Healthcare Fails

After reading the article “Health Care’s Biggest Problem Is Getting Worse and 2020 Democrats don’t have a plan to fix it.” I have come to the conclusion to agree with the message the article is trying to convey. The message of the article, https://washingtonmonthly.com/2019/10/12/health-cares-biggest-problem-is-getting-worse/ seems to be pointed to families who don’t have private insurance companies or who aren’t granted insurance by the government, due to the fact they can’t meet the requirements. The author Anne Kim, has used data and research from 2012 and 2016 to show a comparison between the concentrated hospital markets. Over a 4-year time period the concentration market becomes worse when the fields begin to merge further. Research has found that “price hikes are especially dramatic—as much as 20 percent—when hospitals in already concentrated markets merge further. Even worse, the ultimate potential casualty of consolidation is often patient wellbeing.” Kim provides the audience with the insight as to what is happening in the healthcare system but also how it’s affecting patients who have the proper insurance coverage. The statement “Gaynor and Town found similar results from other studies in their review. When hospitals stop having to compete for patients, their attention to quality suffers.” really allowed me to open my eyes. I, a person who has insurance and is covered for medical services am now exposed and at risk of low-quality care from a hospital due to the fact that there is “less competition/drive for the hospital to produce their best quality work”. And it’s not just myself, its many other Americans who are in the same place as me. The message in this article made me realize that when a system that was developed to help 1 group fails, but also starts affecting the same group and more in a negative way, something needs to be done. Anne Kim has displayed an argument from all perspectives that educates its reader about the ongoing issues we American’s are having to deal with basically in order to survive.