Essay On Healthcare In America

As the world’s human population grows exponentially, countries struggle to keep pace with the increasing healthcare demands. From newborns to the elderly, all walks of life have required some form of healthcare of varying intensity, and it is the healthcare industry’s duty to provide appropriate medical care. However, the past few years have seen a compromise in cost, access, and quality of healthcare, resulting in poor health outcomes. The United States of America is struggling with its own healthcare sector, and it is important that a thorough examination is done in order to comprehensively understand where the problems stem from and the multiple drivers of this growing issue. When exploring the problem of healthcare in America, it is important

There is no patient nor employer input on the price of healthcare; rather, insurance companies and healthcare providers have the bigger say in overall pricing (Seaborg et al.) Healthcare providers usually encompass “large hospital systems and networks of care”, and when they work with insurance companies on setting prices, they tend to focus more on profit rather than much-needed cost control (Seaborg et al.). In fact, it is important to understand that health insurers have no incentive to lower the price of healthcare. Employer-provided insurance is a large portion of many health insurers’ businesses. These organizations earn their administrative fees irrespective of how much healthcare was used and the resultant medical costs (Seaborg et al.). Consequently, healthcare spending continues to increase, lending a hand to the detrimental increase in healthcare

According to Yale Economist Zack Cooper, the increase in hospital prices over the past 20 years has been a direct result of consolidation (Cummings). He states that there have been “nearly 2,000 mergers among the approximately 5,000 hospitals in the United States”, creating a highly concentrated hospital market (Cummings). This has created a lack of competition in the market, which is a detriment to all healthcare consumers. It has allowed these hospitals to charge more for medical services, and grants them “greater leverage to negotiate higher prices from health insurance providers, leading to ever-increasing health care costs for individuals and families” (“How hospital consolidation hurts Americans”). In fact, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s Director of the Bureau of Economics, merged hospitals that face less competition have the bargaining power to charge 40-50% higher than what they were charging for healthcare before the merger (Gale). Having a large pool of hospitals facilitates competition, which in turn prompts providers to raise their quality of care to compete and attract patients. Erasing that competition provides physicians with less incentive to practice higher quality care, which is a detriment to the