Research Question: How does expensive healthcare affect Americans?

Topic: Disease and Health

Introduction:
The United States stands alone as the only “developed” country without free healthcare. With
most first-world countries providing these crucial services, this paper will be discussing how
costly healthcare affects America’s citizens. America joins mainly poor countries on the list of
nations with no free healthcare, which is disappointing for a “first-world” country. The U.S. has
good sides and its flaws; unfortunately, this is one of them. I hope that in the future, every
American citizen will have access to healthcare without receiving a hefty bill.

Global Perspective:
There will be much discussion about the continent of Africa, as it is the area with the worst
healthcare. In Nigeria, there is only one doctor for every 2,000 people, and the nation spends
3.7% of its GDP on healthcare, which is extremely low compared to the global average but
similar to its neighbouring African countries. The low spending maybe because people are
saving money for other necessities like food or water. The Ebola pandemic damaged Sierra
Leone’s health system and there were around 2,800 additional deaths from HIV, tuberculosis,
and malaria. There was either a small number of doctors, bad healthcare equipment or citizens
not being able to afford treatment. In 2010, the African Union and the UN Secretary-General
announced that there would be free healthcare for children under five and pregnant women in
sub-Saharan Africa. While this may be a step forward (and is), obviously, not every citizen is
covered, including non-pregnant women, men and children above the age of five. The number
of people not protected by free healthcare is the majority of the population, and things have
gotten worse with the COVID-19 pandemic.

National Perspective:
The costs of health care contribute to the stagnation in salaries. It results in less good jobs,
especially for workers and staff who aren’t educated. According to TIME, the U.S. health care
system spent $10,739 on average per citizen back in 2017, five times the amount spent on
protection/defence. This amount is thrice the amount families spend on children’s education,
which is highly dangerous because it can lead to someone not being able to afford the most
basic of healthcare needs. As an example, a woman’s leg got stuck between the train and
platform; it was terribly bloody and injured. She begged that no one call an ambulance because
“it’s $3000, I can’t afford that.” (The New York Times, 2019). Some examples of crazy prices for
health services are that it costs $40 for skin-on-skin contact between mother and child after
giving birth by c-section. An inhaler costs 6GBP in England but $300 in the U.S.. These are
crazy prices, and most people cannot afford it. (PoliticsJOE, 2019)

Different Perspective:
When looking at the global and national perspectives, there are similarities and also differences.
The first is that the main problem which expensive healthcare causes is that people cannot
receive treatment due to not having enough money. However, more countries, especially South
Africa are trying to help countries in the rest of Africa with their medical needs. The U.S. hasn’t
shown any signs of distributing free national healthcare just yet.

Source Evaluation:
1. ‘Healthcare quality in Africa’ from ‘[Link]’
This source gave me lots of insight as it listed quite a few countries in Africa and explained the
problems in each nation in detail, as opposed to talking about Africa in general. It gave very
good statistics and the information was simple. One thing was that there was no author listed, ,
although they did list their resources. It helped my research in trying to gain more knowledge on
what Africa has been through with healthcare and explained the situation.

2. ‘True costs of U.S. healthcare shocks the British public’ from ‘PoliticsJOE’
This source was great for quick facts and information and listed many prices of medical items
and services in the U.S. It also helped in showing the difference between healthcare in Europe
versus healthcare standards in America. The source was reliable as I fact-checked many pricing
lists for American hospitals/clinics. The information was easy to find and understand. This
helped me write my paper because real people explained their healthcare in England and we
get reliable information on U.S. healthcare prices.

3. ‘How Healthcare Costs Hurt American Workers and Benefit the Wealthy’ from ‘[Link]’
This source was the best source out of the three, with many statistics and the most information.
It also was helpful that the authors and publishing date were cited clearly and resources are
referenced. However, the information was a bit scattered and sometimes hard to find. This
source was very helpful when giving information on how this healthcare problem has affected
the U.S, and how people have managed (or not managed) to deal with the problems.

Action Plan:
Sadly, most of the U.S. government isn’t going to do anything about expensive healthcare
anytime soon. Therefore, citizens must find their own solutions, some of which can happen with
the help of a few politicians.
1. Americans should go to smaller clinics or specialised doctors instead of the hospital.
This is because the cost tends to be lower (because the bills for a big hospital are more),
and also the care is usually of higher quality.
2. Get antibiotics and general medicine at a shop outside the hospitals. Medicine in big-box
or convenient stores tends to be much cheaper; for example, some painkillers in
hospitals cost $60. You can get a pack of 200 painkillers for $4 at shops.
3. End the healthcare system’s fee-for-service payment. Patients should not be paying for
the quantity of care. They should be paying for quality.

Conclusion:
Overall, this research paper has shown me a lot about the American healthcare system. The
U.S. still has problems compared to many other developed countries in Europe and Canada.
Though the healthcare services there are of high quality, prices are expensive, and many
citizens simply cannot afford basic medical needs. This needs to change and has been
discussed by past U.S. presidents before. I have learnt through this paper that though the
healthcare system isn’t great, the government is trying to fix things, and I have faith that they
will.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
PoliticsJOE. (2019). True cost of US healthcare shocks the British public [Video]. Retrieved from
[Link]
The New York Times. (2019). What Do Europeans Think About American Life? [Video]. Retrieved from
[Link]
Case, A., & Deaton, A. (2020). How Healthcare Costs Hurt American Workers and Benefit the Wealthy.
Retrieved 7 February 2021, from [Link]
Lawrence, H. (2019). 2 Ways To Lower America's High Health Care Costs. Retrieved 24 February 2021,
from [Link]
costs/?sh=4d94e5dc13cc
Tomlin, R. (2020). Four ways to reduce healthcare costs. Retrieved 25 February 2021, from
[Link]
Health care quality in Africa: Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Retrieved 2 March 2021, from [Link]
culture-lifestyle/[Link]
Songwe, V. (2019). Financing Africa's Healthcare. Retrieved 2 March 2021, from
[Link]