how does us healthcare system focus on treatment

A system about health would be seeking ways to cultivate exactly that, not just treat often unnecessary disease after it develops and advances. An even better system would invest actively in health promotion, and the promulgation of lifestyle practices, social supports and environmental exposures conducive to it.

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What is the US health care system?

The U.S. Health Care System. The U.S. health care system is one of the largest and most complex in the entire world. The total health care spending in the U.S. is over $2.5 trillion per year and over $20,000 a year for a family of four. This lesson will go over the major points and concepts involved with respect to our health care system.

How much do you know about our health care system?

The U.S. health care system is one of the largest and most complex in the entire world. The total health care spending in the U.S. is over $2.5 trillion per year and over $20,000 a year for a family of four. This lesson will go over the major points and concepts involved with respect to our health care system. Are you a student or a teacher?

How much does the US spend on health care?

The U.S. health care system is one of the largest and most complex in the entire world. The total health care spending in the U.S. is over $2.5 trillion per year and over $20,000 a year for a family of four. This lesson will go over the major points and concepts involved with respect to our health care system.

How do circumstances affect health care in the United States?

Circumstances in the United States could affect the ability of the health care system to render aid to victims of transportation-related injuries and violence, two leading contributors to the U.S. health disadvantage (more...) Chronic Illness Care

How is healthcare treated in the US?

The United States does not have a uniform health system and has no universal healthcare coverage. The health disadvantage of the U.S. relative to other high-income countries is health disparities in health services. The United States does not have a uniform health system and has no universal healthcare coverage.

What type of healthcare does the United States mainly focus on?

In addition to private health insurance nearly 26% of the U.S. population is covered by public health insurance. The two major types of public health insurance, both of which began in 1966 are Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is a uniform national public health insurance program for aged and disabled individuals.

How is the US healthcare system structured?

Health care is split into different sectors – the private, the public, and the voluntary sectors. Private and public sectors supply insurance and care to most Americans. In the private sector, 56% of patients pay for their health care with insurance that they get primarily through their employer.

What are the main characteristics of the US healthcare system?

Defining Characteristics of the U.S. Health Care SystemNo central governing agency and little integration and coordination.Technology-driven deliver system focusing on acute care.High in cost, unequal in access, and average in outcome.Delivery of health care under imperfect market conditions.More items...

How is the US healthcare system different from other countries?

Patients in the U.S. have shorter average hospitals stays and fewer physician visits per capita, while many hospital procedures have been shown to have higher prices in the U.S. Similarly, many prescription drugs cost more in the U.S. than the same drugs do in other comparable nations.

Why the American healthcare system is good?

The advanced medical milieu that Americans enjoy has led to the world's best cancer survival rates, a life expectancy for those over 80 that is actually greater than anywhere else, and lower mortality rates for heart attacks and strokes than in comparable countries.

What are the three roles of the US government in the health care system?

The federal government plays a number of different roles in the American health care arena, including regulator; purchaser of care; provider of health care services; and sponsor of applied research, demonstrations, and education and training programs for health care professionals.

What country has the best healthcare?

South Korea has the best health care systems in the world, that's according to the 2021 edition of the CEOWORLD magazine Health Care Index, which ranks 89 countries according to factors that contribute to overall health.

What are the 2 main objectives of a health care delivery system does the US healthcare system presently meet those objectives?

An acceptable health care delivery sys- tem should have two primary objectives: (1) it must enable all citizens to access health care services, and (2) the services must be cost-effective and meet certain established standards of quality. In many ways, the US health care delivery system falls short of these ideals.

What are six things the US health care system assumes about its patients?

Katz points out the many assumptions healthcare in the United States makes—that patients can take off of work in the middle of the day to get care, can speak English, are literate, have enough food, have a home with a refrigerator, a bathroom, and a bed where they can sleep without worrying about violence while they ...

Does the US have the best healthcare in the world?

The U.S. ranks last overall on the health care outcomes domain (Exhibit 1). On nine of the 10 component measures, U.S. performance is lowest among the countries (Appendix 8), including having the highest infant mortality rate (5.7 deaths per 1,000 live births) and lowest life expectancy at age 60 (23.1 years).

What is the major objective of the Affordable Care Act?

