WMCAT 20/20 Participant Reflection: The Past, Present, and Future of Our Healthcare System
Nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, many in Michigan are asking what a post-COVID world will look like. COVID-19 has exacerbated many of the existing challenges within our healthcare system, including disparities in access to health coverage, high costs of care and medicine, inequitable outcomes, and more. As of this writing, over 475,000 Americans have died as a result of COVID-19. The American healthcare system is moving towards a value-based payment model, one in which quality of care and better health outcomes are incentivized. Our current system pays for the cost of delivering care regardless of outcome, spending an estimated $11,000 per person, compared to the $5,400 average per person in peer countries. The United States spends more on health care than almost every other developed nation in the world, yet we do not see improved health outcomes.