Global Health Essay Paper
Global Health
There are three surprising new discoveries about global health. The first surprising discovery is that American health care is the most expensive when compared to other first-world countries. America has the most expensive medical system with leaves as many as 47 million Americans without health care owing to cost concerns. Britain, Japan and Germany have more favorable health care systems with cheaper costs as the government helps to subsidize costs. This is surprising since America is a global power with significant medical advances and technologies, and yet many Americans do not have access to health care. The second surprising discovery is that health care delivery is more profitable in the USA than other countries. The medical organizations in the USA are more focused on making profits while those in other countries are more focused on serving their citizens and ensuring that they have access to health care even at no costs to patients. Global Health Essay Paper The third surprising this is that health care systems in other first world countries have leveraged technology to reduce health care costs, especially with regards to administration costs as is the case with Taiwan while the USA has not done the same so that health care costs remain high.
The USA compares favorably with other countries in terms of health care technologies. The USA has leveraged its financial, technological and research capabilities to offer some of the best health care services across the world. However, there is a concern that prescription drug prices are significantly higher in the USA when compared to other countries such as Canada and Mexico. There is a need to significantly reduce prescription drug prices and make them more affordable for the majority of Americans thereby reducing health care costs and improving access (Eban, 2020).
Lower prescription drug prices be achieved through policy changes that enable providers to directly negotiate with drug manufacturers for lower prices while eliminating middlemen who inflate prices. Alternatively, lower priced alternative medications can be provided. Also, the government can subsidize prescription drug prices (Young & Kroth, 2018).
References
Eban, K. (2020). Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom. HarperCollins Publishers.
Young, K., & Kroth, P. (2018). Sultz & Young’s Health Care USA: Understanding its Organization and Delivery (9th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.