The Purpose of the Article
Selected Article: Bankss, J, Keynes, S & Smith, P., J. (2015). Health, Disability and Mortality Differences At Older Ages between the US and England
The Purpose of the Article
The article by Banks, Keynes & Smith (2015) aims at examining the health status difference between England and the United States. It mainly emphasizes on the repercussions of any health disparity for healthcare costs between these two countries.
The Importance of Examining the Subject of the Article
Usually, different countries are associated with varying costs of healthcare. Therefore, examining health status differences between England and the United States helps establish factors responsible for causing high-out-pocket costs.
How the Authors Carrying Out the Task
In examining these two countries’ health status, the authors for the article applied various methods to collect data and analyze it to come up with sound findings. For instance, information on disability was obtained through surveys, where individuals were asked questions about their body’s capability. After that, they compiled a binary indicator of disability from the set of the participant’s response. This information helped indicate healthcare costs within a particular country, whereby a high number of disabled persons due to illnesses would indicate increased healthcare costs. Data on mortalities were obtained by assessing the country’s national death index. As such, the authors were able to access information on the date and the cause of their deaths. As an indicator of healthcare costs, the national death index assisted the author with appropriate information to establish whether the death occurred due to a lack of health care or other causes. Therefore, one can conclude that there were proper comments to enable the authors to examine differences in their health status.
The Author’s Claim
After completing the investigation, the authors stipulated that they found differing disease prevalence, disability, comorbidity, and mortality between these two countries due to various factors. As such, they established that there is a higher disease prevalence in the US than in England. However, they noted that the disease prevalence difference had little implication for out-of-pocket costs except for relatively small individuals with a particular disease. Usually, out-of-pocket costs are the personal payments that individuals make for health care services. The findings of the investigation were clearly stated with suggestions for a possible basis for the difference. As such, they argued that the smaller disparity in the disease prevalence might be attributed to the difference in disabilities. As compared to England, the United States reports a higher subjective threshold on being disabled. The common mortality differences were attributed to the combination of early diagnosis and the presence of efficient treatment techniques in the United States.
How the Claim Advances Knowledge
Knowledge of the health status difference between England and the United States is critical to establish factors rather than healthcare costs that may lead to health disparities. The establishment that a higher threshold of disabilities within a particular country may affect its health status due to the disabled people’s inability to access healthcare centers for treatment.
Opinion about the Article
Generally, the article offers a comprehensive examination of the differences between the United States and England’s health status. It is useful in understanding indicators of health and how healthcare costs impact a country’s health status. As stipulated by the authors, some of these indicators of healthcare costs include mortality, the threshold of disability, and disease prevalence. Hence, the article is helpful when assessing the health status of a country.