It does not come as a huge surprise that the United States' expenditure on healthcare per capita is greater than that of any other nation in the world. The nation has spent a staggering 17 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on healthcare in 2015.
Surveys and official rankings, however, reveal that America is nowhere near the top when it comes to the health of its citizens. This disparity between monetary yield and health outcome is quite difficult to grasp. To understand the cause of this shocking reality, the comprehension of the basic factors that determine good health is important.
According to The Huffington Post, five major factors identified are genetics, medical care, environmental impact, social conditions and behavior. Among these, the most important contributors to health are the social, behavioral and environmental conditions, as suggested by research experiments.
Due to lack of scientific technology to alter the genes that are inherited by an individual, the part of health determined by genetics cannot be discussed. Hence, the understanding and importance of the other factors become even more crucial.
It has been found that countries, which have better social services in terms of health care budget instead of a higher health to service fund, have better health status. When a similar survey was carried out between various states within the United States, the results still supported this idea.
It was practically explained how reallocating the funds from health services to social ones would decrease health problems. As News Dump explained, the U.S. keeps spending trillions on health care but it is
simply not targeting the right area.
The positive point here is that no greater investments need to be made. The solution is to simply increase the percentage of GDP spent on social services instead of health services. This will eventually lead to lesser diseases and health issues, effectively improving the health of the masses.