(ACA) has 3 main objectives: (1) to reform the private insurance market—especially for individuals and small-group purchasers, (2) to expand Medicaid to the working poor with income up to 133% of the federal poverty level, and (3) to change the way that medical decisions are made.

What type of care is most likely to be provided on an informal basis?

The most common forms of care provided by informal caregivers are assistance with activities of daily living (ADLs) or instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs),4 medication management, and care coordination, which involves figuring out what kind of care is needed, where to find care, and how to arrange for care.

Which of the following is an example of a secondary care service?

Examples of medical situations needing secondary care services include cancer treatment, medical care for pneumonia and other severe and sudden infections, and care for broken bones.

What are the primary functions of managed care?

Its main purpose is to better serve plan members by focusing on prevention and care management, which helps produce better patient outcomes and healthier lives. Managed care also helps control costs so you can save money.

Why do people have problems accessing healthcare?

Prohibitively high cost is the primary reason Americans give for problems accessing health care. Americans with below-average incomes are much more likely than their counterparts in other countries to report not: visiting a physician when sick; getting a recommended test, treatment, or follow-up care; filling a prescription; and seeing a dentist. [9] Fifty-nine percent of physicians in the U.S. acknowledge their patients have difficulty paying for care. [10] In 2013, 31 percent of uninsured adults reported not getting or delaying medical care because of cost, compared to five percent of privately insured adults and 27 percent of those on public insurance, including Medicaid/CHIP and Medicare. [11]

Why are healthcare costs so high?

The first is the cost of new technologies and prescription drugs. Some analysts have argued “that the availability of more expensive, state-of-the-art medical technologies and drugs fuels health care spending for development costs and because they generate demand for more intense, costly services even if they are not necessarily cost-effective.” [12] In 2013, the U.S. spent $1,026 per capita on pharmaceuticals and other non-durable medical care, more than double the OECD average of $515. [13]

What percentage of uninsured people did not get medical care in 2013?

In 2013, 31 percent of uninsured adults reported not getting or delaying medical care because of cost, compared to five percent of privately insured adults and 27 percent of those on public insurance, including Medicaid/CHIP and Medicare.

How much does lack of health insurance cost the economy?

The Center for American Progress estimated in 2009 that the lack of health insurance in the U.S. cost society between $124 billion and $248 billion per year. While the low end of the estimate represents just the cost of the shorter lifespans of those without insurance, the high end represents both the cost of shortened lifespans and the loss of productivity due to the reduced health of the uninsured. [23]

How many people were covered by Medicare in 2014?

Among the insured, 115.4 million people, 36.5 percent of the population, received coverage through the U.S. government in 2014 through Medicare (50.5 million), Medicaid (61.65 million), and/or Veterans Administration or other military care (14.14 million) (people may be covered by more than one government plan).

What is the purpose of the fact sheet on health care?

This fact sheet will compare the U.S. health care system to other advanced industrialized nations, with a focus on the problems of high health care costs and disparities in insurance coverage in the U.S. It will then outline some common methods used in other countries to lower health care costs, examine the German health care system as a model for non-centralized universal care, and put the quality of U.S. health care in an international context.

What is the health care system in Germany?

Germany has one of the most successful health care systems in the world in terms of quality and cost. Some 240 insurance providers collectively make up its public option. Together, these non-profit “sickness funds” cover 90 percent of Germans, with the majority of the remaining 10 percent, generally higher income Germans, opting to pay for private health insurance. The average per-capita health care costs for this system are less than half of the cost in the U.S. The details of the system are instructive, as Germany does not rely on a centralized, Medicare-like health insurance plan, but rather relies on private, non-profit, or for-profit insurers that are tightly regulated to work toward socially desired ends—an option that might have more traction in the U.S. political environment. [70]

How does the United States achieve its treatment goals?

Achieving Treatment TargetsThe United States is making progress in meeting specified treatment targets, especially those established in practice guidelines, quality performance indicators, and criteria used for pay-for-performance incentives. Establishing higher reimbursements and other incentives has spurred many U.S. providers and hospitals to improve their performance outcomes (Epstein, 2007; Institute of Medicine, 2007c). Treatment goals for controlling hypertension, elevated serum lipids, and diabetes rely heavily on the use of prescription drugs, and the United States has higher per capita consumption of pharmaceuticals than peer countries (Morgan and Kennedy, 2010; Squires, 2011). In 2009, per capita spending on pharmaceuticals in the United States was $947, nearly twice the OECD average of $487 (OECD, 2011b). Evidence is available on how the United States compares with other countries in achieving specific cardiovascular and diabetes treatment targets.

