USA healthcare

Improving USA healthcare

In comparison to various developed and wealthy countries such as Japan, United Kingdom, France, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden and others, the United States spends immense resources on healthcare and still has the poorest health outcomes in terms of life expectancy at birth and mortality rates. For instance, an OECD report in 2015 reported that even though the United States spent more than $5000 per person on healthcare compared to Britain or Italy, the life expectancy at birth of both this nations is still higher than that of the United States. Additionally, the United States has the lowest life expectancy at 79.3 years compared to other economies such as Canada and Australia even though they have comparable incomes. For a long time the United States legislature has been engaged in a back and forth debate on how to reform their healthcare system without solutions. These debates is mainly focused on the provision of a Universal Healthcare System that will enable the country to meet its people’s health needs in a fair and equal manner (Kovner et al., 2014). This can be the only solution to improved health outcomes.

Healthcare globalization for the United States encompasses both the importing of medical services and the exporting of patients. This healthcare trend has the potential impact of increasing efficiency and competition in the healthcare sector. Efficiency can be increased through the acquisition of new products and better delivery of services to retain patients since globalization provides more opportunities for medical tourism. Competition increases since patients can be able to choose from a variety of providers internationally (Kovner et al., 2014). Additionally, healthcare globalization has resulted to the formation of international partnerships in a bid to minimize long wait times and offer better and improved care.

Health indicators such as life expectancy at birth, mortality rates and accessibility are appropriate tools in the assessment of a country’s health outcomes. Health outcomes can be easily measured by assessing the health of the entire population of a country and this can be done by evaluating these indicators. However, factors such as management of chronic diseases and rates of hospitalization should be considered and evaluated to give further insight.

Reference

Kovner, A. R., Knickman, J., & Jonas, S. (2014). Jonas and Kovner’s health care delivery in the United States. New York: Springer Pub. Co.