BLOGS

In terms of per capita spending and as a proportion of GDP, the United States spends significantly more on healthcare than any other country. Despite this, the nation's healthcare outcomes are noticeably inferior to those of its peer countries. The US is the only developed country without a universal healthcare system, and a significant section of its population lacks health insurance, significantly contributing to its excess mortality rate.

Several different organizations offer healthcare. They comprise healthcare organizations, hospital networks, insurance corporations, and individual providers. Private sector companies mostly own and run healthcare facilities. In the US, 21% of community hospitals are owned by the government, 21% are for-profit, and 58% are nonprofit. United States spent $9,403 on healthcare per person in 2014, which will increase to $10,738 in 2021, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Public and private health insurance are combined to offer healthcare coverage (e.g., Medicare, Medicaid). 64% of all health expenditures in 2013 were covered by the government, which did so through initiatives including Obamacare, Medicaid, the Kids Health Insurance Program, Tricare, and the Veterans Affairs Health Administration.

AMERICAN HOSPITALIZATIONS:

A statistics brief from the American Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) states that 35.7 million people were admitted to hospitals in 2016, a considerable drop from the 38.6 million admissions in 2011. There were 104.2 stays on average 1,000 people population, costing an average of $11,700 ($13,210 in 2021), up $10,400 ($12,275 in 2021[28]) per stay in 2012. In 2017, 7.6% of people spent the night somewhere, each lasting 4.6 days on average.

National Institutes of Health research shows a significant disparity in the healthcare expenses for boys and girls ($268,679 vs. $422,774 in 2021) based on lifetime per capita spending at birth in 2000 dollars ($361,192 vs. $568,345 in 2021). The shorter longevity of males accounts for a significant chunk of this cost differential. However, even with age adjustments (assuming men live as long as women), there is still a 20% difference in lifetime healthcare costs.

AMERICAN HEALTHCARE INSURANCE AND ACCESSIBILITY:

Unlike other industrialized nations, the US health system does not offer healthcare to every citizen. Instead, several federal and provincial programs and private insurance cover most of the population. In 2017, 150 million individuals had access to health insurance through group plans affiliated with their employers. Medicare covers 50 million people, Medicaid covers 70 million, and the ACA-created health insurance exchanges, which serve around 17 million people, are other significant sources. According to a 2017 survey, 73% of plans offered through ACA marketplaces had constrained provider networks that restricted access and choice.

The percentage of the population with insurance, having a regular source of medical care, visiting the dentist once a year, rates of avoidable hospitalizations, reported difficulty seeing a specialist, delaying care due to cost. Health insurance coverage rates are some examples of accessibility and affordability indicators tracked by national health surveys. In 2004, an OECD assessment said that "all OECD nations had achieved universal or near-universal (at least 98.4% insured) coverage of their populations by 1990, with the exception of Mexico, Turkey, and the US." In addition, the 2004 IOM report noted that "inadequate health insurance results poor some 18,000 avoidable deaths annually in the US."

COMPARED TO OTHER COUNTRIES:

The American healthcare system is the most costly in the world. Yet, according to a 2014 research by the private US foundation Commonwealth Fund, it performs the worst compared to those in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. According to the report, the US does not outperform other nations regarding results and ranks last or very near the bottom regarding equity, access, and efficiency. The Commonwealth Fund, the WHO, and the OECD provided data on American healthcare outcomes for the study and data collected from primary care physicians and patients participating in worldwide surveys.

In terms of life expectancy as of 2017, the US ranks 43rd with 80.00 years. Regarding the infant mortality rate (5.80/1,000 live births), the US was ranked 55th best in the world by the CIA World Factbook (170th worst out of 225). In addition, Americans obtain MRI and CT scans at the greatest rates of any OECD country, and they have much more cancer screenings than persons in other wealthy nations.