needmorepower
No, seriously.
I don't want this to be about pointing fingers and one political party vs. another, or one president vs. another, but let's face it, our healthcare system is pretty much a disaster and has been for a long, long time.
-Every year, approximately 640,000 U.S. citizens go bankrupt due to medical bills they can't afford.
-If you don't have health insurance, it costs you far more for a procedure than what an insurance company would pay for the same procedure if you had health insurance.
-There are somewhere around 25 million people who have no healthcare coverage at all.
-Medical procedures and prescription drugs are often 2, 3, or even 10+ times more expensive (hello, Daraprim) than what the same procedures or drugs cost in other Westernized countries around the world.
-Medical malpractice is so rampant that it might be the third leading cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease and cancer.
-We are ranked 43rd. in the world for life expectancy.
-Our healthcare system is ranked at #37 globally; nowhere near the top.
-Despite all of the above, the U.S. government spends almost double what any other country in the world spends on healthcare, per capita.
-It is considered to be one of the, if not the, most wasteful systems in the world.
Clearly, there is room for much improvement. Where do we go from here?
-Every year, approximately 640,000 U.S. citizens go bankrupt due to medical bills they can't afford.
-If you don't have health insurance, it costs you far more for a procedure than what an insurance company would pay for the same procedure if you had health insurance.
-There are somewhere around 25 million people who have no healthcare coverage at all.
-Medical procedures and prescription drugs are often 2, 3, or even 10+ times more expensive (hello, Daraprim) than what the same procedures or drugs cost in other Westernized countries around the world.
-Medical malpractice is so rampant that it might be the third leading cause of death in the U.S., behind heart disease and cancer.
-We are ranked 43rd. in the world for life expectancy.
-Our healthcare system is ranked at #37 globally; nowhere near the top.
-Despite all of the above, the U.S. government spends almost double what any other country in the world spends on healthcare, per capita.
-It is considered to be one of the, if not the, most wasteful systems in the world.
Clearly, there is room for much improvement. Where do we go from here?