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Has the Trump administration responded well to COVID-19?
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The health system is hospital focused

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The Argument

Health care in the United States is the world’s most expensive, yet America’s health outcomes are poor with the highest rate of deaths amenable to health care per 100,000 population of 19 countries studied, with a rate not quite twice that of France, even though France spends roughly half of what the US does on health care. Unlike Britain and many Commonwealth countries, there has never been a focus on primary care and there is a major gap between the number of primary care providers and the number that would be needed to deliver primary care to the full population.[1] The World Health Organization’s recommendation for pandemic response is based upon a strong public health and primary care response.[2] Delaying disease spread is the only way a country’s health system won’t be overwhelmed.[1] Americans with insurance are used to a high-tech health care response rather than a public health measure like washing hands. This meant that the Washington State long term care facility where the first cluster of cases occurred, responded by admitting the people to hospital which ensured the virus was spread amongst sick and vulnerable people as quickly as possible.

Counter arguments

America has some of the best hospitals in the world and is rightly proud of them

Premises

[p1} The health care system in the USA is hospital focussed [p2] this is to the detriment to primary care, which is what is needed for a flu pandemic

Rejecting the premises

Further Reading

Bates D. W. (2010). Primary care and the US health care system: what needs to change? Journal of general internal medicine, 25(10), 998–999. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1464-0 Nolte E, McKee CM. Measuring the health of nations: updating an earlier analysis. Health Aff (Millwood) 2008;27(1):58–71. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.1.58

References

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2955476/
  2. https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/14/coronavirus-hospital-workers-present-sharply-different-pictures-of-preparedness/
This page was last edited on Monday, 2 Nov 2020 at 18:08 UTC

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