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Lack Of Value In Healthcare Essay

Decent Essays

Lack of Value in American Healthcare

Healthcare access in the United States for its citizens has been a controversial topic for several years and especially since the enactment of the Affordable Care Act. The availability of insurance coverage is severely limited to a minimal population of Americans and a significant amount of individuals remain disenfranchised in terms of health care. This position is unacceptable when the economic status of this country and the astronomical cost invested into healthcare is considered. Also, comparisons of the costs of healthcare in America versus other countries speaks volumes that Americans are not receiving their money’s worth in accessing optimal health care options and outcomes.
One specific area of healthcare that highlights the failure of the system to provide value for American patients is the average life expectancy in comparison to other countries. The main goal or outcome for healthcare is good health …show more content…

In an abstract from The MacArthur Foundation Research Network at Columbia University, associations between life expectancy, education, and race exists and are significantly disparate. These differences are explained by the study and the authors write: “Result: Disparities at the educational extremes are astonishingly large, and growing larger. While a 1-year difference in life expectancy should be considered sizeable, we found that in 2008 white males with 16+ years of education now live 14.2 years longer than black men with less than 12 years of education” (MacArthur 2008). This statement is a direct example of the impact of race and education life expectancy. This correlation is important to address as then it leads to questions of the availability of access to healthcare for less educated and minority

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