What Americans Don't Get About the Healthcare System

In 2008, Americans were first introduced to Walter White, AMC’s main character in Breaking Bad. Walter quickly became known through TV culture as the high school chemistry teacher who sold meth to pay for his medical bills. While not all Americans have the need to resort to making meth to help pay their medical bills, the premise of the show speaks high volumes about the broken healthcare system in America. Although the show aired several years ago and well before Obamacare, it remains important to notice that the idea of the show could not have worked in any other country. France, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom would have all been able to treat Walter well below the amount asked in America.

If each nation’s health care system is a reflection of its history, politics, economy, and national values, than why is America ranking last among other developed countries? Being the world’s richest country, America’s healthcare system should not rank poorly when it comes to infant mortality, life expectancy, satisfaction, and overall performance. It is evident that our country has made a moral decision of not providing proper healthcare for all of its citizens. Millions of Americans either make too much money to qualify for healthcare under welfare, but too little money to pay for necessary drugs and doctors to stay alive. It is evident throughout other class readings and T. R Reid’s The Healing of America, health is a commodity, a commodity that America has profited off of. In order to change our healthcare system for the better, Americans need to take a good look at themselves.

America was built on the philosophy of self-reliance and individualism. It was a country where people could come and set forth a journey where success was claimed in accordance to their efforts and work ethics. Yet, through time, individualism became a concept that celebrated selfishness and fear of change. Americans have become conformists and have allowed large corporations with economic influence to decide the culture and morals of our citizens. America has become a consumerist and pharmaceutical dependent society. In America, individuals who have good health insurance receive everything modern medicine can provide. Individuals who have poor health insurance receive very little. There is no other area of American life that we mutually accept such an immoral deal. Ezra Klein, a reporter for the Washington Post, states, “We spend more than any other nation on our military, but our military is unquestionably the mightiest in the world. We spend the most on our universities, but our universities are the best on the planet. But we spend the most on our health care -- twice as much as anyone else -- and our health system is mediocre-to-poor”. In order to save America’s healthcare system we need to learn from other developed country’s models. In Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany it is clear that government intervention provides better and cheaper healthcare.

In 2014, only sixteen percent of Americans reported being happy with the current healthcare system in the United States, compared to twenty- six percent in the UK. During a lecture at Harper College, Dr. Mercola stated, “The US does not have a health care system; we have a disease-management system dependent on expensive drugs and invasive surgeries”. America’s healthcare system has one mission, and that is to maximize profits, not safety and quality. Americans have become accustomed to paying outrageous prices, long waits, and essentially a broken system. It is clearly evident that universal healthcare systems financed by the government works. Yet, many Americans oppose universal healthcare. Individuals living in France, Germany, Japan, and The UK are entitled to a healthcare system that is inexpensive and has outstanding quality.

Examining other country’s healthcare systems not only can be a helpful aid to help guide America in the right direction, but shows how fragmented and ineffective America’s is currently. Individualism, capitalism, and ignorance is preventing America from having a healthcare system that actually works for its citizen. In order to be the world’s richest country and have the most effective healthcare system, American needs to use a similar tactic like Dwight D. Eisenhower, and use other country’s methods.