Healthcare Reform
Healthcare Reform Calls for Enormous Payment Restructure for
Health Care Providers and Facilities
Healthcare reform has been a topic of great interest and a highly debated public issue for the past several years. Opinions are split on the reasons behind growing health care costs and methods to bring healthcare spending back in line. However, a consensus has formed surrounding the conviction that drastic changes must be implemented within our healthcare system. Some of these changes include a complete restructure of the payment system for health care providers, health care facilities and insurance companies in effort to control the rising costs of health care within the United States.
The rising costs of health care within the United States have long been a concern among economists. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a forum in which the economic data of multiple countries is analyzed and compared, total United States spending on health care between 2000 and 2009 increased an average of 4.3% per year. While this growth rate has been reduced to 2.7% between 2009 and 2010, health care spending in the United States still equates to 17.6% of the gross national product (GDP). This is significantly higher than the OECD 2010 health care percent of GDP average of 9.5% (OECD Health Data 2012). These statistics demonstrate that health-related spending compared to other industrial countries and within the United States in outpacing spending on other goods and services. Rising health care costs are making health care less affordable for individuals, families, and businesses. These higher costs have a significant effect on government budgets at both the federal and state levels as well. Victor Fuchs, an emeritus professor of economics and health research and policy at Stanford University asserts, “approximately 50 percent of all the health care spending is now government spending. At the state and local level it is
Health Care Providers and Facilities
Healthcare reform has been a topic of great interest and a highly debated public issue for the past several years. Opinions are split on the reasons behind growing health care costs and methods to bring healthcare spending back in line. However, a consensus has formed surrounding the conviction that drastic changes must be implemented within our healthcare system. Some of these changes include a complete restructure of the payment system for health care providers, health care facilities and insurance companies in effort to control the rising costs of health care within the United States.
The rising costs of health care within the United States have long been a concern among economists. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a forum in which the economic data of multiple countries is analyzed and compared, total United States spending on health care between 2000 and 2009 increased an average of 4.3% per year. While this growth rate has been reduced to 2.7% between 2009 and 2010, health care spending in the United States still equates to 17.6% of the gross national product (GDP). This is significantly higher than the OECD 2010 health care percent of GDP average of 9.5% (OECD Health Data 2012). These statistics demonstrate that health-related spending compared to other industrial countries and within the United States in outpacing spending on other goods and services. Rising health care costs are making health care less affordable for individuals, families, and businesses. These higher costs have a significant effect on government budgets at both the federal and state levels as well. Victor Fuchs, an emeritus professor of economics and health research and policy at Stanford University asserts, “approximately 50 percent of all the health care spending is now government spending. At the state and local level it is
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