Is it possible to reform the U.S healthcare system? by Alfredo Serrano

Alfredo Serrano

Ms. Kulich

POP-20SMU-GVT-180-D

10 August 2020

Blog Post: #2

Is it possible to reform the U.S healthcare system?

At the beginning of March, the U.S was shaken amid the ongoing global pandemic that we are still experiencing nowadays known as COVID-19. Unexpectedly, the U.S healthcare system found itself on the first line of defense, with the state of New York becoming the national epicenter of the disease. COVID-19 has swept across the U.S and has ravaged the country’s healthcare, even having a budget of $175 billion, many hospitals have experienced shortages on resources to the point of facing the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans due to this shortage.

The question now is not if the U.S could have or can manage the situation differently; the question is if there’s a possibility of reform the U.S healthcare system for good?

I believe we can all certainly agree with the fact that healthcare on the U.S is a good service, but an expensive one. It’s no joke that not every citizen has the resources or wealth to pay for an insurance or to pay the deductible for a tore ACL. Healthcare in America supposes a big problem when it comes to the standard citizen in terms of monthly or annual costs… Thinking of the fact that the average income for an American worker is about $47,000 while the average hospital bill rounds about $10,000 tell you everything to know, can Americans afford a 1^st need expense that can blow away a third of a person’s annual income? The answer is NO.

Amid the COVID-19 outbreak we might have to rethink about how healthcare might look like in the future and if a reform could be possible, some of the lessons that this pandemic has brought are interesting like how the U.S should expand the concept of a healthcare, the pandemic has obviously created an spike on this necessity, and every available personnel has been dedicated to the solely mission of stopping the outbreak on the patients, even fourth-year medical students were offered an early graduation in order to join the front lines and therefore, expand the capacity. Even though it’s logical that this need will reduce as soon as the pandemic ends, the numerous future issues that will remain after the pandemic will raise again the question of how the U.S healthcare system can capitalize on its ability to expand the clinical workforce in this crisis to create a future workforce needed to address the future medic and social needs of COVID patients.

For that, it is obvious that a reform on healthcare is needed. Why can’t the U.S propose a healthcare system following Europe’s guidelines? Let’s put Spain for example (Which is my native country), which has one of the best social security and healthcare systems of Europe. In Spain, healthcare is free and is part of the social security. The only con is that it’s paid with the inhabitant’s taxes; instead of devoting a part of taxes to maintain other social topics we have free healthcare in exchange, which obviously is provided to everyone freely. This gives access to every single inhabitant to a free healthcare… Isn’t this utopic?

Obviously, the U.S will need first a change of mentality in order to assess this idea, certainly not every citizen will be in favor of paying other’s people healthcare through their taxes; but if there’s a country that needs free healthcare… It’s the U.S.

REFERENCES

Huckman, R. (2020, June 19). What Will U.S. Health Care Look Like After the Pandemic? Retrieved August 10, 2020, from https://hbr.org/2020/04/what-will-u-s-health-care-look-like-after-the-pandemic

Scott, D. (2020, April 15). How the Covid-19 pandemic will leave its mark on US health care. Retrieved August 10, 2020, from https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2020/4/15/21211905/coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-medical-health-care-hospitals

Laret, M., & Skorton, D. (2020, June 09). Coronavirus exposed cracks in U.S. health care. Here are 5 ideas to fix the system. Retrieved August 10, 2020, from https://eu.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/06/09/5-ideas-to-fix-u-s-health-care-in-response-to-coronavirus-column/5317755002/

Hook, L. (2020, April 30). How coronavirus broke America’s healthcare system. Retrieved August 10, 2020, from https://www.ft.com/content/3bbb4f7c-890e-11ea-a01c-a28a3e3fbd33