Our Healthcare system is clearly business based according to the article “Cost Conundrum” and on the movie “Escape Fire”. In the movie it had an impacting story of an older lady who had heart problems where she went to a doctor and they were going to charge her thousands of dollars were later she went to a different doctor and they charged her a couple hundred dollars for t he same procedure. I couldn’t believe that in a different office she would get the same procedure done for a lot cheaper than in the other doctor’s office. Also, it surprised me how the medical staff are giving all these medications to our soldiers were they are clearly abusing the medication and taking much more than they should. I was really happy to see that later the soldier who was overdosing on medications decided to stop and later tried a different form of medication of acupuncture. Although overdosing on medication is a problem in our country it is not the biggest one in our healthcare. Our healthcare system is the one that is collapsing. Our healthcare system is not like it was many years ago, our healthcare system is market based and doctors don’t focus on quality care on their patients and rather view them as dollar signs. In the article “Cost Conundrum” it states that McAllen is one of the most expensive healthcare markets in the country, many are unsure why it spends more per capita but it states that because the people there are obese and have cardiovascular diseases and fall under the poverty line. In the article it states “the way to practice medicine has changed completely before it was about how to do a good job, now it’s about how much will you benefit”. I clearly agree to this statement because I have gone through this experience with my father. He was diagnosed with diabetes at a late stage in which it caused a retina detachment on his left eye. When he was diagnosed I would…
The White House. (2013). The Economic Case for Health Care Reform. Where We Are Ad Where We Are Headed. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cea/TheEconomicCaseforHealthCareReform…
One solution is providing universal access and increasing financial affordability. Having physical accessibility, meaning health services within reasonable reach providing adequate health care. As well as financial affordability, the people’s ability to pay for services without financial hardship. Lastly, acceptability, when in the environment of different social and cultural factors such as age, sex, or ethnicity. Sadly, universal access is not always ample. The goal in having health insurance or health care coverage is to lighten the financial hardship from unaffordable out of pocket payments. Universal health care is not possible without universal access. Depending on the insurance you possess, different coverage is provided. Medicare, a…
Finding the Money for Healthcare Reform, written by Mark Hyman, M.D. (Hyman, 2009), provides a realistic perspective that the current healthcare reform model only focuses on lowering the cost for healthcare services and not improving the quality of health for patients. Hyman (2009) argues that if quality of health and lifestyle intervention are key focal points of healthcare reform, the burden of healthcare expense would automatically be lowered due to less chronic illness and better health outcomes (Hyman, 2009). “By improving the quality of our health and focusing on health creation and improved health outcomes, the sinking ship of healthcare can be righted, and the behaviors of physicians and healthcare institutions will shift from doing more things (volume) to doing the right things (quality)” (Hyman, 2009, p. 20).…
Jencks, S.F., M.V. Williams, and E.A. Coleman. Rehospitalizations among Patients in the Medicare Fee-for-Service Program, ‖ New England Journal of Medicine, April 2, 2009 360(14): pp. 1418-28.…
Health expenditures in The United States inched toward $2.6 trillion in 2010. This is up 10…
What is Moral Hazard and discuss the consequences and why they might not be desirable. Also, the deductible feature of an insurance policy can affect the impact of Moral Hazard. How so?…
Without a doubt healthcare costs are rising out of control. Not one of us are happy with the increases, but we have to understand what the reasons are for the increases in healthcare. American people look at their insurance bills, co-pays and drug costs, and do not understand why they continue to increase. The insured should consider all reasons behind the increase before getting upset. In 2004, employer health care premiums increased over 11 percent, four times more than the rate of inflation. In 2003, premiums rose 10.1 percent and in 1002 they rose 15 percent. Employee spending for coverage increased 126 percent between 2000 and 2004. These increases were lower than expected. The site to look up information on the cost of health care coverage and the breakdown on the cost is (National Coalition on Health Care, Facts on health care costs). Premiums have risen five times faster than workers’ wages, if medical spending continues to rise by just two percent more than a person’s personal income, by 2040 Medicare and Medicaid will rise 8.4 percent of gross domestic product this year’s 15.6 percent by 2040, according to Congressional Budget Office projections. If all government programs stay at the same size relative to the economy, the budget will grow from 19.9 percent of GDP in 2003 to 27.1 percent by 2040, (http://www.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/pubs/pdf/tbb-0306-15.pdf). There are huge impacts of the rising costs of healthcare. Many people cannot afford health insurance today and struggle to pay for their medical needs. Of the families that do have health coverage, 50 percent are concerned about having to pay more for the coverage in the future, while 42 percent fear they will not be able to afford coverage at all if the rate increase keep s going the way it is. This leads to believe one of the reasons for health care cost increases: cost sharing or cost shifting. When an individual or a family does not have insurance, and cannot…
illnesses. This has placed tremendous demands on the health care system, particularly an increased need…
My family has an insurance plan that covers most of our health care costs. However, there are some things that insurance will not cover. These are things that my family has to pay for ourselves. These things include contacts for eyes, glasses repair, tooth paste, tooth brushes, floss, pills, medicine, tinctures, and blood tests. However, even though insurance doesn’t pay for our tooth paste, tooth brushes, and floss, we still get them for free, because my aunt is a dental hygienist. She gets free tooth brushes, tooth paste, and floss from the clinic she works in all the time. It is enough to provide for her entire family, even the extended family. It is also enough to provide for hundreds of people in poverty in other countries, that is why I take hundreds of toothbrushes, tooth pastes, and floss with my every summer when I go on a missions trip to a foreign country, and it’s free!…
Problem Statement: Chronic diseases – such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and obesity – are the most common and leading causes of death in America.…
These suggestions could lead to more primary care prevention within communities that face many health disparities. The health issues these individuals commonly face are noncommunicable diseases that are a result from either not seeking proper health care, or not seeking healthcare whatsoever. Giving them ways to have easier access to it could provide them with the proper information on how to take care of themselves, how to get proper nutrition, and end up avoiding these noncommunicable diseases. Raising awareness could motivate more people to help those that need the better access to…
Health care spending in the United States is a key contributor to the country's economy. The health care industry provides employment as well as providing services that bring healthier lifestyles, better productivity, and a longer life. Health care also brings the development of new drugs and new medical technology that also helps keep the economy employed. However, although the health care and health care spending does tend to help the economy slightly it is beginning to hinder our economy. "In all industrialized countries, with the exception of the United States, health care affordability is ensured through universal insurance based or tax- finances systems" (Squires, 2012, p. 1). Even though the United States spends more in health care than other countries it does not mean the United States has better quality of care than the other countries. Health care spending is depleting this country and the quality of care is not improving. The United States needs to change the way it spends money on health care before it is too late.…
‘The basic requirement of the final privacy rules is that a covered entity may not use or disclose an individual’s protected health information, except as otherwise permitted or required by the rules. The original privacy rule required that the use or disclosure of personal health information would only be permissible provided a covered entity had received a prior “consent” or “authorization” from the patient for the release of personal health information” (Giacalone and Cacciatore 433).…
The cost of health care in the United States has increased almost exponentially during the last few years. What is fueling these cost increases? There are many factors driving up the cost of health care in the United States. However, experts in health care and health policy point to the development and diffusion of medical technology as the main cause for this increase.…