A 2015 Commonwealth Fund brief showed that — before the major provisions of the Affordable Care Act were introduced — the United States had worse outcomes and spent more on health care, primarily because of greater use of medical technology and higher prices, compared to other high-income countries. The United States ranks last overall, despite spending far more of its gross domestic product on health care. The U.S. ranks last on access to care, administrative efficiency, equity, and health care outcomes but second on care process measures.
Category Archive: Cost of healthcare in the U.S.
The value of health literacy extends far beyond the boundaries of COVID-19. Education leads to fact-based empowerment, and an educated healthcare consumer can be a potent change agent. Poor health literacy is one of the reasons why life expectancy is lower in Republican-led states, and the problem has been growing worse for decades. The highest rates for covid-19 deaths and murders are found mainly in red states.
Right now, voters are worried about inflation and rising fuel prices, but they ignore the imminent threats to their healthcare. American healthcare continues to be under assault, and unless we address these issues, a severe health issue could bankrupt families.
On Thursday, the House passed a bill that limited the cost of insulin to $35 a month. However, 193 Republican members of the House did not feel that their voters needed to pay less for insulin. The price of insulin is a huge issue, but this bill subsidizes drug intermediaries at taxpayers’ expense.
The House is preparing to vote on a $35 monthly insulin cap later, but there is stern opposition to the plan, which could cost billions over ten years. Essentially taxpayers would be subsidizing drug company profits for the price of a product that should have come down a long time ago.
Healthy eating is your recipe for managing diabetes.
More than 37 million Americans have diabetes (about 1 in 10), and approximately 90-95% have type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes most often develops in people over age 45, but more and more children, teens, and young adults are also developing it. A study has found that people with type 2 diabetes were at higher risk of developing 57 health conditions than non-diabetics.
Oxford researchers say they have confirmed that alcohol is a direct cause of cancer, emphasizing how their findings reinforce the need to lower levels of alcohol consumption in the population for cancer prevention. The question is will the healthcare community do anything about these findings?
I admire President Biden for trying for a cancer cure moonshot but unfortunately, cancer is not just one disease; it’s many with a range of different causes, physiologies, and treatments. What treatment works in one patient may not work in another but we have to keep trying to beat cancer anyway we can.