Despite advanced medicine, the healthcare system remains one of the main problems in the United States. The unaffordable prices that taxpayers and the state are forced to spend on medical services do not ensure population health. Health care is regularly touched upon at the national leadership level and considered the prioritized topic. This paper aims to analyze the factors that hinder public health progress in the United States.
Insurance is believed to be one of the main barriers to affordable public health. According to statistics, more than 27 million Americans live without health insurance (US Census Bureau, 2019). Moreover, its presence does not mean guaranteed access to quality medical services. The median cost of visiting an emergency room in the country equals $ 1,265 (Hargraves & Kennedy, 2019). Thus, high costs of medicine, clearly not affordable to all families, do not encourage the population’s health.
The urgent problem of increasing the efficiency of health care is reflected in mortality rates. Life expectancy has been declining in the United States over the past three years due to the rise in mortality among middle-aged Americans (Woolf & Schoomaker, 2019). All this suggests that the United States will find it difficult to do without new reforms in the health sector in the nearest time.
Public health starts from local communities such as Miami Dade County. Therefore, local health organizations should be aware of their society’s specific needs. Since healthcare proves to be expensive for citizens, preventive measures might be the starting point for improving public health. For example, local employers may be encouraged to adopt wellness programs for employees. Healthy lifestyle promotion via local television and public services will also be of help. Thus, the main direction of any region’s modern socio-economic development should be to ensure a high quality of life, one of the components of the population health factor.
References
Hargraves, J., & Kennedy, K. (2019). 10 years of emergency room spending for the commercially insured. Health Care Cost Institute. Web.
US Census Bureau. (2019). Health insurance coverage in the United States: 2018. Web.
Woolf, S. H., & Schoomaker, H. (2019). Life expectancy and mortality rates in the United States, 1959-2017. JAMA, 322(20), 1-15. Web.