Many Americans pride themselves on the U.S.’s greatness – freedom, luxury, and fried chicken. However, under the facade of wealth and beauty, working families and low-income adults struggle to make it out alive, drowning in the hefty price of living in the U.S. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been a new trend; it has existed since the beginning of American industrialization. While the top billionaires live blissfully in their own world, 90% of normal Americans fight daily to pay for their lives.
Currently, according to the US Census Bureau, the national poverty rate was 10.6%, approximately 35 million Americans who couldn’t afford necessities in 2024. 35 million Americans were and still are unable to access their expensive local hospitals near them, hindering them from checking up on their well-being. One may argue that health insurance substantially decreases the costs of hospital check-ups; even then, we would be overlooking the fact that some Americans simply can’t afford health insurance. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), paying approximately $9,000 per person may seem minute to some, but others work paycheck to paycheck, barely squeezing this into their budget allocation. Additionally, insurance companies often don’t cover all healthcare costs, leaving a few thousand dollars in out-of-pocket expenses for an ambulance ride to the hospital in urgent circumstances. Thus, healthcare has become a luxury, not a necessity.
Historically, governmental policies enacted by former presidents in an attempt to aid people without access to healthcare have helped here and there. Signed into law by Barack Obama in 2010, the Affordable Healthcare Act aimed to reduce the costs of checkups and medical attention, improve the quality of hospitals, and increase the number of insured citizens. Furthermore, policies enacted like Medicare and Medicaid help out elderly and low-income people when seeking medical help. However, we realize that these policies are not sufficient to give access to cheap, high-quality healthcare, creating disparities in the United States that many ignorant and privileged people don’t bother to acknowledge. Additionally, under the new presidential administration in our nation, the listed policies and even more are subject to budget cuts and possibly total eradication, leaving desperate U.S. citizens who rely on these policies to not just survive but to prosper. Removing policies to support a collapsing healthcare system may be the final nail in the coffin, effectively sealing the future of limited and expensive access to healthcare for American citizens.
As we move to the future, ignoring our current problems isn’t a long-term solution. Thus, many advocates strive to find solutions to this complicated and persistent issue. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), improving the quality of the U.S healthcare system by having more physicians in hospitals and expanding telehealth systems enhances the U.S. healthcare system not only by providing better medical attention to all U.S. patients, but also creates a more accessible system for those without disposable income. To add on, policies that have existed in the healthcare system until recently need to stay funded, if not more funded, in order to be enough for an expanding nation.
While some of us may find it difficult to imagine living in a life where we can’t go to the doctor as we please, some of us are living this nightmare. Inequality in access to healthcare won’t solve itself overnight; regardless, realizing the problem is half the battle to winning.
Leave a Reply