Wherever you flow on the political spectrum , you almost sure as shooting do n’t savor paying for health care price – there ’s nothing worse than getting that doctor nib , not know what it might contain . And while it would be nice to dedicate your lifetime to keep a perfect , unwellness - loose consistence and judgment , with workplace weeksupwards of 50 hoursandrising out - of - pocket wellness care expenses , it can sense impossible to find the time or money take to invest in what some the great unwashed call a " tabernacle , " others " the pocketbook of bones that shuttle them to and from the business office every twenty-four hour period . "
There ’s no full reason for it to be this way . Despite being one of the richest countries in the Earth , the United Statesranks 31st in spirit expectancy , below Greece , Portugal , and Slovenia . Slovenia , the great unwashed , and Greece ’s economy is in shuffle ! America should bear every effort you make to stay level-headed , not ask you to become over an arm and a leg every time a major health issue arise . Besides , prosthetics are expensive , too .
Who’s going to pay for this free stuff?
Lest you remember this is just a yammer supplication for the gubment to give you some free condoms ( though , stick tuned ) in exchange for disabling taxes and plausibly Communism and all the risky dance music that get with it , consider the following :
The United Statesalreadyspends way more per caput on health carethan any other nation in the Organization for Economic Co - surgery and Development , even ones where income levels are similar – like Switzerland , where they pass about $ 2,300 less per person , per year on health care . Switzerland has the secondly - high-pitched life anticipation in the world , by the manner .
" hunky-dory , but those other area all have shitty public insurance , whereas America has individual insurers give for a passel of the cost . " Well , America does pass a pile of money in the secret sector on health , but even public disbursement per capita is third high , behind Norway and the Netherlands . In short , your taxes are already fund a massive public health organisation , whether you pull in it or not .
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So where ’s that money run low , and how can it be more in effect used ? Those are immense questions that probably are n’t locomote to be solved while scan on your earphone , but one trouble area is pharmaceuticals : Americaspends right smart more on them– partially because wedon’t allow Medicare to negotiate prices– than other countries with large public health system . or else , secret underwriter do the job , and they are , after all , for - profits companies that have the bottom line , rather than wellness outcomes , as the main object . Those profits are considerable – even with insurers grip about release they ’re taking by take part in Obamacare exchange plans , they’restill doing OK , with UnitedHealthcare report net income ( again , profits , not revenue ) of just under $ 1billion in the third quarter of 2015 . Imagine what could be done with just some of that money !
Even if you ’re not a fan of taking aside or limiting net income in favor of investiture in public health , policy changes within the current system could free up money . If Medicare , under its Part D program , were appropriate to negociate drug toll with manufacturers , for example , a real amount of money could turn up , though the estimatesvary– safe to say that Donald Trump , who actually supports drug price dialogue , is n’t quite on the scratch with his$300 billion claim , but it ’s certainlyin the trillion . Medicaid , whichisallowed to talk terms these prices , save drug at20 % to 30 % dispirited cost than Medicare .
The full point is that we already have the money , and are spending it ; if America could invest it in making key goods and services available for loose , especially those pitch toward prevention – perhaps , given the USA ’s dearest of public - individual partnerships , a contracting organization similar to that of theDepartment of Defensecould award , say , Durex or Trojan the right to make government condoms – it just might get down long - full term cost of care , as you ’ll see in the first proffer below . Here are a few places to start .
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Birth control
Birth control is one of the most common wellness care - related disbursement . adult female run to bear the financial burden , but the true statement is thateveryonebenefits from saving on cost link to undesirable pregnancy and abortions .
When Colorado began an experimentation in 2009 offering free IUDs to adolescent and uninsured women , it sawhuge decreases in the teenage parentage rate and abortion . Colorado ’s wellness department estimate that every dollar bill spent on the program saved $ 5.85 expend on Medicaid , which covers most teenage maternity and births in Colorado – in essence , the state was buying $ 5 for just a sawbuck of up - front expense . Oh , and there should be free condoms , like , everywhere , correct ? Obamacare hasmade a lot of progresson this front , but there ’s still a retentive way to go . A healthier , moneyed America is just a few million gratis condoms away !
Gym access
It ’s well known that America faces one of the worst fleshiness epidemic in the world , with 38 % of the populationbattling the experimental condition . That ’s a nice way of tell Americans are fat , increasing the risk for diabetes , cardiovascular disease , and stroke . pass water trusted all Americans have a secure and supportive space in which to exercise is essential to reversing this tendency .
unluckily , gymnasium memberships are expensive , especially if you have medical costs related to your weight . How are you supposed to recrudesce out of that cycle when you ’re upset about an special monthly expense , not to mention initiation fees ? If gym rank were subsidise by the government activity , how many more Americans could take vantage of – and reap thehealth and psychological benefit affiliate with– forcible activity ?
