Ava Howgate

Mr.Smith

ELA

16 October 2023

What the American Healthcare does to the American Dream

Did you know that more than 26,000 Americans have died in a year due to the lack of

health insurance they receive? The American Healthcare system is often described as an

insurance-based, high-costly system. Many Americans struggle to keep up with the cost of

healthcare causing many lower-class people of America to have health problems. The system can

cause many to lose money and weaken their health causing their American dream goals to not be

as completely reached due to the obstacles encountered. The American dream is the concept that

refers to the achievement of anyone disregarding their background can succeed in, The

healthcare system fails many Americans which has a domino effect on all aspects of an

American's life including their dreams.

The American Healthcare system is a controversial topic that plays a huge role in

Americans' lives today , while correlating with the American dream. The American Healthcare

system causes many Americans to face a great extent of financial problems. due to the highly

educated and modern knowledge the United States has regarding healthcare which makes the

prices too high. (REMOVE THIS LINE) In the The article written by Peter G. Peterson, Why

Are Americans Paying More for Healthcare, Peterson points out “In 2021, U.S. healthcare

spending reached $4.3 trillion, which averages to about $12,900 per person. By comparison, the

average cost of healthcare per person in other wealthy countries is only about half as much.”
(Peter G. Peterson) This quote helps REMOVE conclude how many Americans cannot receive

the healthcare they need to strive for in America REMOVE due to prices, by

(REMOVE)comparing the United States prices to other countries' prices of healthcare it

highlights the unnecessary expensive cost of healthcare. The majority of Americans already have

financial problems due to high costs for day-to-day things they need to live due to inflation, in

the article by Dashia Milden, Liliana Hall, and Laura Michelle Davis they introduced by stating:

“ by 0.4 percent from July 2023 to August 2023 and was up 3.7 percent from August

2022.”(.gov) REMOVE In the article why are Americans paying more for healthcare, the

author demonstrates this idea by presenting the facts of “The introduction of new, innovative

healthcare technology can lead to better, more expensive procedures and products. The

complexity of the U.S. healthcare system can lead to administrative waste in the insurance and

provider payment systems.” (Why are Americans paying more for healthcare?) The American

healthcare system is severely expensive which leads many Americans to encounter major debt

which causes the American dream to be far reaching. So Many Americans after spending their

money on daily necessities are not prepared for the cost of a sudden health issue that may come

to them with no ability to know this will happen. In contrast, due to America's highly educated

and advanced medical treatments, those who do become sick and can afford to get treatment will

have a high percentage of recovery, compared to other countries. This is promptly based on the

privileged for-profit model which indicates that higher class and wealthier people in the United

States will revise the higher REMOVE healthcare which is very bad towards the not as-wealthy

who do not get the privilege of receiving higher healthcare just due to being wealthy. This is a

common problem that is frequently resurfaced in America where there is little equality towards

classes, races, and religions which also has an impact on the revving end of healthcare. This is an
indicator of why the lower class tends to struggle a lot with healthcare in the United States. An

article that does a good job explaining this I found is called, Working-Class Families Are Getting

Hit From All Sides, which displays this issue incredibly, as they demonstrate in their article with

the quote “Millions of American families are living on the edge, increasingly suffering from

volatile incomes, unstable jobs and low wealth.” (Weller) As you can imagine REMOVE there

will be a drastic increase once already present poverty lower-class citizens get hit with sudden

expensive sickness heath expenses that they are not easy to cannot prepare for, they will not have

enough money to set aside just in case while already struggling with money. Healthcare plans

have a significant impact on the lives of Americans, both positively and negatively.

The American healthcare plan may be a topic many are unaware of but it plays a big part

in every American's life. The article Why health insurance is important by Healthcare.gov they

introduce the main purpose of healthcare plans by saying "No one plans to get sick or hurt, but

most people need medical care at some point. Health insurance covers these costs and offers

many other important benefits'' (Healthcare.gov) Healthcare plans are very helpful resources but

scarcely given out so they only benefit a handful of citizens. An American healthcare plan is

made up of many different policies and programs depending on the person. It is made by the

government of the United States with the goal of giving medical care, health insurance, and other

services to those whom it regards. Although this may seem very beneficial it actually has a lot of

downsides, including The plan's high cost, limited accessibility, and diversity that comes with the

plans. The United States has a very high healthcare cost and requirement for their healthcare

plans which leads to many not being able to receive them leading to more sickness and

frustration. The article by Harvard explains this well by highlighting, “High costs combined with

high numbers of underinsured or uninsured means many people risk bankruptcy if they develop a
serious illness. Prices vary widely, and it's nearly impossible to compare the quality or cost of

your healthcare options — or even to know how big a bill to expect.” (Shmerling) Adding onto

the knowledge the Harvard article explains how sudden sickness is very hard to keep up with due

to high prices of mostly everything healthcare-related, many of these problems would be solved

with healthcare plans but sadly these are very scarce due to the requirements they expect, these

requirements include age, income, residency and employment statues, this leads to overall

trouble in health for most lower class citizens.

As it has been presented, the lower class takes the healthcare system the hardest. Poverty

tends to be more present in places with fewer job opportunities, urban areas tend to have more

job opportunities, Unemployment is an obvious main cause of poverty and is a common problem

in the United States, lack of education and many not being able to achieve economic mobility

meaning moving out of poverty. In the U.S. According to United States Census Bureau who

wrote the article, National Poverty in America Awareness Month this article introduced the idea,

“The official poverty rate in 2021 was 11.6 percent, with 37.9 million people in poverty” The

United states struggles with poverty which is the reason why many americans cannot achieve

their American dream due to poverty the American Healthcare system add to Americans

financial issues

Improving healthcare in the United States will definitely be a long and complex process

but it is possible. There are many factors on why healthcare is not provided equally in the article

How to Improve Access to Health Care: Issues & Potential Solutions by USC it demonstrates

“High out-of-pocket costs, even for patients with insurance, are a huge barrier to accessing health

care. When people must choose between paying for food and rent or paying for health care,
many forgo health care. It’s an unacceptable choice disproportionately forced onto people from

low-income families.” (USC) even though there are many barriers causing not equal healthcare,

it needs to become universal and provided to everyone with no exceptions, the cost needs to

decrease drastically and focus more on how to prevent illnesses from ever occurring rather than

having to treat them. In the article Harvard Business reviewed 5 critical proteins for the U.S.

healthcare system by Robert Holly stated “Six in 10 Americans live with at least one chronic

disease, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” ( Holly) The arical

indicates that the majority of Americans struggle with healthcare and of actions are put in place

many can become better and the sickness pattern will be stopped.

In conclusion, the American healthcare system will remain a struggle for many

Americans if action is not put in place. We are all aware of the stacks that healthcare has on

many Americans so now we need to take action in order to stop healthcare from affecting many