Assignment: Current Healthcare Crisis

Assignment: Current Healthcare Crisis
Assignment: Current Healthcare Crisis
Commodity scarcity (some chemotherapy medications, organs for transplant)
Growing of aging population
Costs
Access to healthcare by those experiencing poverty
Access to healthcare by immigrants
Staffing ratios for nurses
Under- insurance
Lack of coverage for long-term care
Patient safety
Changing of preventive care guidelines (i.e. changing age for women’s yearly mammograms; use or non-use of PSA)
Increasing chronic illnesses
Debate if healthcare policy should be controlled by federal or state governments
Out of pocket expenses
Increasing population and decreasing labor pool
Prescription drug costs
Uncertainty over Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Increasing consolation of healthcare facilities (e.g. larger hospitals acquiring smaller, private practices)
Communicable, infectious diseases spreading globally
Fragmented care
Control over individual healthcare decisions (e.g. individuals, doctors, insurance companies)
The current health-care system in the United States is a jumble of ideas, initiatives, and rules that is both expensive and inefficient.
Despite its size and technological advancements, our health system is plagued by enormous gaps and inequities that unfairly benefit some groups while unfairly penalizing others—minoritized communities, people who live in rural areas, and people who cannot afford or access health insurance, to name a few.
These and other underlying factors, as we’ve seen throughout this pandemic, cause some people to be disproportionately affected by COVID-19’s dangers, just as they make them more susceptible to the dangers of chronic conditions like hypertension and diabetes, which are by far the largest drain on our health system.
Coverage that is related
COVID-19 revealed systemic flaws.
How to do things correctly the next time.
COVID-19 is a crisis because it poses an imminent threat to public health, our economy, and our way of life.
But, with to the bravery of doctors, nurses, and other frontline caregivers, public health officials, and scientists and researchers working tirelessly to create a vaccine, this nightmare will ultimately come to an end.
When that day comes, we’ll realize that much of our health-care system is failing the people it’s supposed to serve: the general population.
To put it another way, regardless of the type of system in place a decade from now, the US health system has pre-competitive demands that must be addressed.
Among them are the following:
Realigning our health-care system on the need to prevent and cure chronic disease, which affects more than 100 million people in the United States and accounts for more than 80% of all health-care spending.
Solving the data liquidity conundrum so that data can be transferred more easily between systems.
Our physician workforce should be prepared for the problems of the twenty-first century, not the twentieth.
Getting rid of redundant administrative and regulatory restrictions that stymie efficient, high-quality care.
Working with a purpose to root out racism in the medical community and to uncover and address systematic imbalances that lead to lower health outcomes for Black and Brown people.
These needs existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic drew our attention, and they will continue to do so unless health-care, business, and technology leaders work together to disrupt the status quo and chart a new course for our country’s health system—one that is affordable, efficient, and accessible to all.
Over the next few months, I’ll be writing columns for LinkedIn to discuss the pain areas of our health system in the COVID-19 age, as well as where we should spend our attention to solve it.
For 174 years, the American Medical Association has been a driving force in reforming and improving our health-care system, and our strategic priorities now reflect modern medicine’s realities and where it needs to go in the future.
Our efforts are focused on reducing barriers to patient care, revolutionizing medical education and training, and enhancing the nation’s health by leading the battle to avoid chronic disease and emergent health crises.