Realizing the potential for saving on costs related to diabetes and cardiovascular risk , health insurance company arealready rent the lead-in on this , offering reimbursements on gym memberships for those they cover . America can do the same ! The political science should serve us exercise the right to … usage .
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Tampons
Dealing with menstruation on a monthly basis is already a struggle . There ’s no reason woman should throw down extra money on tampons , sanitary pads , or DivaCups , a toll unequaled to anyone with a uterus – when you take a mother fucker in a public bathroom , you do n’t get charge up extra for toilet paper because " you ’re dirty . " It ’s a fact of liveliness you ca n’t change , and one sexuality should n’t be economically penalized for biology .
This has some militant call for feminine production to be taxation - barren , allege the " tampon tax " unfairly burdens women . In the province of California , women pay an estimated $ 20 million annually in tax on womanly products . $ 20 MILLION – and that ’s just on the taxes .
But why make tampons tax - free when we could just make them destitute ? Women already pay up the price of have to use feminine product withquestionable ingredient listing , including likely carcinogen . The least we can do is verify women are n’t unduly financially burdened by their anatomy . Nobody wants to yield for a tampon . Nobody should have to pay for a tampon . Period .
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Toothbrushes and floss
Medical attention can feel like a breeze compared to dealing with dental insurance . Even among people with health insurance,45 million do n’t have dental reporting . What with the high - lucre American diet and lack of preventative dental charge , thousandsof Americans finish up in the emergency room every year due to complications from bacterial accretion on their teeth . These contagion even result in some Death .
Dental fear should be approachable and affordable to all , but as we all get it on , preventative dental care starts at home , with steady toothbrushing and flossing routines . toothbrush and dental floss are just two more items every American should be guaranteed to have for free . Smile , America !
STI testing
If you ’re sexually combat-ready , getting regularly test for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections ( STIs ) is one of the most important style to take concern of your body . The bloodwork and anxiousness hem in these tests are unpleasant enough . Getting hit with a gargantuan bill from the lab is just one more reason to put off your STI examination until next year , which could come at a gamey damage to your partners and the American people .
After New York City shut down its most visited free STI clinic , the city saw asignificant uptickin subject of syphilis , gonorrhea , and chlamydia . Over the retiring five years , after three free clinics were close , visits to NYC STI clinic dropped by 40,000 visits per twelvemonth . That ’s 40,000 overlook opportunities to name and plow an STI ! And nobody wants a urban center full of syphilis , proper ?
In an years wherePre - exposure prophylaxis discourse ( PrEP)is available for HIV and discourse is promptly useable for syphilis , chlamydia , and gonorrhea , we ’re medically at the cutting edge of STI bar and treatment . However , testing remain essential to keep you and your partners tidy .
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Flu shots
Ah , the influenza , the pesky petty seasonal virus that kills36,000 masses a year . Many mass consider the flu shoot optional each year , and the very young and the very honest-to-god are most vulnerable , but you do n’t have to have the worst variant of the grippe to be hit firmly by its symptoms , missing day or even weeks of work and play .
As with all vaccines , flu shots oeuvre not only by protecting the individual , but by protecting the mathematical group . If enough of the population receive the vaccinum , the virus is more probable to give out out and the entire population is less likely to hurt that year ’s most prevalent melodic phrase of the flu . If you puzzle out as an educator or in health care ( where you may easily narrow and spread out the computer virus ) it ’s peculiarly important to protect yourself ( and by extension , all those you interact with ) .
Speaking of vaccines : should n’t they all just be detached ? Doctors and researchers have work tirelessly to find cures for devastating disease , but they come at a price to individuals ? If we set out pass around them for innocent , literally everyone would succeed ( except morbilli , mumps , rubella , poliomyelitis , hepatitis A and B , lockjaw , diphtheria , pertussis , enteric fever , and HPV ) .
Ambulance rides
There might be nothing more essential to receiving parking brake care than a misstep to the infirmary , but the staggering costs of an ambulance ride can make what should be a bare phone call that much hard to make . Ambulance rides often cost well over $ 1,000 . Even if you have insurance coverage , pinch ride arebilled singly from exigency care , so you ’re almost always look at an ambulance copay on top of an parking brake invoice copay . Should anyone ever have to think twice about call 911 ?
speak of call 911 , should n’t all parking brake medication be brood as well ? In fact , should n’t access to low-priced introductory health care just be a given , especially for those living in the richest country in the globe ? Why contain at ambulance rides and toothbrush ?
Of course , the obvious reception might be , " How are we going to PAY for all this ? " If there ’s one affair Americans hate , it ’s the specter of more taxes and a nanny state ; the affair is , we ’re already paying more for wellness care than most other nations , spending17 % of the GDPon wellness upkeep . equate that to Greece , which spends 8 % of its GDP , or Slovenia , which clocks in at around 9 % .
No American should have to pay for primary aid visit , mental health visits , or imaginativeness and dental care . We ’re already one of the richest countries in the populace . It ’s sentence to invest in make this country the healthiest in the humans .
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