Dear America,

It is time we revamp our healthcare system. According to the Census Bureau, 8.5% of
Americans in 2018 were uninsured for the whole year, which is around 27.5 million people. The
Common Wealth Fund did a study that suggests another 41.1 million people were underinsured
in 2018 (Collins). In total that is 68.6 million Americans who don’t have adequate access to
healthcare, 20% of our total population. Those who are uninsured or underinsured are more
likely to postpone treatment which can lead to higher healthcare costs.
Speaking of higher healthcare costs let’s talk about how much we spend on average for
healthcare. America is part of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development) along with 36 other countries, the OECD gets each countries economic data
every year and compiles publications comparing the countries in different economic categories.
According to the OECD America spent just over $11,000 per capita in 2019, the highest
spending overall in the OECD. If you look at the next highest spender you see that Switzerland
spends about $7,700 per capita which is 30% less than America. The average spending per
capita in the OECD is just shy of $4,300, a whopping 61% less than America. While $4,300
seems unrealistic $7,700 is a number we could aim for (Health Resources).
Now maybe you are thinking what do these numbers have to do with uninsured or
underinsured? The purpose is to shine a light that just because you cover more people doesn’t
mean the cost has to go up. If you look at Switzerland all of their citizens are covered by
insurance, compared to America where only 91.5% are covered by insurance yet they manage
to spend less on healthcare.
While there are reasons for countries to cover more but spend less like the quality of
healthcare is not as good, and there are worse outcomes for patients, but that doesn’t seem to
be the case. Switzerland actually has the second-highest total (men and women) life
expectancy in the OECD at 83.8 years, compared to America which comes in 29th place with a
total life expectancy of 78.7 years. Just a reminder that America was #1 in cost per capita for
healthcare but it got beat out by 28 countries that spend less (Health Status).
While just looking at one metric does not a strong argument make it is an important
metric to look at to see how a healthcare system is doing. After all, the goal of healthcare is for
people to live healthy long lives. This data is promising that America might be able to spend
less, insure more, and get better outcomes just like many of the other developed countries. So
America let’s look to our neighbors and see what they are doing better so that we can improve
ourselves.

Sincerely,

The Americans who need more than just a yearly physical

 Works Cited

Collins, Sara R. “U.S. Health Insurance Coverage in 2020: A Looming Crisis in Affordability.”

Health Coverage Affordability Crisis 2020 Biennial Survey | Commonwealth Fund, 19 Aug.

2020,

www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2020/aug/looming-crisis-health-cov

erage-2020-biennial.

“Health Resources - Health Spending - OECD Data.” TheOECD,

data.oecd.org/healthres/health-spending.htm.

“Health Status - Life Expectancy at Birth - OECD Data.” TheOECD,

data.oecd.org/healthstat/life-expectancy-at-birth.htm.