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The U.S. Health Care System on the Eve of the Covid-19 Epidemic: A Summary of Recent Evidence on Its Impaired Performance.
Himmelstein, David U; Woolhandler, Steffie.
  • Himmelstein DU; City University of New York at Hunter College, New York, USA.
  • Woolhandler S; Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Int J Health Serv ; 50(4): 408-414, 2020 10.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-628695
ABSTRACT
Four decades of neoliberal health policies have left the United States with a health care system that prioritizes the profits of large corporate actors, denies needed care to tens of millions, is extraordinarily fragmented and inefficient, and was ill prepared to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The payment system has long rewarded hospitals for providing elective surgical procedures to well-insured patients while penalizing those providing the most essential and urgent services, causing hospital revenues to plummet as elective procedures were cancelled during the pandemic. Before the recession caused by the pandemic, tens of millions of Americans were unable to afford care, compromising their physical and financial health; deep-pocketed corporate interests were increasingly dominating the hospital industry and taking over physicians' practices; and insurers' profits hit record levels. Meanwhile, yawning class-based and racial inequities in care and health outcomes remain and have even widened. Recent data highlight the failure of policy strategies based on market models and the need to shift to a nonprofit social insurance model.
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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Pneumonia, Viral / Coronavirus Infections / Delivery of Health Care Type of study: Observational study / Prognostic study Limits: Humans Country/Region as subject: North America Language: English Journal: Int J Health Serv Year: 2020 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: 0020731420937631

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Full text: Available Collection: International databases Database: MEDLINE Main subject: Pneumonia, Viral / Coronavirus Infections / Delivery of Health Care Type of study: Observational study / Prognostic study Limits: Humans Country/Region as subject: North America Language: English Journal: Int J Health Serv Year: 2020 Document Type: Article Affiliation country: 0020731420937631