#7 U.S Healthcare?

   The healthcare system in the U.S has been a very important issue both in and outside the class. It is a very import topic that many Americans are Aaffected by.  In class we discussed how far so many other countries have come while the U.S still struggles with their current system. The direst in the U.S is surprising.In a recent survey the U.S was ranked dead last among other countries healthcare systems. It’s fairly well accepted that the U.S. is the most expensive healthcare system in the world, but still many believe we pay so much to get the best healthcare out their. The evidence, however, clearly doesn’t support that view. So why pay so much?

  Over the last few decades, the United States has witnessed skyrocketing health care costs.Because of these out-of-control health care costs, there has been a steep rise in the number of uninsured Americans. Currently, more than 45 million Americans lack any form of health insurance, and millions more are “underinsured”.
Surprisingly the United States is the only industrialized nation that does not have some form of universal health care which is simply guide teeing health care to all it's citizens. While other countries have declared health care to be a basic right, the United States treats health care as a luxury, only available to those can afford it. It's becoming scarcer even to middle class Americans.

     As we discussed in class why can't universal healthcare exist in the U.S as it does in Europe and many other countries? Why can't it come from taxes? Well simply big business wouldn't allow it. To expand on the ideas touched upon in class, the pharmaceutical lobby or the drug lobby refers to large pharmaceutical and biomedicine companies with politicians in their back pockets. They dump money into politician's campaigns which is relatively unregulated due to Citizens United(which I wrote about in a recent blog post) to seek influence in government policies. Supposedly "pharmaceutical companies spent $900 million on lobbying between 1998 and 2005, more than any other industry. During the same period, they donated $89.9 million to federal candidates and political parties, giving approximately three times as much to Republicans as to Democrats."So when the facts are out their how could you see such a shift when all the power is vested in these giant companies and politicians. Even though we have a democracy it's very hard to fight such power. A report I found online estimates that "220 lobbyists are active in Europe on behalf of the pharmaceutical industry, which pales in comparison to nearly 1500 industry lobbyists documented in the US in 2011. Clear and enforced reporting rules in the US yield a more accurate picture of pharma's lobby contingent in America as compared to the EU." Though it could be more accurate it seems as thought the drug lobbyists still exist in Europe it seems to be more manageable. It isn't completely gone but does prove the fact that these drug lobbyists are a larger part of the U.S policies.

    How can we stop this? I don't think I can answer that question, but what I do believe is that something must be done to limit these large companies in this back door diplomacy that has been so prevalent in U.S politics. As my generation gets older and this issue proves itself more important we must make strides in changing such a problem. Europe seems to have it figured out. It would be one less thing for us to worry about and provides a hassle free way to take care of ourselves and our family. I can only hope more is done in the following years as many other attempts throughout the years has been so unsuccessful.