Inequality In Healthcare

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DEBTS HAVE DRIVEN AMERICA’S HEALTHCARE REFORMS David Schatz Truman State University JINS 338-01 America is the wealthiest nation in the world, and has continued to progress economically for decades. America’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has been the highest of every country since they have been collecting figures dating back to 1980.¹ In 2010 the US’ GDP was almost three times as much as second ranked China. America has continued to make more money but unemployment rates have increased and funding for programs such as education is being cut all over the country. Unemployment rates of America over the past three years were at its’ highest since the post-Vietnam War era of 1975-1981.² America continues to make more and more money, but…show more content…
In 1996, there were two studies published that connected the health status of Americans to inequality. These studies showed a relationship between household income inequality in the fifty states and age specific mortality rates. The first study by Kaplan used the bottom 50 percent of households in each state as their measure of income distribution. Referring back to the Gini index, if wealth was evenly distributed between the top 50 percent and bottom 50 percent of household incomes, then income distribution would be equal. The income shares across states ranged from a low of 17.5 percent (Louisiana, the most unequal) to a high of 23.6 percent (New Hampshire, the most equal). Not even half way to 50 percent. This study also provided a strong correlation (r= -0.62, p <.001) between the measure of inequality of wealth and age-standardized mortality rates of all individuals.⁷ The second study by Kennedy, Kawachi,and Prothrow-Stith studied diverse measures of income inequality and still found similar results. This studied expanded beyond just age related mortality rates; it took into account that income inequality was associated with higher rates of death from coronary heart disease, malignant neoplasms, homicide, and infant mortality.⁸ It discovered that a small change in income inequality was directly linked to the number of people considered to be below the approximate $20,000…show more content…
Surgery became more common in removing tumors, infections, appendectomies, and gynecological operations. With the increase in medical technology, USA was behind other European countries in insuring against the costs of sickness.¹⁵ Up until about 1920 most surgeries were performed in their own homes. When individuals became sick, more money was lost from missed wages from work rather than medical expenses.¹⁶ Then President Theodore Roosevelt campaigned for the Progressive Party that supported a national health insurance. However the progress of such plan was postponed due to World War I.¹⁷ With the increased costs of healthcare at this time, reform progression for a national health insurance focused more on medical care instead of wages lost due to sickness.¹⁵ Then in 1929 the Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas started a prepaid hospital insurance program with its local teacher unions. This plan gave teachers twenty-one days of hospital care for $6.00 per year. Baylor University hired Justin Ford Kimball, a former superintendent of schools, to clean up the finances of the University Hospital.¹⁸ The development of this model directly coincided with the October 1929 stock market crash that created many worries for individuals.¹⁶ The motivation to create this system was to simply get hospital patients to pay their bills. As the Great
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