everyone, even when they need it.
In 2020, US citizens ranked healthcare as their number one voting priority, yet 8.6% of the population was uninsured. This number is only growing as it stood at 16% of the population in 2021. As a result, our healthcare system disproportionately fails lower-income individuals. Low-income, uninsured patients with diabetes are more likely to die and are responsible for 55% more emergency room visits than those with insurance. Moreover, low-income individuals are more likely to be obese, which costs 66 billion USD annually in lost productivity.
The primary prevention for Americans from accessing health care services is the absurdly high cost. The lack of health insurance contributes to 30–90 thousand deaths yearly. Given this, it’s no surprise that the US has one of the lowest overall life expectancies of comparable nations. When a person hesitates to call an ambulance, as I did, it could mean the difference between living and dying, something that should not be left up to the cost of a ride to the hospital.
COVID-19 has only made access to healthcare worse. 9 million Americans lost their insurance due to COVID-19 closing businesses and forcing layoffs. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA estimated that “from the pandemic’s beginning until mid-March 2022, universal health care could have saved more than 338,000 lives from COVID alone” and more than $100 billion. This would equate to over $400 billion saved in a non-COVID year.
A recent proposal, which should be seriously considered, recommended a 7.5% payroll tax and 4% income tax for all Americans and increased taxes for higher-income Americans. This would dramatically change access to medicine. In fact, investing just 10 USD per person annually could save more than 16 billion USD in just five years. A “single-payer health care would… save more than 68,000 lives and 1.73 million life-years every year.” Researchers at the Yale School of Public Health concluded that universal healthcare “is likely to lead to a 13% savings in national healthcare expenditure, equivalent to more than US$450 billion annually.” 63% of American adults believe that the government “has the responsibility to provide health care coverage for all,” so why don’t we?
Many argue about how America would not be able to implement universal healthcare due to our size, but universal healthcare is not an overnight change. In states like Germany and New Zealand, it took decades to formulate their current systems. Universal healthcare would save the American system both money and lives. Universal Healthcare doesn’t mean only one type of healthcare, as we see in the choices given to Danish citizens. Without taking away any freedoms, we can change the future of our country and save the lives of millions of poor and innocent people. Nobody should be questioning if their injury is absolutely necessary for calling an ambulance and risking their safety for their financial benefit. There should not be a question between needed care and saving money.
Erika Pietrzak (PPS ‘25) is from Potomac, MD and an Undergraduate at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. This piece was submitted as an op-ed in the Spring ‘23 PUBPOL 301 course. This content does not represent the official or unofficial views of the Sanford School, Polis, Duke University, or any entity or individual other than the author.
