During Thursday night’s debate, President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump spent considerable time trying to claim credit for reducing the high cost of insulin.
But the back-and-forth over insulin prices has failed to address the underlying issue that concerns many Americans: the exorbitant cost of health care.
“The United States faces a health care affordability crisis, and this glaring fact was entirely absent from the presidential debate,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.
One February KFF research, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues, found that unexpected medical bills and the cost of health care are at the top of people’s list of financial worries, with about three-quarters of the public saying they are at least somewhat worried about being able to pay unexpected medical bills or the cost of health care for themselves and their families.
“It was a huge upset and a failure,” Drew Altman, president and CEO of KFF, said of the debate. “There has been no meaningful attention to health care and, more importantly, the costs of health care, which is absolutely an issue of great concern to voters.”
People in the USA pay about twice as much for health care than any other nation in the world, Gostin said, and yet the country’s health outcomes are lower than those of most similar nations.
What’s more, health care costs continue to rise in America.
National healthcare spending — which includes spending on doctors, hospital services and prescription drug costs — is expected to grow to nearly $4.8 trillion in 2023, rising faster than projected growth for the overall economy, according to a report published this month in 2023. the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Arthur Caplan, chief of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said Biden and Trump’s attention to insulin was likely an appeal to the large core of voters with diabetes who have been advocating for lower insulin costs for years. More than 8 million Americans depend on insulin to survive, according to the American Diabetes Association.
Still, Caplan said, insulin and medication costs in general are just one component of the overall healthcare system.
“It was a hugely missed opportunity,” Caplan said. “Drug costs are a problem, but so are hospital bills and nursing home costs. Reducing drug prices helps, but it is far from solving our cost problems.”
There will be another opportunity, Altman said, for Biden and Trump to address health care costs during the next presidential debate, which is scheduled for September.
Beyond the debate stage, Altman said he expects Biden to continue to hammer on health care costs because it’s an issue where the president has an advantage over Trump.
Other KFF Poll published in May found that more independent voters trusted Biden over Trump when it came to many areas of healthcare, including healthcare costs.
“While there has been little to no focus on this, it will be a continued focus for Biden and the Democrats,” Altman said. “I hope Trump remains silent on this issue.”
This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com read the full story
