Healthcare Bubble Case Study
The Bursting of the Healthcare Bubble
Nathan Kaufman makes a very compelling case concerning the unsustainable status of the current health care system. Kaufman speculates that just as the housing market bubble eventually bust, the same is expected from the healthcare bubble. Similarities that are drawn between the housing market crash and how the experts refused to believe the inevitable are eerily similar to the perception concerning healthcare in the U.S. today (Kauffman, 2011). The rapid growth of healthcare costs, without evolving the way patients are treated will only serve to help usher the bursting of the bubble.
I believe that Kauffman has a valid point, and that the way patient care is handled coupled with the increase of patients receiving healthcare from the Affordable Care Act will only add to the problem in our health care system. Take for example the medical cost of obesity in the U.S., in 1998 providing care of obese patients was estimated to be nearly $79 billion dollars, and ten years later, those costs rose to approximately $147 billion dollars (Finkelstein, Trogdon, …show more content…
He claims that this new system, aimed at proper adherence to policy will only serve to devalue health care because providers will lose their autonomy. This will occur when treating the patient the right way will conflict with ensuring the patient is satisfied with their care to earn a higher patient satisfaction rate. For example if a provider successfully treats a patient, but is not articulate or welcoming In their communication and the patient is not satisfied with their service, that can affect the rating the hospital receives and then eventually lower the Medicare reimbursement that the hospital would typically receive. The end state of this model is that patient satisfaction will eventually become paramount to patient care, all in order to earn
Nathan Kaufman makes a very compelling case concerning the unsustainable status of the current health care system. Kaufman speculates that just as the housing market bubble eventually bust, the same is expected from the healthcare bubble. Similarities that are drawn between the housing market crash and how the experts refused to believe the inevitable are eerily similar to the perception concerning healthcare in the U.S. today (Kauffman, 2011). The rapid growth of healthcare costs, without evolving the way patients are treated will only serve to help usher the bursting of the bubble.
I believe that Kauffman has a valid point, and that the way patient care is handled coupled with the increase of patients receiving healthcare from the Affordable Care Act will only add to the problem in our health care system. Take for example the medical cost of obesity in the U.S., in 1998 providing care of obese patients was estimated to be nearly $79 billion dollars, and ten years later, those costs rose to approximately $147 billion dollars (Finkelstein, Trogdon, …show more content…
He claims that this new system, aimed at proper adherence to policy will only serve to devalue health care because providers will lose their autonomy. This will occur when treating the patient the right way will conflict with ensuring the patient is satisfied with their care to earn a higher patient satisfaction rate. For example if a provider successfully treats a patient, but is not articulate or welcoming In their communication and the patient is not satisfied with their service, that can affect the rating the hospital receives and then eventually lower the Medicare reimbursement that the hospital would typically receive. The end state of this model is that patient satisfaction will eventually become paramount to patient care, all in order to earn