By: Bo Korpman

               The healthcare debate is perhaps the most important topic in discussion among the American government today.  It will ultimately decide the potential fate of the well-being and healthcare of millions of Americans and affect every American citizen in several other ways.  With America already falling behind other industrial nations in healthcare and several other categories, the government must take steps if America wants to get back on top.  At the moment, there are many issues that the United States of America needs to address to achieve this goal, but right now the issue is healthcare, and an important issue it is.

               “What is the problem with American healthcare today?” is a question that is commonplace among the American populace in this time of active debate in this changing nation.   At the heart of the issue, there are many, many problems, and some of them are not even related to healthcare.  When you get right down to it, the most basic problem is the heart of most of the problems in today’s society: money.  According the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), healthcare in the United States is more expensive than any other OECD country, with almost twice as much of the gross domestic product going toward healthcare over the OECD average.  To many Americans, this is not an issue.  Insurance covers much, if not all of the costs, and many medical procedures are not very costly to start with.  However, several million Americans do not have insurance, and for those who do, it is not always beneficial.  In many instances, insurance premiums will go up drastically and cause significant financial issues.
According to the American Census Bureau, over 45 million Americans do not have health insurance.  Although this is not necessarily a bad thing, the old saying holds true, “you never know.”  Over half of all personal bankruptcies in the United States are a result of inability to pay off medical costs, and frankly this is ridiculously high.  There are many instances where a person or family that is struggling to get by, will suddenly run into some extremely high medical costs that could potentially ruin them.  This story is more common than one would think, and surprisingly, it is most common in some of the smallest towns in the U.S.A.  According to the New Yorker, the highest medical costs anywhere in the U.S. are in a tiny town in Alabama; with most of the population in that town working at low paying jobs, healthcare payment is obviously a problem.  This is one of the core issues that are being addressed in the debate.  Why should people who make little money pay more for their healthcare?  There are many answers to that question, but basically the answer is that the whole system is flawed.

               To get an idea of how the healthcare situation is viewed by a taxpayer, I interviewed FRA teacher Mr. Jackson Nunally.  Nunally called the problem “two-fold,” saying that too many people are uninsured and the costs are too high.  When asked what he thought the government should do to control healthcare, he said “The government needs to look at health management companies for their blueprint.”  Nunally said that these companies had the best form of health management, and they should be used as a model.  When asked about medical malpractice trials, that rack up many fines for the average doctor, Nunally said that malpractice trials shouldn’t be banned completely, but “frivolous lawsuits could be cleaned up.”

               The American healthcare system is a big vicious circle.  America is an unhealthy country, which means that it has many medical problems.  Because its citizens have many medical problems they have to go to the doctors.  The doctors prescribe treatments that are often completely unnecessary which means people have to pay more.  Because Americans have to go to the doctors so often, their insurance rates go up, which means people spend more money.  Sometimes the insurance will not cover the cost because some of the tests were unnecessary.  People will then sue the doctors because they gave them unnecessary tests, which could have potentially harmed them.  The lawsuits, many of which are totally pointless, are what prompted the doctors to request all the tests in the first place so that they would have an easier time in court, etc, etc.  The average OB/GYN spends over 200,000 dollars preventing medical malpractice lawsuits before they even earn a dime.  It is flaws like these which make the American healthcare system so problematic.

               With health insurance costs unregulated and often unaffordable, and medical costs higher here than anywhere in the world, something must be done.  Currently, the United States is the only modern industrial nation in the world that does not have a form of regulated Universal Healthcare.  Now, Universal Healthcare has its issues, but the guarantee of healthcare as a right is now seen as a necessity of modern society.  President Obama’s plan for healthcare in the United States is a form of Universal Healthcare that will guarantee coverage for all Americans, but will allow them to choose their own private plans if they so choose.  It will also regulate insurance and medical costs.  However, these changes could be more drastic than you might think.
Being a doctor in other parts of the world means making a rather meager living.  In other countries, like France and Japan, a doctor is viewed as a person who should help people as a service rather than a job.  In France, which has the highest rated healthcare system in the world, doctors make only 40,000 Euros (about 57,000 dollars) a year, but they receive their medical training free, and receive many benefits from the government.  If the United States really wants to fix their healthcare system, doctors have to stop being money focused, and start being patient focused.  However, the doctor is only part of the problem.

               Many Americans believe that universal healthcare is a terrible idea.  The idea of paying for someone else’s healthcare is unappealing to most people, especially with the knowledge that you get to keep less of your salary.  Although the idea is very unappealing you might not have to pay as much as you think.  The only reason people need healthcare is because people are unhealthy, and guess which country is one of the unhealthiest in the world… the United States of America.  The obesity problem is ridiculously high.  According to the American Obesity Association, 64.5% of Americans 20 years and older are overweight, and 30.5% of those are obese.  Obesity is the cause of many health related issues like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and ultimately premature death.  Also a significant problem is the drug issue in the United States.  There is a drug for everything, no matter how practical or meaningless.  Parents of rambunctious preschoolers are often told that their children have ADD or ADHD because they are constantly active.  Is that not how almost all children act anyway?  Kids do not need drugs to calm them down.  Kids need drugs only when they are actually sick.  Adults need drugs only when they are actually sick.  If America wants to start fixing their health issues, it has to address its health issues, and only the ones that really matter.

               Japan has a universal healthcare system, which is complemented by private insurance if the people so choose, but only 1% of the people actually choose this option.  There are no wait problems, and the quality of care is excellent.  The government provides very generous benefits, and the citizens can choose whatever hospital and doctor they want, and although the prices of healthcare are regulated, the quality remains very high.
 
               The best part though: Japanese citizens spend almost 5,000 dollars less a year on healthcare than Americans do, and for the people who hate the idea of paying for someone else’s health, people there are only covered if they have a job or can support themselves retired.  However, the Japanese system only works so well because Japan is very centered around health, and generally dislike invasive medical procedures.  In Japan, only 2.5% of the population is obese, and many of these people are sumo wrestlers whose job it is to be fat… 

               Judging from Japan’s healthcare system, America has a lot to change besides its healthcare system if it is going to be a healthy country.  First, Americans need to be healthy themselves.  The government might not have even had to change the healthcare system if America were a healthier country.  If Americans were healthier, they would have fewer health problems and therefore fewer medical bills.  Fewer medical bills would mean that the doctors could not charge as much for procedures that were not necessary to cover our problems, and eventually America gets a better, less problematic healthcare system.  Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen anytime soon, so the government must deal with what it can.  Since it is very likely that the government will introduce a universal healthcare system, let’s hope that they can do it in such a fashion that everyone will have equal coverage without much waiting or malpractice, which is one of the main problems with universal healthcare.  It is obvious, that whatever the government puts into action, it must be well thought out and planned, or America will wind up with greater problems than when it started.