What are the impacts of poor healthcare?

Asked by: Prof. Angelo Torphy V  |  Last update: October 24, 2025
Score: 4.5/5 (27 votes)

Limited availability of health care resources is another barrier that may reduce access to health services and increase the risk of poor health outcomes. For example, physician shortages may mean that patients experience longer wait times and delayed care.

How does poor healthcare affect people?

As a result, poverty rates are substantially higher for Californians without health insurance: nearly four in ten are living in poverty (38.4%), compared to 18.5 percent of those covered by Medi-Cal and only 4.2 percent of those with employer-based coverage.

What are the effects of lack of healthcare?

Lack of health insurance can impact health outcomes, as chronic diseases and disabilities often require long-term care and management, leading to financial strain when making medication or treatment decisions.

What are some results of poor health?

In turn, poor health can often lead to economic stress, including a loss of income, increased healthcare costs, and mental health challenges.

How does poor healthcare affect the economy?

In prior research by the Meharry Medical College School of Global Health in collaboration with the Deloitte Health Equity Institute, we estimated that mental health and co-occurring physical health inequities cost businesses US$7 billion due to missed work, US$45 billion due to reduced productivity while at work, and ...

How poverty can affect health

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How does affordable healthcare affect the economy?

The ACA's deficit-reducing effects will grow over time. CBO estimates that over the decade from 2023 through 2032, the ACA will reduce the deficit by an average of 0.5 percent of GDP each year, corresponding to total deficit reduction of nearly $1.6 trillion over that ten-year period.

What are the pros and cons of free healthcare?

Here are some of the key arguments for and against universal health care.
  • Pro: a healthier society. ...
  • Con: longer wait times. ...
  • Pro: people over profit. ...
  • Con: fairness vs freedom. ...
  • Pro: control over costs. ...
  • Con: limited budgets.

What are the risks of poor health?

Health risk behaviors including lack of physical activity, poor nutrition, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol consumption—are considered contributors in some way to illness and death from chronic disease. Seven out of 10 deaths among Americans each year are from chronic diseases.

What are the three biggest issues in healthcare today?

So, let's hop on a journey to explore the 7 biggest challenges of the healthcare industry!
  • Rising Costs of Healthcare Services.
  • Financial Challenges for Providers.
  • Shortage of Healthcare Professionals.
  • The Need for Improved Mental Health Systems.
  • Increased Demand for Personalized Care.
  • Big Data and Cybersecurity Issues.

How does poor health affect education?

Health-risk behaviors such as substance use, violence, and physical inactivity are consistently linked to academic failure and often affect students' school attendance, grades, test scores, and ability to pay attention in class.

What factors affect poor health?

To a large extent, factors such as where we live, the state of our environment, genetics, our income and education level, and our relationships with friends and family all have considerable impacts on health, whereas the more commonly considered factors such as access and use of health care services often have less of ...

Why is healthcare so important?

High-quality health care helps prevent diseases and improve quality of life. Healthy People 2030 focuses on improving health care quality and making sure all people get the health care services they need. Helping health care providers communicate more effectively can help improve health and well-being.

How does lack of healthcare affect life expectancy?

CONCLUSIONS. The results converge to suggest that restricted access to medical care accounts for about 10% of premature death or other undesirable health outcomes. Health care has modest effects on the extension of US life expectancy, while behavioral and social determinants may have larger effects.

What are the effects of low quality healthcare?

Errors in health care services cause missed or delayed diagnoses, unnecessary injuries, premature death, and often increased costs. Evidence of high rates of misuse of services include: Hospital Injuries.

What is the problem with lack of healthcare?

Lack of health insurance coverage may negatively affect health. Uninsured adults are less likely to receive preventive services for chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

Why is affordable healthcare important?

Surveys consistently show that people delay or forgo care due to cost, worry about their ability to pay for health care bills, and incur medical debt. Health care affordability—or a lack thereof—can harm individual health.

What are the 3 biggest health problems?

Unfortunately, millions of Americans live with chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

Why is US healthcare so inefficient?

The fundamental cause is a combination of high prices for inputs, poorly restrained incentives for overutilization, and a tendency to adopt expensive medical innovations rapidly, even when evidence of effectiveness is weak or absent.

What are the most common harms from healthcare?

But despite the complexity of patient safety reform, it also benefits healthcare organizations to become familiar with the most common types of medical errors.
  1. Medication errors. ...
  2. Surgical errors. ...
  3. Healthcare-associated infections. ...
  4. Diagnostic errors. ...
  5. Falls. ...
  6. Pressure injuries. ...
  7. Patient identification errors.

What does poor health do?

Poor health can limit one's ability to work, reduce economic opportunities, inhibit educational attainment, and lead to medical debt and bankruptcy.

What happens if you never exercise?

Within the first weeks: The body starts to undergo biological changes in muscle size that can lead to weight gain. Over the long-term: Physical inactivity can lead to greater risks for major health problems, from heart disease and diabetes to early death.

What is an example of a healthcare disparity?

For example, Americans living in rural areas are more likely to die from unintentional injuries, heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic lower respiratory disease than their urban counterparts. These health disparities account for significant costs to states and communities.

Which country has the best healthcare?

The ten countries with the best healthcare are:
  • Australia (74.11)
  • Canada (71.32)
  • Sweden (70.73)
  • Ireland (67.99)
  • Netherlands (65.38)
  • Germany (64.66)
  • Norway (64.63)
  • Israel (61.73)

What did Obama do for health care?

The Affordable Care Act (ACA), formally known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and informally as Obamacare, is a landmark U.S. federal statute enacted by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.

Why is healthcare so expensive?

There are many factors that contribute to the high cost of healthcare in the country including wasteful systems, rising drug costs, medical professional salaries, profit-driven healthcare centers, types of medical practices, and health-related pricing.