There are hundreds, if not thousands, of phd programs in nursing out there, and there are few nobler professions than nursing. Looking after sick and injured people and dealing with their loved ones is a massive responsibility, one that demands sacrifice. And with a shortage of healthcare staff affecting our healthcare industry, it’s no secret that America needs a huge influx of fresh blood in the medical sphere.
Yet, it begs the question, why is there a shortage of healthcare workers? Is it because of a shortage of funding? Famously, Americans spend more on healthcare per capita than any other developed nation, yet 44,000 to 98,000 Americans die annually due to medical error, while a further 22,000 die annually because of delayed treatment, avoiding the doctor, or skipping prescriptions due to expense.
So, what exactly is our outrageous expenditure actually doing when it comes to healthcare? Surely, if we’re spending over 14% of our annual budget on healthcare while most developed nations spend less and attain more reliable results, these fatality numbers should be drastically lower?
Healthcare as an Industry
No one is disputing that looking after people’s health takes an economic toll. People need treatment, and in a capitalist world, that treatment takes resources and labour, both of which cost money. That’s the baseline fact. It costs money to care for and save lives, and while most nations in the world accept that a government, as a ruling body, has a responsibility to its people to provide that care as cheaply as possible, America seems more concerned with profit than people.
The long and short of it is that America has long had a love affair with the free market, an economic system controlled by the forces behind supply and demand – i.e., corporations. When these for-profit entities control our healthcare, we get insurance companies negotiating rates on behalf of their patients that change depending on which customer they’re negotiating for, and the incentive of these companies is to accrue profit, rather than treat the patient.
In short, America’s healthcare is treated as an economic body, not a body concerned with the well-being of its citizens. This is the kind of regulation that a free market economy hates, because it cuts potential for profit.
Some people defend this system, claiming that the financial incentive behind the medical system encourages innovation. We say if that’s true, why are an excess of 100,000 people dying annually from hospital errors or the avoidance of treatment due to its economic consequences?
Progress isn’t progress if people are suffering because of it.
Who Can Afford Healthcare?
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump famously spread lies and misinformation about the virus, its effects, and erroneously praised his administration’s woeful handling of the crisis.
Then, on October 2nd, 2020, he revealed he tested positive for the virus.
Donald Trump received the best healthcare any American could afford, openly admitting that he had the best “medical equipment” and “best medicines” to fight the condition. When he emerged cured from the virus on the 7th, he nonchalantly told people to “Don’t let it take over [your] lives.”
At that point, over 200,000 Americans had died of the virus. By the end of the pandemic, over a million people died of the illness.
We talk about this because it highlights a distinct flaw in the free market/for-profit medical industry. If people can’t receive treatment, they die. The balance of life and death is treated as an equitable exchange in other countries because other countries recognise that a government’s role is to care for its people, not punish them for being poor. So they provide effective subsidised medical care to the populace.
Meanwhile, if Americans can’t meet the demands of greedy insurance companies and hospitals that are run like banks, they simply have the option to hope that their illness gets better or dies.
We call ourselves the “greatest country in the world” and say that we’re patriots who love our country, but are happy to turn a blind eye to the fact that, despite our enormous expenditure on healthcare, we are the country with the lowest infant life expectancy at birth, and the highest mortality rate from treatable or curable conditions. We’re the greatest country in the world until someone stands to lose a buck.
Politics, Shortages, and Poverty
According to recent statistics, 18% of US citizens are living in poverty. That is over 61 million people.
There is a lot wrong with this picture, but perhaps most damningly, it is evidence that the current administration is perfectly happy to let 61 million people potentially die as long as hospitals and insurance companies continue to make a profit. Now, with the healthcare staff shortage affecting the level and availability of care, the issue is likely to compound.
When facing a healthcare crisis like this, it’s important to look at the facts. We know that a wild amount of our national budget goes to healthcare expenditure, but that spending isn’t getting people the care they deserve. We know that running a hospital and healthcare insurance companies as for-profit businesses directly results in the deaths of people who can’t afford care, even newborn infants. We know that the current administration is happy to let a conspiracist and science denier occupy the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services.
This administration’s history of advocacy for the poor is damning. As long as wealthy oligarchs continue to turn our political stage into a breeding ground of nepotism, backstabbing, collusion, and profit-mongering, the American people will always suffer.
Who is healthcare designed for? In the simplest terms, it’s designed for those with money. It’s a system that, quite literally, decides what your life is worth; the determining factor being your economic status rather than the fact that you’re a human being with a life worth living.
