Health Systems

What is a health system?

Watch “Healthcare System Overview” by Khan Academy (1) - (8min)

What are the blindspots in US healthcare?

Watch this Ted Talk with Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, about the barriers to healthcare that low-income patients face, and how to build a better system for all: 

"What the US health care system assumes about you" (2) - (16m)

How do health systems affect individual health outcomes?

 Listen to Vox’s “The Impact - The curious case of the $629 Band-Aid” (3) - (25min)

If you’re interested, check out the rest of the first season of The Impact to hear about medical mistakes, healthcare inefficiency, and policies that lead to the opioid epidemic.

How can local communities create healthcare systems where they're needed most?

Listen to this NPR report on how one Texas community used its church to combat Covid-19, and overcome racial disparities in care: 

"To Combat Disparities, Black Churches in Dallas Offer Coronavirus Testing" (4) - (4m 24s)

Can healthcare systems choose new ways to address patient needs?

Watch Rebecca Onie's Ted Talk on how healthcare systems overlook social determinants of health, and how they can do better: "What if our health care system kept us healthy?" (5) - (16m 27s)

Check out these fun interactive exercises from the NY Times!

Build a 'Medicare for All' Plan (6)

Pick the "Best Health Care System in the World" (7)

If I am interested in this topic, where can I learn more?

Consider this NY Times article on how 200 economists would redesign the US healthcare system: "The Health System We'd Have if Economists Ran Things"(9)

Check out this Vox essay on nine lessons the US can learn from healthcare systems in other countries: "Everybody Covered: What the US can learn from other countries' health systems." (10)

Don't miss the excellent podcasts at the end!

Read this Atlantic article on how US Healthcare further separates the rich and the poor: "The American Health-Care System Increases Income Inequality." (11)

Learn from this NY Times essay on how strong health care systems could have mitigated the spread of Covid-19: "The US Approach to Public Health: Neglect, Panic, Repeat." (12) 

Check out International Health Care System Profiles (13)

This explains the healthcare systems and statistics for 18 different countries.

Check out Frontline’s documentary “Sick Around the World” (14) - (56min)

Compares healthcare systems in the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and Taiwan.

Sources

1.  Khan Academy. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from https://www.khanacademy.org/science/health-and-medicine/health-care-system

2. Katz M. What the US healthcare system assumes about you. Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/mitchell_katz_what_the_us_health_care_system_assumes_about_you

3. The curious case of the $629 Band-Aid by The Impact. Retrieved from https://megaphone.link/VMP5498960812.

4. NPR. To Combat Disparities Black Churches in Dallas Offer Coronavirus Testing. Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/06/13/874950245/to-combat-disparities-black-churches-in-dallas-offer-coronavirus-testing

5. Onie R. What if our healthcare system kept us healthy. Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/rebecca_onie_what_if_our_health_care_system_kept_us_healthy

6. Frakt A, Carroll AE. Build Your Own 'Medicare for All' Plan. Beware: There Are Tough Choices. Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/21/upshot/up-medicareforall.html

7. Carroll AE, Frakt A. The Best Health Care System in the World: Which One Would You Pick? Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/18/upshot/best-health-care-system-country-bracket.html

8. National Center for Health Statistics. Health, United States, 2015. Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://jsevy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/health_care_2014_v4.jpg

9. Frakt A. The Health System We'd Have if Economists Ran Things. Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/17/upshot/health-system-economists-survey.html

10. Scott D, Klein E, Golshan T. Everybody Covered. Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://www.vox.com/2020/1/13/21055327/everybody-covered

11. Newkirk V. The American Health-Care System Increases Income Inequality. Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/01/health-care-income-inequality-premiums-deductibles-costs/550997/

12. Interlandi J. The US Approach to Public Health: Neglect, Panic, Repeat. Retrieved on June 17, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-public-health-system-us.html

13. International Health Care System Profiles. (n.d.). Retrieved March 18, 2017, from http://international.commonwealthfund.org/countries/

14. Sick Around The World. Retrieved March 19, 2017, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/sickaroundtheworld/