What is health system?

The panel defines “health systems” broadly, to encompass the full continuum between public health (population-based services) and medical care (delivered to individual patients). As outlined in previous Institute of Medicine reports (e.g., 2011e), health systems involve far more than hospitals and physicians, whose work often focuses on tertiary prevention (averting complications among patients with known disease). Both public health and clinical medicine are also concerned with primary and secondary prevention.1The health of a population also depends on other public health services and policies aimed at safeguarding the public from health and injury risks (Institute of Medicine, 2011d, 2011e, 2012) and attending to the needs of people with mental illness (Aron et al., 2009). There is mounting evidence that chronic illness care requires better integration of professions and institutions to help patients manage their conditions, and that health care systems built on an acute, episodic model of care are ill equipped to meet the longer-term and fluctuating needs of people with chronic illnesses. Wagner and colleagues (1996)were among the first to document the importance of coordination in managing chronic illnesses. Many countries differ from the United States because public health and medical care services are embedded in a centralized health system and social and health care policies are more integrated than they are in the United States (Phillips, 2012).

What did the panel find that might explain the inferior health outcomes in the United States?

The panel did find some evidence comparing other characteristics of the health system—access and quality —that might explain the inferior health outcomes in the United States. This evidence is reviewed below.

What are the causes of death discussed in Part I?

Many of the specific causes of death discussed in Part I—such as transportation-related injuries, homicide, communicable diseases, and chronic diseases —have some connection to health professionals and medical care. For example, the survival of injury victims and their rehabilitation are dependent on emergency medical services and speedy, effective trauma care (Cudnick et al., 2009; Institute of Medicine, 2007a; MacKenzie et al., 2006). Medical care has obvious connections to other areas of the U.S. health disadvantage, such as infant mortality and other adverse birth outcomes, HIV infection, heart disease, and diabetes.

How to compare the health services of countries?

Thus, the only way to compare the public health services of countries is to examine proxy measures, but proxies often miss other important differences in population-based public health protections. This section discusses several measures of the quality of public health and medical care systems: immunizations, health promotion, screening tests, acute care, chronic illness care, medical errors, and optimizing health care delivery.

What are the barriers to health care?

Barriers to health care also influence health outcomes. Inadequate health insurance coverage is associated with inferior health care and health status and with premature death (Freeman et al., 2008; Hadley, 2003; Institute of Medicine, 2003b, 2009a; Wilper et al., 2009). Conversely, universal coverage has been associated with improved health, both in U.S. states (Courtemanche and Zapata, 2012) and in other countries (Hanratty, 1996). Two other barriers, inadequate numbers of physicians and a weak primary care system, are associated with higher all-cause mortality, all-cause premature mortality, and cause-specific premature mortality (Chang et al., 2011; Macinko et al., 2003, 2007; Or et al., 2005; Phillips and Bazemore, 2010; Starfield, 1996; Starfield et al., 2005).

How does coordination of care affect health outcomes?

Coordination of care also affects health outcomes because miscommunication, flawed handoffs, and confusion can result in lapses in patient safety and gaps and delays in the delivery of care (Institute of Medicine, 2007b).

Where are the remaining 50% of pharmacies located?

The remaining 50% are located within other facilities, including drug stores ( though the terms “drugstore” and “pharmacy” are used interchangeably ), clinics, grocery stores, and hospitals. A significant number of these are chain brand stores such as Walgreens and CVS. Unlike other countries, pharmacies in the United States are often large, ...

Which hospitals are the best for emergency care?

Their top treatment hospitals include the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, UCLA Medical Center, and Massachusetts General Hospital.

How many pharmacies are owned by small businesses?

35% of the pharmacies in the United States are independently owned small businesses. The remaining pharmacies are located within other facilities, including drug stores (though the terms “drugstore” and “pharmacy” are used interchangeably), clinics, grocery stores, and hospitals. A significant number of these pharmacies are owened by chain brand stores such as Walgreens and CVS. A recent review shows that 37% of prescriptions in the US are filled by mail order. Common, over-the-counter medications are also available in most retail environments, including grocery stores and gas stations.

