BY NICOLE NADLER
The cost of living rises immensely annually, leading many to not be able to prioritize their healthcare. In the United States, the price to attain standard healthcare plans or individual medicinal items, not covered by healthcare or that have expensive copay has been known to be excessively costly. (Peter G. Peterson Foundation, 2019). Due to the skyrocketing prices and exponential growth, healthcare unaffordability has been a hotly argued political topic for decades that continues to stump the legislature with a way to appease both sides of the aisle. This keeps affordable healthcare a mere, far-off dream for millions of Americans.
Affordable healthcare has the possibility of supplying numerous benefits to society since in making these medical items more affordable, this money can be reallocated into industry, stocks, and investment. which all have favorable outcomes in a society. However, when healthcare is impervious the citizens suffer, which leads them to be more likely to have a life that leads to crime to afford the high prices of healthcare. Or, it will lead to an eventual string of homelessness as people shell out thousands of dollars in supplies that they cannot afford.
A key example of this is the link between diabetes and homelessness. There is a proven correlation between diabetes and homelessness as people with diabetes have a higher likelihood to end up homeless as adults than those that do not have diabetes. (American Journal of Public Health, 2015). Due to the high price of insulin, many have found themselves unable to sustain the price for it. Insulin, a necessity for diabetic people, is about $322 and has had a 1000% price increase since 1999. (Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2020). These gouging prices have led to great residual debt that has accumulated over the years, leading to their homelessness.
To consider the perspective, “Affordable healthcare benefits societies,” a source that identifies with this perspective is the feature, “Building Healthy Communities through Health Care and Affordable Housing Synergies” by Robert M. Munroe and Y. Melinda Pasquini. Pasquini is a shareholder at Polsinelli PC in Denver, which specializes in affordable housing development and healthcare real estate, and Munroe is a partner at Solvera Affordable Housing Advisors, a financial and real estate development consultancy serving nonprofit and housing authority owners and operators of affordable rental housing. These positions give them an ept perception of the implications of healthcare affordability and its impact on real estate in communities. This perspective leaves them highly favoring the implementation of affordable
healthcare in societies.
The piece “Making Health Care Truly Affordable after Health Care Reform” by Timothy Stoltzfus Jost and Harold A. Pollack was published with the intent of informing people about the aftermath of making health care affordable. The authors are credible and have authority because both authors have written numerous articles about the medical field and health care disparities. Timothy Stolzfus Jost is the co-author of the casebook, Health Law, used widely throughout the United States in teaching health law, and of a treatise and hornbook by the same name. He is also the author of Health Care Coverage Determinations: An International Comparative Study; Disentitlement? The Threats Facing our Public Health Care Programs and a Rights-Based Response; and Readings in Comparative Health Law and Bioethics. Pollack has been published widely at the interface between poverty policy and public health. His research appears in such journals as Addiction, Journal of the American Medical Association, American Journal of Public Health, Health Services Research, Pediatrics, and Social Service Review. His journalism regularly appears in such outlets as Washington Post, the Nation, the New York Times, New Republic, and other popular publications giving him many notable credentials for providing information about health care reform.
The author(s) use quantitative data that has been collected that furthers the authors’ point to
provide evidence about the effects that affordable healthcare provides to people. Additionally,
the authors provide explanations for the effects of making healthcare affordable. The authors
claim it is plausible to make healthcare more affordable. Furthermore, the authors recommend
examining their research.
Finally, The Rising Cost of Health Insurance and the Battle for Profitability discusses the direct
impacts of making healthcare more affordable. Enterprise Bank and Trust published this brochure
in 2019 with the intent of informing its workers about its healthcare policy and the justification for
It. Enterprise Bank is a credible source since it has collected its own data and the survey yielded
236 responses and all statistics cited are based on the number of responses to their questions.
Enterprise Bank uses its own fact-finding data to provide evidence for its premise.
Thus, after reflecting on the proposed question, “To what extent does affordable healthcare
benefit a society’s population?”, one can understand the logical rationale behind some of the
perspectives already addressed. Initially, I thought that there were very clear benefits to
implementing an affordable health care system designed to benefit all citizens. Yet, after
analyzing different perspectives in the noted sources, I can understand how affordable healthcare
may not be favorable to all. In order to strengthen my already stabilized stance on this issue,
I would need to execute and organize my own research that would compile the already mentioned
benefits and drawbacks of an affordable health care system in the United States. Since the topic itself
is both medical and political in nature. It is difficult to obtain research from an objective approach
that is without any personal biases. But the sources mentioned all have highly regarding backgrounds
in their research and points presented. In sum, I find that affordable healthcare is ultimately highly
beneficial to society.
References
Peter G. Peterson Foundation. (n.d.). Challenges & Opportunities. Peterson Center on Healthcare. Retrieved October 7, 2021, from https://petersonhealthcare.org/challenges-and-opportunities.
Bernstein, R. S., Meurer, L. N., Plumb, E. J., & Jackson, J. L. (2015). Diabetes and hypertension prevalence in homeless adults in the United States: A systematic review and meta-analysis. American Journal of Public Health, 105(2). https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2014.302330
Rajkumar, S. V. (2019, November 13). The High Cost of Insulin in the United States: An Urgent Call to Action. Mayclinicproceedings.org. Retrieved 2021, from https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(19)31008-0/pdf.
Munroe, R. M & Pasquini, Y. M., (2019). Building Healthy Communities through Health Care and Affordable Housing Synergies. Colorado Lawyer, 48(11), 40–47.
Geissler, K. H & Pellegrini, L. C.,. (2021). Disability, Federal Disability Benefits, and Health Care Access After the Affordable Care Act. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 31(4), 244–254
Jost, T. S., & Pollack, H. A. (2016). Making Health Care Truly Affordable after Health Care Reform. Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics, 44(4), 546–554.
Enterprise Bank. (2019). The Rising Cost of Health Insurance and the Battle for Profitability [Brochure]. Clayton, MO: Author.
