Health Care Issues in the United States

Abstract

This assignment involves analyzing behaviors, economics and social structure and the impact on human health. Numerous behaviors and lifestyle patterns affect our health, such as: exposure to violence, vehicular accidents, alcohol, drugs, and infectious agents. Alcohol consumption and illicit drug use are examples of personal decision making and patterns of behavior that have tremendous adverse effects on health and on the economy. Comprehending and elevating health related behavior is vital to the posterity of public health.

The health care system in the United States has evolved in many important ways over the last 150 years. Modern medical technology is a complex, powerful, and costly set of services and products that have broad and deep impacts on all aspects of American health care.

Understanding the relationships between the epidemiological trends and the physiological and psychological nature of the human body and of the determinants of health services utilization is important.

How health is affected by behavior, economics, and social structure

Health is affected by behavior, economics, and social structure according to how people understand and how involved they are in their health care. According to Williams and Torrens (2010), during “the period from 1850 to 1900, people were more involved in health care and how it worked, their acceptance of personal responsibility for obtaining health services was perhaps the highest it has ever been” (p. 7). Behavior significantly affects health conditions and information. People are not paying enough attention to risk awareness and prevention. Many people continue to take risk and engage in negative behaviors that are detrimental to their health, even when they are aware of the risk factors. According to Berger and Rand (2008), the “likelihood