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Photo by Artur Tumasjan on Unsplash
By Jack Beaudoin and Camille Beaudoin
BRUNSWICK — Long before the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, the U.S. health care system faced significant shortcomings. Studies document that while the United States spends three times as much on health care as other high-income countries, we rank extremely low in critical areas such as access, timeliness and health outcomes. Each release in the Commonwealth Fund’s series of health care reports, “Mirror, Mirror,” shows we have the worst infant mortality rates and the lowest life-expectancy rates for people reaching age 60 among the world’s affluent, industrialized countries.
This isn’t because of poorly trained health care professionals or inferior technology. In these categories, we do have the best. The problem is a lack of health care professionals and facilities to serve our aging and unhealthy populations. Even in normal circumstances, Americans who can afford health care face problems accessing primary and emergency care in a timely way. Read more
Keywords #health
Published in The Maine Sunday Telegram
Founded in 1862, the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram is a daily newspaper with a website that serves southern Maine and is focused on the greater metropolitan area around Portland, Maine, in the United States.
Note: I co-authored this opinion column with my daughter Camille Beaudoin, then a junior in high school with a deep interest in medicine and medical education.
