Healthcare - Discussion Responses Healthcare

Healthcare - Discussion Responses

HEALTHCARE DISCUSSION RESPONSES

Historically each generation in the U.S. could expect to live longer than their parents yet presently the life expectancy of women in the U.S. is decreasing; my question;

Can a nation of unhealthy people be globally competitive?

Response to Statement #1: Certainly, it is true that national poverty is one measure corresponding to relative unhealthiness of a nation's population. Likewise, it is also generally true that widespread unhealthiness in the population is not particularly conducive to competitive productivity. However, the topic question relates more to the following two issues: (1) what are the specific causes for the apparent decrease in life expectancy of American women, and (2) whether or not this decrease in life expectancy is large enough to affect the country's global competitiveness.

Response to Statement #2:

First, as to whether or not a nation of unhealthy people can be globally competitive, that answer may depend very much on the chosen definition of "health" for the purpose of this discussion. If "health" means healthy enough to live to a professionally productive age, then yes, health is crucial to economic competitiveness; if "health" encompasses everything our physicians consider to measures of good health in modern society, then no, good health is not necessarily a prerequisite to global competitiveness.

Health care costs in particular are undoubtedly a major concern for the continued viability of the American economy, but do not necessarily relate quite so directly to global competitiveness. For one thing, higher health care costs do not necessarily reflect poor public health; much of the inflated costs of healthcare could be reduced significantly without affecting the quality of medical care provided in society. Second, poor health in the individual probably detracts from his or her capacity to contribute to society more directly than the harm to productive society represented by the cost of the individual's healthcare.

Furthermore, the vast majority of American healthcare dollars are spent on individuals in their later years, after their productive lives are already over, rather than on working-age people. Finally, while reducing healthcare costs is necessary for the optimal health of the American economy, it probably relates more directly to private economic matters rather than to consuming national resources that could otherwise be dedicated to technological development in a general sense.

Response to Statement #3: As suggested in Response #2, optimum public health is not necessarily a prerequisite for global competitiveness unless by "health" one means healthy enough to reach productive adulthood. On the other hand, the American population is undoubtedly on the verge of an obesity crisis, and ever-increasing obesity-related incidence of many diseases, including diabetes and probably more forms of human cancer than those unrelated to obesity.