Does the US have universal healthcare?

Remember that there is no universal healthcare in the USA. While the US pays for health care for specific groups such as the elderly and veterans through programs such as Medicaid, Medicare, and the Veteran’s Health Administration, overall the government does not sponsor health benefits for its citizens, much less foreigners. If you need medical care, you pay for it in full unless your insurance policy covers it.

Do pharmacies have over the counter medications?

The major chain drug stores have their own in-house brand of over the counter medications, so if you’re shopping for common pain or allergy medication, ask the pharmacy team if they have a less expensive, generic equivalent.

How did the Affordable Care Act change the health care system?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) changed many things with respect to our health care system and health insurance plans. It has made sure that insurers can't cancel your coverage because of a simple mistake on your part. It has kept young adults, under the age of 26, on their parent's health care plan if they cannot get insurance for themselves.

What type of health insurance do Americans have?

One choice is a managed care plan . This is a type of health insurance program that coordinates the financing and delivery of health care services for its enrolled members in order to provide care at the lowest possible cost and highest possible quality. The three types of managed care plans include HMOs, PPOs, and POS plans.

Why do people not have health insurance?

That's because underinsured individuals may have policies that don't cover every type of service or may have ones with high out-of-pocket costs.

What is an HSA?

There are other types of health plans, such as an HSA, or health savings account. This is a medical savings account available to people enrolled in high-deductible health plans (or HDHPs). A person is allowed to set aside pre-tax income into the HSA, which is then used to pay only for health care-related expenses.

What is managed care plan?

This is a type of health insurance program that coordinates the financing and delivery of health care services for its enrolled members in order to provide care at the lowest possible cost and highest possible quality. The three types of managed care plans include HMOs, PPOs, and point of service plans (POS).

Why are drugs so expensive?

The drugs that doctors use to treat you are many times so expensive because it may take over a decade and hundreds of millions of dollars to research, develop, approve, and market one single little drug found in the pill in a person's hand - a pill that may be used to treat chronic, or long-term, problems like obesity that's on the rise in the U.S. Such chronic conditions definitely raise the cost of health care for everyone.

Why do doctors have to go through training?

Let's face it, one reason is the fact that doctors have to go through a lot of training and education to help people as much as possible. Couple that now with ever increasing tuition costs necessary to educate a doctor who may one day serve you. But that's only one part of it all.

Why do we care so much about health care?

Why do we care so much about cost? Because 17.2% of our spending in 2012 as a nation was on health-related expenditures. Health care costs are increasing faster than wages, which means that an increasing proportion of household income is spent on health care (premiums and out of pocket). If health care spending crowds out other spending priorities on the national or individual basis we have a problem. Are we spending too much? That depends on your perspective and spending priorities.

What are the external forces that affect the health care system?

External forces of history, financial constraints, political landscape, current socioeconomic structure and consumer preferences shape the structure, or lack thereof, of the American health care system—often through health policy decisions about funding care, reimbursement, and regulation. Direct effects can be seen in the organization ...

What is the trifecta of the US health system?

The US has the trifecta of high cost, unequal access, and often below average outcomes compared to other highly developed nations. This module will provide an introduction to the American health care system (AHCS), explore some of the complexities of health care delivery, and provide a glimpse of the historical evolution of the AHCS that has led to the great debate and need for health care reform today. We will differentiate between the traditional primary care and hospital-based paradigms and more preventive, out-patient and medical home community models.

What would happen if shopping were like health care?

If shopping were like health care, product prices would not be posted, and the price charged would vary widely within the same store, depending on the source of payment. If automobile manufacturing were like health care, warranties for cars that require manufacturers to pay for defects would not exist.

What is medical care?

Medical care is often understood as the more clinical aspects that take place in the traditional medical setting. Health is a much broader concept. The health care system extends far beyond the exam room and we will see this in upcoming week.

When did the health reform law come into effect?

The large number of uninsured people in the United States has been at the forefront of health policy discussion for decades, and in recent years has received increased attention with the passage of the health reform law in 2010.

Is the US health system perfect?

Sure ly, the American health care system is far from perfect, but, then, by now you probably realize that no perfect system exists anywhere. Americans have access to a patchwork of subsystems (like managed care, the Veterans Administration, and emerging IDSs) that characterize health care delivery in the US. However, the systems framework does give ...

