desymbol: Doctor Shares A Heartrending Story About Why The US Healthcare System Needs To Change

Sometimes, it can feel like getting sick is like being robbed: “Your money or your life.” It’s no surprise that a lot of Americans believe that the healthcare and insurance systems in the United States could use a lot of improvement. The main issue—exorbitant prices for life-saving treatment and medication that you might not be able to afford at all or that will put you in serious debt.

Nephrologist (kidney specialist) Sayed Tabatabai from San Antonio in Texas shared the heart-rending reality of being part of a system that leaves a lot of people fending for themselves. He revealed how a patient of his was thinking about choosing between his diabetes and blood pressure medication because of money worries.

Scroll down to read Dr. Sayed’s story and insights about the US healthcare system in his own words. And let us know in the comments if you’ve ever had any problems with the American healthcare system yourselves, dear Pandas.

Dr. Tabatabai explained why the US healthcare system needs to change, badly

Image credits: TheRealDoctorT

Harvard economist David Cutler told Investopedia that the reason why US healthcare costs are so high is because of the “astronomical” administrative costs. Around a quarter of healthcare cost is linked with administration; far higher than in any other country.

However, that’s not the only issue affecting cost. There’s also a lack of competition in the US because hospitals are consolidated. While the healthcare system is so complex that its inefficiency also raises costs.

Those are all part of the reason why the World Health Organization ranks the US’ healthcare system as only the 37th best in the world. High costs don’t always mean high quality. That’s not to say that the US doesn’t have some amazing specialists or high-quality treatments available. However, it does mean that there’s a lot of room for improvement.

According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the US devotes a bigger part of its national income to healthcare than any other OECD country. Last decade, healthcare spending in OECD countries stayed around 8.7 percent of the annual gross domestic product. Meanwhile, spending in the US rose from 16.3 to 17 percent of GDP.

The US also spends more on healthcare per person than any other wealthy country at around 11k dollars in 2019. The second highest-spending country was Switzerland with 7.7k dollars. The sad fact is that despite spending so much money on healthcare, the US doesn’t have better results: it’s a high-cost, low-outcome system that needs to be reformed.