HEALTHCARE: A SYSTEM FOCUSED ON OUR WEALTH AND NOT OUR HEALTH
Healthcare and its corelating benefits and issues is a popular topic that is discussed nearly daily today. However, though it may be discussed that does not equate to improvements being established to our current system.
In the reading “This American For-Profit Healthcare System Would Just as Soon Kill You as Look at You” there is a statement by the editor, Richard Eskow, that proceeds as follows: “To this system, it doesn’t matter whether a person lives or dies as long as it gets paid. That’s why our healthcare costs are so high, even though our life expectancy is so low.” These were the initial words to begin the reading and they set the tone and concept for the entirety of the article. Today, regardless of the circumstance, situation, topic, etc., money seems to reign overall. It seems to reign so highly, in fact, that there is a price for essentially anything one can think of, even our own humane lives. It is quite astonishing that one’s life can be priced as each of our lives are priceless. There is no amount of money that could simply spawn life (human), or at least not currently, so to be able to in turn put a price on one’s life sounds quite corrupt if you ask me.
This is yet another scenario where the rich trump the poor as it all comes down to financials. Healthcare today, specifically in America, is so expensive that there are continuous cases of families having to decide between spending the money to save a loved one’s life or having to pull the plug simply because they are not able to provide enough slips of paper in exchange of a life being saved. With this said some may view the COVID-19 pandemic as a gold mine for the health industry bringing in millions if not billions of dollars while on the other hand the individuals paying these insane amounts receiving poor to essentially no treatment due to lack of assistance and other factors.
Another significant concern is the statistic that individuals without health insurance are at a greater risk of death than those with health insurance. Now of course there are several reasons why health insurance is required, etc., however, if an uninsured individual were to approach a hospital with life-threatening injuries in need of immediate assistance can we humans morally and ethically deny assistance due to a lack of insurance? Now I understand that if every individual without insurance were assisted regardless and the financials were dealt with later it would cause confusion and potential financial losses ultimately. Though that is my entire point. Everything in this “beautifully humane” world returns to the root of all our problems: money.
According to an informative program titled “Health Insurance and Years of Life Lost 2019–2020” it is stated that “in April 2020, the uninsured rate increased to 26.3% for those who were recently unemployed (American Journal of Nursing, 2020).” This is an alarming statistic because as we all understand without insurance receiving aid, let alone proper aid, is merely impossible. There was a calculation done, YPLL (Years of Potential Life Lost), to calculate how many years of lives have been lost in Hendry Country due to early mortality and this number came out to be an outstanding 1238 years of life lost over time. To put this into perspective, the average human life expectancy is around 77.28 years in America. So, from the total 1238 years calculated from this one minuscule county that is statistically 16 full human lives that were lost. Viewed in a wide scale perspective these numbers add up to countless number of “individuals” who essentially never existed.
So, to put it bluntly, our healthcare system instead of being a beneficial, life enriching system is rather a money mongering, fatal institution. It is saddening to see as life is what allows us to do what we do. It is what allows me to type these words you are currently reading and the fact that there is supposedly a healthcare system that was established for our well being yet in fact tends to do the opposite causes me to fear the world we live in along with what the future could possibly hold.
What method or revisions do you believe would be beneficial and impactful in creating a healthcare system that worries about nothing else besides the well being of our lives? Do you believe the system is perfectly fine as is? Why? If not, then what are your personal biases on the situation for why you believe so?
Our health is our number one priority above all. It takes precedence over our jobs, education, even paying our bills and it should be the same for the healthcare system we deal with today. Nowhere in the term Healthcare do I observe any reference toward money, however it appears that this is the focus of this “revolutionary” system. I hope you gained a bit of insight into this significant concern and potentially realized the full value of your life. It is not to be toyed with and it is not to be wasted. Live each moment to the fullest and fearless of the outcome because one day there may be no day, but on that day, you will realize this fact to late so it is on ourselves to appreciate each breathe we take, each step we make, and even each dollar we acquire.
Live on and live happily, have a spectacular day my fellow life bearer :)
