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 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 abo...

 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 dev...

 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 E...

      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 m...

The healthcare in the US often gets a bad reputation. I can understand why a lot of the time, people do not like the healthcare system in the US, since there are certain aspects which are not the best. However, I think that along with the negative side of the healthcare system, we should also try to look at some positive aspects of the system. The healthcare system in the US wouldn't be as successful as it is today without having some good aspects about it. It can't all be bad - right? One of the examples I always try to look at both sides of is the quality of care and the professionals we have available in our healthcare system. In general, I would say us as Americans are pretty lucky when it comes to the options and quality of providers we have. The US has some of the best schools for healthcare, and amazing healthcare professionals that are doing some remarkable work in the field. Along with that, we have some of the world's leading medical facilities, and some cutting e...

Since COVID-19, there has been a significant shift in the dynamic of doctor's appointments; telemedicine appointments were the new normal at the start of the pandemic, it did have its benefits of convenience and accessibility. However, it created many challenges for the older population.  From a survey done in 2022, 40% of adults 65 years and older do not own a smartphone and 55% do not own a tablet or a computer. My grandparents lived in northern Michigan in a cabin that had no WiFi, no computers, and did not know how to use smartphones. They would not have been comfortable in the transition to telemedicine appointments during COVID-19 with navigating through the virtual platforms and troubleshooting any technical issues . Additionally, as we age, hearing and vision loss arise and virtual appointments make it very challenging for older adults to communicate and engage in the appointment if they rely on visual cues or facial expressions to aid in their communication. For those that...

 This semester I am participating in the Longitudinal Interprofessional Family-based Experience (LIFE) Program. Each group is assigned a family and has to complete two interviews. During our first interview, we asked questions to help get to know our patient and hear more of their story/experience in healthcare. I was appalled at how our patient was treated because of the color of her skin. Assumptions were made that affected communication for both her and her children. She did not know what was happening or why certain tests were being done or not done, although she was asked repeatedly. She even overheard someone say, "Oh, she is just a young black mom; she won't be breastfeeding."  I cannot even understand why people have the audacity to treat people this way. Hearing this story, it is easy to see why there are health disparities. Sadly, this type of experience is not a rare occurrence. Hearing this patient's experience will forever be in my mind. It is good that t...

As someone who's interested in women's health and fascinated by labor and delivery, I have a lot of mom and baby-related recommended posts on my social media feeds. More recently, I've been coming across Instagram posts where American mothers share their outrageous hospital bills after having a baby and compare the costs to countries with universal healthcare. Even the television series The Office touches on this, with Pam trying to "hold in" her baby girl till midnight because her health insurance only covers a two night stay at the hospital. In 2022, the average cost for having a baby in America was $18,865 (without insurance). If you are having a cesarian section, you can expect to pay closer to $26,000. These prices are exorbitant compared to somewhere like the Netherlands, for instance, where in 2017 it cost an average of $3,600 to have a baby via standard delivery. For those in the US who have health insurance, costs are greatly reduced, but with roughly 26 ...

Various barriers to healthcare access impact rural communities such as lack of public transportation combined with increased distances to health services, lack of cell service and internet access, and fewer healthcare providers compared to urban environments. Due to lower population density in rural regions, healthcare centers are often located in centralized areas. This can result in lengthy travel times required for doctors’ visits. In addition, these areas do not typically have consistent or reliable public transportation. These factors can lead to patients choosing to go for longer periods without seeking medical attention or only going in the case of emergencies. Over the past few years, especially since the start of COVID-19, telehealth services have grown in use and quality. Unfortunately, there are still large areas of the country that do not have access to cell service and/or internet connection. While telehealth seems like it could be a solution to the lack of transportation ...

 One of the topics that comes to mind when discussing healthcare in the US is high drug costs. Many of us have experience searching for copay cards or manufacturer discounts with patients in the retail setting so they can afford their medications. Of course, some of these high prices are understandable when a patient is taking a new, brand-name drug. As we have learned in class, R&D for a new drug is extremely expensive, and some cost is necessary to fund this work. However, there is also a large degree of greed involved on the part of drug companies, seen especially when they manipulate patent law to extend market exclusivity and prevent generic medications from being made.  Insulin is one drug whose high cost cannot be justified by innovation or the need to recoup costs. The drug has been around for over 100 years and is required to keep patients with type 1 diabetes alive. For patients without insurance, a monthly supply can cost hundreds of dollars. Although bills have...