The Dangers of Tobacco Smoking

Article 1 

Tobacco smoking has a detrimental effect on health and contributes to the rising health care burden worldwide. The World Health Organization report shows that tobacco use is responsible for 20% of coronary heart disease deaths. The report indicates that annually, 1.9 million people succumb to the use of tobacco-induced heart disease (WHO, 2020). It means that one in five deaths from heart disease results from the use of tobacco. Today, even young people who smoke are at high risk of developing acute cardiovascular illnesses than non-smokers. 

According to the World Health Organization, smoking a few cigarettes in a day, occasional smoking, and exposure to second-hand smoking increases the risk of developing heart diseases. Smokers need to take immediate action to quit smoking before to reduce the chance of developing heart conditions. However, quitting smoking does not just happen overnight. Smoking cessation needs to be conducted among all individuals, focusing on individuals with cardiovascular health who still smokes. Cardiology societies need to educate and train its members on how to conduct smoking cessation and advocate for behavior change. Shifting to E-cigarette is not safe either since over 200,000 coronary disease deaths is caused by smokeless tobacco. Vaping raises blood pressure leading to a high risk of cardiovascular illnesses (WHO, 2020). A study by WHO shows that high blood pressure and heart diseases are a risk factor of severe COVID-19. According to WHO, 67% of people dying from COVID-19 in Italy have high blood pressures, while in Spain, 43% of COVID-19 victims in Spain had heart diseases (WHO, 2020). 

World Health Organization asserts that it is the governments' responsibility to establish measures that protect the citizens from the reverse tobacco epidemic. Putting up measures that make the community smoke-free will significantly reduce hospital admissions caused by the impact of tobacco (WHO, 2020). In the current COVID-19 pandemic, keeping the community free from tobacco smoke will reduce severe consequences and high death rates. The government can help curb tobacco smoking's adverse impact by increasing tax on tobacco products, banning tobacco adverts, and offering free services to help people quit smoking. Individuals need to respect smoke-free policies and support family and community members who want to quit smoking. 

Reference 

Tobacco responsible for 20% of deaths from coronary heart disease . Who.int. (2020). Retrieved 24 September 2020, from https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/22-09-2020-tobacco-responsible-for-20-of-deaths-from-coronary-heart-disease. 

Article 2 

The U.S. health care system is ranked the mist expensive globally despite showing underperformance in the quality provision. The study compared the health care system with that of 11 global nations, namely Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States—the U.S. From the 11 nations, the U.S. health care system ranked last, followed by the United Kingdom and Switzerland (Davis et al., 2014). The United States fails to achieve better healthcare outcomes than other developed countries despite its huge cost and spending on health. According to the Commonwealth Fund survey, th e country lags in the dimension of access, efficiency, and equity. 

The U.S. lag behind other developed countries is the lack of well developed universal health insurance coverage. The other ten nations have a working universal health system that ensures faster and convenient care accessibility through better ties between the patient and physician. The lack of nationwide accepted universal coverage made the country underperform on access and equity since the minority population with low-income kevel cannot afford to pay the high cost for quality care services (Davis et al., 2014). Commonwealth Fund report also shows that the U.S. ranks behind on health outcome measures, quality, and efficiency (Davis et al., 2014) . Health care providers in the U.S. face the challenge of receiving timely patient information, coordinating care, and dealing with administrative roles. Other countries adopted the modern health information system many years ago, unlike in the U.S., where the clinicians are currently trying to catch up and make meaningful use of the technology system. While all countries are looking for a room to improve their health care system and keep the cost low, the U.S. has a huge task to achieve value and reduce the high spending in health. 

Since 2014, the U.S. has made significant changes in its health care system, starting with introducing the Affordable Care Act. Other laws have been passed to ensure affordable access to care services, reduce the cost of healthcare, and invest in preventive population health to improve the performance of the U.S. healthcare system (Davis et al., 2014). The government needs to put more effort into ensuring ACA's success, which seeks to improve in quality, provide easy and efficient access to healthcare irrespective of race and income, and improve coordination and equity of the healthcare system in the future. 

Reference 

Davis, K., Stremikis, K., Squires, D., & Schoen, C. (2014). Mirror, mirror on the wall.  How the performance of the U.S. Health care system compares internationally. New York: CommonWealth Fund .