The United States of America is a successful nation despite being much younger its competitors around the world, such as China, Germany, and Japan. It has the world’s largest economy with a GDP of $20.89 trillion dollars as of 2020, but despite the impressive figures the country still lacks fundamental social programs which all other developed countries have already made available to most, if not all, citizens. One highly criticized aspect of America’s social programs is a lack of universal and free healthcare for all people. 

All first world and most developed countries already have a comprehensive, free, and supportive healthcare system (Kenton, 2021) (Wikipedia, n.d.) in place for citizens such as Germany’s universal multi-payer system while the United States has no single nationwide system of health insurance, let alone that’s free. Usually, health insurance is tied to things such as your employment and wealth meaning if you lack those, care for conditions you may receive can become a financial burden to carry until your death. Investments in the healthcare field are also seemingly misdirected with there being a large emphasis on technology and specialty care rather than preventative care, the latter being more costly to pursue as well. 

So, what could be done to solve the issues with the healthcare system in the US? There is no simple, easy solution that will work overnight, but with enough effort and motivation it could become a viable goal. The first thing could be done is to help Americans understand that universal healthcare is not a terrible thing. According to a poll conducted by Reuters, 30% of American’s are opposed to a universal healthcare system (Stein, Cornwell, & Tafini, 2018). Educating those people on why such a system would be beneficial to everyone, including themselves, would be a great start to rally more support for healthcare reform. Once that is out of the way, fixing the issue of lobbying would be the next step. According to OpenSecrets, the healthcare sector spent over $623 billion dollars in lobbying during 2020 which makes healthcare the most lobbied sector of the US economy, and it has been that way for years (OpenSecrets, 2020). An independent candidate holding office that is motivated to bring other reforms such as banning or regulating lobbying would also vastly help. I say this because lobbying is an issue acknowledged by both major parties in the US which has not been addressed and will stay that way. While these are only two proposals to solve the broken system of healthcare in the US, they are the most important ones needed to solve it. If these solutions are to be implemented, it is only an inevitability that healthcare reform is to soon happen. 

In conclusion, the United States is due for a reform in its healthcare system. Despite it being an extraordinarily successful nation economically and globally, it lacks important infrastructure other countries have had already for decades to provide their citizens with. As of now there is no strong movement to reform the system in favor of one that is universal and free but spreading awareness and voting in presidential candidates that could solve the issue of lobbying and pass beneficial laws could lead to a reform happening. 

Works Cited:

Eyring, H., & Hervey, D. (2021, August 25). Opinion: U.S. health care is needlessly pricing people out. Here’s how to fix that. Retrieved from Deseret News : https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2021/8/25/22628922/why-does-america-have-some-of-the-worst-health-care-bipartisan-reform 

Kenton, W. (2021, February 18). First World Definition, History, & Criticism. Retrieved from Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/first-world.asp 

Khazan, O. (2018, June 22). The 3 Reasons the U.S. Health-Care System Is the Worst. Retrieved from The Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/06/the-3-reasons-the-us-healthcare-system-is-the-worst/563519/ 

Niles, B. (2020, February 4). America’s healthcare system is a costly mess. Retrieved from CGTN: https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-02-04/America-s-healthcare-system-is-a-costly-mess-NNVgnl7ygw/index.html 

OpenSecrets. (2020). Ranked Sectors. Retrieved from https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/ranked-sectors?cycle=2020 

Robert H. Shmerling, M. (2021, June 13). Is our healthcare system broken? Retrieved from Harvard Health Publishing: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-our-healthcare-system-broken-202107132542 

Roosa, T., Osborn, R., Mossialos, E., Djordjevic, A., & Wharton, G. A. (2020, June 5). Retrieved from https://www.commonwealthfund.org/international-health-policy-center/countries/united-states 

Stein, L., Cornwell, S., & Tafini, J. (2018, August 23). Inside the progressive movement roiling the Democratic Party. Retrieved from Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-progressives/ 

Wikipedia. (n.d.). List of countries with universal health care. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_universal_health_care