Why are hospitals paid to treat?

Currently, most providers, including hospitals and physicians, are paid to treat rather than to prevent disease. Payers have the potential to increase utilization of preventive services with value-based payment models and contractual requirements that include reporting on preventive health quality measures.

What is the role of health care payers?

The third finding focused on the role of health care payers (commercial payers/health plans, Medicaid, and particularly Medicare) in influencing uptake of preventive care services. Findings coalesced around the opportunities for payers to drive change in practice. As risk-bearing entities, they provide the payment models and the influence and incentives that can affect uptake of chronic disease preventive services. Several interviewees highlighted the importance of data for payers. As one expert explained, “Payers have the data that can often drive adoption or uptake of programs and interventions.”

Why are preventive services underutilized?

Underutilization of preventive services is largely the result of an implementation gap rather than an information gap; in other words, providers do not prioritize preventive care services although they know that preventive services can reduce the incidence and burden of chronic diseases. A major reason the implementation gap exists is that financial incentives do not align with a focus on preventing chronic diseases. Currently, most providers, including hospitals and physicians, are paid to treat rather than to prevent disease. Payers have the potential to increase utilization of preventive services with value-based payment models and contractual requirements that include reporting on preventive health quality measures.

How to increase uptake of preventive services?

Increasing uptake of preventive services requires multifaceted strategies, including but not limited to organizational leadership, education, measurement, and reimbursement. With this in mind, we developed an interview guide ( Table 2 ), which included a series of questions focused on how payers, health systems, and physicians determine their clinical and business priorities for resource allocation and quality improvement efforts. We asked about opportunities to include incentives for the use of preventive services under current and emerging designs of models for payment and delivery. We included questions about examples of successful implementation of preventive services strategies or models and about clinical–community linkages that focus on chronic disease prevention.

What is clinical preventive care?

Clinical preventive strategies are available for many chronic diseases; these strategies include intervening before disease occurs (primary prevention), detecting and treating disease at an early stage (secondary prevention), and managing disease to slow or stop its progression (tertiary prevention). These interventions, combined with lifestyle changes, can substantially reduce the incidence of chronic disease and the disability and death associated with chronic disease (9). However, clinical preventive services are substantially underutilized despite the human and economic burden of chronic diseases, the availability of evidence-based tools to prevent or ameliorate them, and the effectiveness of prevention strategies (9–11). For example, in 2015, only 8% of US adults aged 35 or older received all recommended, high-priority, appropriate clinical preventive services, and nearly 5% received none (12).

How does chronic disease affect quality of life?

Chronic diseases can profoundly reduce quality of life for patients and for their families, affecting enjoyment of life, family relationships, and finances (5). Working can be difficult for people with chronic diseases: rates of absenteeism are higher and income is often lower among people who have a chronic disease compared with people who do not have one. Functional limitations can be distressing, and depression, which can reduce a patient’s ability to cope with pain and worsen the clinical course of disease, is a common complication (6).

What are the chronic diseases?

Chronic diseases are a tremendous burden to both patients and the health care system. In 2014, 60% of adult Americans had at least one chronic disease or condition, and 42% had multiple diseases (1). Chronic diseases, including heart disease, cancer, chronic lung disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis, and chronic kidney disease, are the leading causes of poor health, long-term disability, and death in the United States (2,3). One-third of all deaths in this country are attributable to heart disease or stroke, and every year, more than 1.7 million people receive a diagnosis of cancer (2). During the past several decades, the prevalence of diabetes increased dramatically; in 2015 more than 29 million Americans had diabetes and another 86 million adults had prediabetes, increasing their chance of developing type 2 diabetes (3). Diabetes increases the risk of developing other chronic diseases, including heart disease, stroke, and hypertension, and is the leading cause of end-stage renal failure (4).

Why do we have for profit groups in healthcare?

Maximizing profit is why we have for-profit groups in health care. Not-for-profit-groups have had to fall in line with the for-profit groups to compete for patients. Hospitals have had to redesign facilities to make them more appealing to compete for patients. With grandeur comes expense.

Why do we want payment reform for family physicians?

