Did you know that the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has found that the United States spends almost $9500 on healthcare per person? This amount is almost three times more on healthcare than any other country in the world. But, the most astonishing news is U.S ranks last in life expectancy among the 12 wealthiest industrialized countries.
Researchers and other educationists suggest that the movement toward universal health care has been powerful, especially among middle-income countries.
According to two newspapers published in the Journal – The Lancet, data was collected and analyzed by Global Burden of Disease Health Network, which explains that out of 184 countries the U.S stands first in spending money to improve public health per capita than any other country.
The question here is where does this money come from? For poor countries, obviously, the spending is low and therefore, they spend less on healthcare. Whereas, for middle and high-income countries people pay out of pocket or government has the capacity to pay for healthcare.
Unfortunately, when people pay out of pocket there is a significant impact on low-income people as they are thrown in poverty because of medical costs which is the situation in the U.S.
In the United States because of the catastrophic medical expenditures below poverty line people or low-income community are facing horrible healthcare standards and thrown out. In the year 2000, there was an effort by the then president to improve the quality and service of health for poor people by way of a process where rich pay for poor. But, due to higher spending for healthcare, the industry tycoons did not let this run for a longer duration.
As per some research organizers, with the development of a country, health outcomes generally improve. But, in the case of United States, it is an anomaly. The life expectancy rate is lesser than the 12 wealthiest industrialized countries in the world.
Solution: Researchers and other educationists suggest that the movement toward universal health care has been powerful, especially among middle-income countries. You see a wide variety of reforms taking place. Nigeria, for example, is decentralizing the health-care system so spending decisions are made locally based on local needs.
Thailand and Mexico stand out in making progress in moving toward universal coverage and ensuring that the entire population has access to basic health care. Vietnam is also moving toward universal coverage. They spend only about $400 a person, but they’ve identified a manageable set of essential health care services and work to provide it for the whole population; Countries like Somalia can take this as an example.
We at Sambav, aim to educate and empower people with the right knowledge to take well-informed decisions pertaining to their health and make healthcare a priority in their lives and that of their loved ones.
