Money corrupts everything it touches, even your own health.

I and many other citizens of this country are unsatisfied with our health care system. How do you take a simple idea like “When someone gets injured, they should be taken care of,” and then create a system that betrays that idea?

I learned the hard way that unless there are more changes made, our hospitals will still put profit first over health.

On Jan. 30, 2023, I was helping a customer out at work, and while I was working, I slipped on ice and fractured a bone in my index wrist. Ideally, I should have been taken to the hospital for treatment; and I was, after three months.

I experienced five failed attempts to go to the hospital for medical treatment. Every single time I went there to explain how I broke my hand, I received the same response: “Sorry, we can’t help you. You should go to this other hospital.”

This injury had made my college life difficult: for three and a half months, I couldn’t write, lift heavy objects, or concentrate as the pain was chronic, all because I was denied healthcare. I had insurance that they accepted, but for some trivial reason, they wouldn’t allow me to use it. I lost three months of my life because of this failed system that cares more for money than health.

Iowa is considered to be one of the best states in the U.S. to have healthcare in our current system. In fact, recent findings from MoneyGeek have shown that Iowa ranked as the second-best state in 2022 for healthcare, with a positive score of 95.4.

However, Iowa is listed as number seven for affordability. While it is no secret that healthcare in the U.S. comes at a price, there are still many citizens in this state who cannot afford healthcare.

Our system is predicated on having insurance that can cover most or even all of our medical expenses, but half of all adults in the US cannot afford healthcare. Not only does the system depend so much on money, but the prices themselves are expensive for the average citizen and too expensive for rural citizens to afford.

When it comes down to Iowa, it has been reported in the past that over 100,000 Iowa residents do not have health insurance. These are just the statistics for non-elderly residents, but rural residents also have difficulty getting health insurance since rural hospitals are often at risk of closing.

The last rural hospital to officially close was the Keokuk Community Hospital back in 2005. Statistics have shown that 24% of rural hospitals are at risk of closing down. This is caused by the fact that Medicaid reimbursements have not gained bipartisan support, which results in these hospitals being placed in financial jeopardy.

While the population of Iowa is over 3.1 million people, this still means that there are hundreds of thousands of residents who do not have access to the healthcare system that they deserve. It doesn’t help that recently, the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced in March that hundreds of thousands of residents would lose coverage in the Medicaid program.

Because of our current system, healthcare is not being provided at a sufficient rate to all residents in the state even the whole country. Half of all U.S. citizens believe that a change must be enacted within our healthcare system.

I wholeheartedly believe the government must do more for all residents, especially for rural communities.

Editor’s note: The DI previously included a different photo with this article, and changed it to avoid misconception. The DI regrets this error.

Columns reflect the opinions of the authors and are not necessarily those of the Editorial Board, The Daily Iowan, or other organizations in which the author may be involved.