As I travel around the country, I hear the issues facing us all. Sure, we want payment reform because we know the facts of "no margin, no mission." Many family physicians are small-business people. They are struggling to pay employees and provide them with health insurance and other benefits, as well as to pay the rent, malpractice insurance, utilities, taxes and a myriad of other expenses before they pay themselves. Family physicians deserve a decent wage, loan forgiveness and economic stability.

Why would insurance remain profitable?

Insurance would remain a profitable industry because it would still be needed to cover hospitalization and subspecialist services. This would be a two-tiered system in which everyone would be covered by primary care in hopes of keeping the population healthy alongside another tier to cover accidents and subspecialty needs.

What does "non paying patients" mean?

Hospitals have had to redesign facilities to make them more appealing to compete for patients. With grandeur comes expense. "Paying patients" used to mean those with insurance (including Medicare). Nonpaying patients were those who did not have insurance or were on Medicaid.

How many primary care visits per year without copay?

It would allow anyone with any health insurance, including catastrophic plans, up to four primary care visits per year without copay. Preventive medicine, we know, is the best money spent in health care. If we can prevent a heart attack, we will save the system money.

Do family physicians deserve a decent wage?

They are struggling to pay employees and provide them with health insurance and other benefits, as well as to pay the rent, malpractice insurance, utilities, taxes and a myriad of other expenses before they pay themselves. Family physicians deserve a decent wage, loan forgiveness and economic stability.

How can we change the medical system?

Changing the system requires recognition of these cultural, technological, and economic obstacles and identification of specific means for overcoming them through alterations in medical education, medical research, health policy, and reimbursement. For example, to combat the primacy of technical knowledge and the profit-based system for medical technology, medical schools must teach prevention strategies alongside treatment approaches, and emphasize motivational interviewing with a focus on lifestyle modification. Payers and the federal government must fully reward use of appropriate non-patentable therapies and support research on the development and dissemination of prevention strategies.

What is the purpose of disease prevention?

Disease prevention encompasses all efforts to anticipate the genesis of disease and forestall its progression to clinical manifestations. A focus on prevention does not imply that disease can be eliminated, but rather embraces Fries’ model of “morbidity compression,”3in which the disease-free lifespan is extended through the prevention of disease complications and the symptom burden is compressed into a limited period preceding death. Thus, a prevention model is ideally suited to addressing chronic conditions that take decades to develop and then manifest as life-threatening and ultimately fatal exacerbations.

What should medical school curricula emphasize?

Medical school curricula should emphasize homeostasis and health, rather than only disease and diagnosis, and provide training in the science and practice of cost-effective health promotion. In turn, payers will need to reimburse for health maintenance and prevention activities, primary care physicians will have to act as health coaches; and all health care professionals will need to embrace a coordinated multidisciplinary team approach. Systematic steps must also be taken to change the culture of medicine so that primary care is valued. Renewing primary care will require increasing ambulatory care training in community settings and reallocating funding for residency training away from hospitals to reimburse appropriately for innovative models such as medical homes. Furthermore, we must compensate primary care physicians for their work as care coordinators by establishing reimbursement parity for cognitive and procedural care and accounting for long-term costs and benefits.

How can we change our reductionist way of thinking?

To change our reductionist way of thinking, we must teach aspiring physicians about systems science that addresses psychological, social and economic determinants of disease. Taking a patient-centered, whole-person approach focused on long-term functional status will also help to address the current fragmentation of care and allow for standardization of prevention strategies.

Is there a need for a prevention model?

Although the need for a prevention model was highlighted during the recent health care reform debate, efforts to expand prevention continue to be thwarted by a system better suited to acute care. A century after the Flexner report, the acute care model and its cultural, technological, and economic underpinnings remain securely embedded in every aspect of our health care system.

Is prevention a part of health reform?

Current health care reform efforts will bring incremental improvement, but reengineering prevention into health care will require deeper changes, including reconnecting medicine to public health services and integrating prevention into the management and delivery of care. Though change is painful, the successful transformation of medicine at the turn of the last century demonstrates that it is possible. Ultimately, embedding prevention in the teaching, organization, and practice of medicine can stem the unabated, economically unsustainable burden of chronic disease.

Focus on Improving Health

• One of the most striking aspects of Covid-19 is that it often exploits underlying chronic conditionssuch as diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. With these chronic conditions already at epidemic levels in America, the U.S. population has been ripe to be ravaged by Covid-19. Six in 10 Americans live with at least one chronic disease, according to t...

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