Healthcare Blog

US Healthcare: Both Good and Bad By Christine Cho I think that there are both good and bad aspects of US healthcare. The bad part of US healthcare is how it fails to meet the levels of other developed countries while still somehow being more expensive. I think it is very concerning just how expensive everything can be for the patient, and yet the US has higher infant and maternal mortality rates in comparison to other developed countries. When I see Europeans comment on America, there is almost always someone who comments on how expensive US healthcare is (and usually in a somewhat mocking way). I often see internet posts complaining about the cost to the patient - for example, there was one post showing the cost of treating a rattlesnake bite without insurance and it was $153,161.25. US healthcare also feels very much like a business that prioritizes profit over the patients at times. I noticed this when I watched The Good Nurse over spring break and looked into the history of Charl

Providing (un)Care By Jenna Schwartz     In healthcare today I struggle with some treatment decisions made for patients. What really concerns me is providing care that only covers up the real problem. While this way of treatment can improve the quality of life of a lot of patients, the real root issue can become much worse. For example, in my life, I have had many GI issues including vomiting, diarrhea, and nausea after eating. I have been to many physicians who just give me medication to stop the diarrhea instead of looking further into what may be going on. I try to advocate for myself and ask for further investigation, but there always seems to be a reason why they don't. This has been going on for years now. I finally decided to make an appointment at Michigan Medicine since I have been having significant blood in my stool. I now have an abdominal X-ray, stool sample, and colonoscopy set up to figure out what is going on. My concern is that while I am covering up my symptoms, s

  What even is insurance? As a young child still under the age of 26, I still have a lot to learn. I was even told I needed to ask an adult before using the blog site. As a result, I still don’t know a ton about the inner workings of insurance or how to use it effectively. When I moved to Michigan for school, I put off finding new healthcare providers for quite awhile because the prospect of trying to find providers covered under my parents’ insurance seemed too daunting. It can be surprising to find out how much my doctor’s appointments are after each visit as well. To me, copays never seem consistent, and they don’t often make sense. I am certainly not looking forward to navigating choosing what insurance to go with when I get kicked off my parents’ insurance.               I’m still confused about many aspects of the US healthcare system, and I’m learning to be a part of it. We even had a class that taught us about insurance. I can’t imagine how intimidating it must be for other p

 Before the COVID-19 pandemic the last pandemic to devastate the United States was HIV/AIDs. Although the government found it easy to ignore the millions of lives lost early in the epidemic because it was mainly within the queer community it eventually become clear that HIV/AIDs was not going away and spread into the cis/het communities. In the early 2000s funding was granted to place America as a leader in the global health project to help work towards uniting many countries in their efforts to cure/treat/eradicate AIDs/HIV. With this funding recently expiring and efforts at the time focused on the COVID-19 pandemic this global effort was put on pause. I think that funding should be reinstated.  Related to that funding and new developments in the area of treatment, prevent and cure of HIV/AIDs comes the question of access. Currently PREP prescriptions and doxy-PEP are restricted to prescriptions, but the potential for these drugs to be for OTC (or possible new drugs to be developed sp

 Somehow, we reached a time in the United States where healthcare is now politicized. It is no longer about helping people, but making a profit. I understand it is a business, and businesses need profit to survive--BUT why can't hospitals and providers provide cost estimates prior to treatment? It is always provided after, and with little to no transparency. My ACL surgery was about $36,000 (maybe more, thank you insurance), and one screw was $2000, and I did not learn the price until months after. If I was not on my parent's insurance, I would not have elected to have the surgery in the first place. This is because I would not have known how much it would have cost me, and how much debt I would have to absorb. It is not like I have $36K in my mattress at home--or the bank.  Not only do I have a problem with the invoice coming months later, I have a problem with access to healthcare. For example, my grandma and grandpa (who are the sweetest, most kind, and innocent people on Ea

      Without insurance, EpiPen prices range from $650-$750 for a pack of brand name auto injectors, however the cost of generic epinephrine is  incredibly inexpensive. Even with some high deductible insurance plans, EpiPens are not always covered. For a lifesaving medication, this is an incredibly steep cost and there should be no barriers to people accessing this medication. As someone who (very unfortunately) is allergic to nuts, I have experienced first hand how these high prices effect families even coming from a very fortunate position on my parent's health insurance. EpiPens also expire yearly, so the high cost is something that has to be paid frequently.     Personally, I have had a number of (not great) experiences with the US health system and my own food allergy. As I mentioned, since EpiPens are so expensive, I am not very inclined to get them refilled as frequently as I should. In March of 2020, I accidentally ingested a nut forcing me to use my EpiPen for the first ti