Blog Post
SYSTEMS CHECK
Systems Check by Peter Stengaard
We don’t have a healthcare system, we have a healthcare industry.”
The COVID-19 pandemic clearly exposes just how fragile and unprepared the US is when it comes to an attack on our health. There seems to be no system in place for coordinating the various needs of the hospitals and governors are falling over each other trying to purchase much needed equipment and supplies for the hospitals in their states, often at ridiculously inflated prices because of the sudden demand. The core of the problem is that almost every hospital is an independent machine - finely tuned to profit from the ailments of the citizens and therefore mostly unprepared for drastic events such as COVID-19 - because it would be bad for the bottom line to have this kind of capacity needed for emergencies. Literally all the other western countries in the world have government run health care systems that are designed to service the citizens, not profit from them - both during more normal times and during states of national emergency. Even non-profit hospitals, which is around 60% of the hospitals in the US are huge profit machines that pay their executives exuberantly and spend millions on lobbying. On average, a bed in a non-profit hospital is more expensive than a bed in a private hospital is per day. It is our belief that a society able to coordinate and fund infrastructure, police and fire departments not to mention the world's strongest army, would also be able to service the health care needs of their citizens in a more efficient, humane, equal, ethical and intelligent way than the healthcare industry in the US currently does.
