Competition should lead to lower costs and better quality of services, but, unfortunately, the US spends more money per capita than any other advanced country and has poor outcomes for many health indicators. Further, the US has poorer outcomes for many health indicators than other countries. In the United States in 2012, the cost of healthcare per person averaged about $9000 per year. In 2012, data from CMS stated that the total spending on healthcare in 2012 was $2.8 trillion (1). Despite competition in the health care field, two of the very prominent reasons for high costs are high administrative costs, the use of costly new technologies and drugs, and unhealthy behavior on (some, not all) of the patients’ behalves.
[Cost] Cost could potentially be the biggest factor of the iron triangle and perhaps the side of the model that leaves administrators most puzzled. With new technology being released quarterly, drug prices soaring, a new aging population that can't be supported by the current workforce, Medicare cutting reimbursement payments and leaning towards insolvency, and the price per service continues to rise it seems as if cutting costs down may seem impossible. Not only have hospitals and clinics began looking for more cost-efficient ways to provide care or, unfortunately which programs to cut, the political arena has been evaluating this as well. Since Obamacare has not lived up to its true potential and glory an alternative method must be identified before the nation's model of healthcare implodes from high costs.
Summary of “The American Healthcare Paradox” “The American Health Care Paradox” focuses on health care and how the United States is suffering compared to their peer countries. The United States has spent billions of dollars in health care and the problem is still growing. The government is responsible for not following or ignoring the issue that we suffered with, in today’s society the healthcare system is failing drastically. The health care system has been a problem for several decades now, even though it seems that things are getting better it’s not.
Although the US is technologically advanced and has some of the highest caliber medical professionals in the world, compared to many other industrialized countries, it has one of the lowest outcomes in regards to quality of care. Moreover, it has some of the highest overall medical costs (Panning, 2014). In the US, low quality care and high costs have resulted in fragmentation of the healthcare delivery system. Fragmentation of services often results in patient experiences that are poor, with less than desired
Medications are an amazing resource to fight infection and treat diseases; they are a treatment that should be available to all. The increases in prices are not justifiable and it is time that corporate greed from pharmaceutical companies is put to an end. If the U.S. government gets involved with prescription drug prices, by regulation, negotiation, or international reference pricing, we could see some improvement and reduction in these costs. Many other high-income countries are already regulating their prescription drug prices to prevent corporate greed, so why aren’t we? It is time to take a step towards helping patients in the U.S. afford the medications that are already available to them and continue to use the money provided for research to continue innovation.
In addition to the dismay of many healthcare professionals, patients, and citizens who are uninsured, several flaws about the current healthcare system show the necessity for reform. The three flaws that exacerbate the current healthcare crisis are: the tax code and tax breaks, the lack of preventable care and adequate care of chronic diseases, and administrative costs. A single payer, universal healthcare system can resolve the major flaws of the
With the proposed tax adjustments and the payment plan involving both the individual and employer, Senator Sanders’ health care plan becomes not only viable but also cheap when held against most Americans insurance deductibles. Compared with most so called first world countries, the United States as a whole spends far more on healthcare; “At 17.4% of GDP in 2009, US health spending is half as much again as any other country, and nearly twice the average”(OECD 1). OECD stands for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes such countries as Britain, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands among others. The fact that the U.S. spends comparatively more than these other “socialist” countries displays that having a streamlined, national healthcare system can in fact be run without breaking the bank or creating unmanageable costs.
For the past 40 years health care spending has consistently grown faster than the economy. The reasons for the higher levels of spending on health care in America are not totally understood but include higher costs of treatment in the U.S. health care system, including rates of reimbursement for doctors and other health care providers; higher prices for hospital stays and prescription drugs; increased use of medical technology; a lack of reliable comparative information on medical outcomes, quality of care, and cost; and increased prevalence of risk factors such as obesity that can lead to expensive chronic
The United States no longer posses the ability to effectively drive down premium costs through the means of insuring healthy people. For example there is a town with ten houses, and, on average, one house a year burns down. If no one in the town pays for insurance they have a 10% chance of their house burning down each year. If everyone in the town pays insurance they spread the risk because no matter whose house burns down no one will have to pay anything as the insurance company will cover the cost of the house that burns down each year and make a slight profit. This is the same logic applied to the whole medical insurance market.
The U.S. could follow models of universal healthcare that have been proven to work in other countries, like Canada and Sweden, in which to lay the framework of a new system of universal healthcare. It would provide coverage for citizens of every economic class via whichever avenue of funding proves to be most efficient. The success of universal healthcare in other nations proves that this is an achievable goal, well within the realm of
The law that was intended to improve the status quo of health care has, in essence, caused a dangerous paradigm shift in health care costs. Fundamentally, the Affordable Care Act is a failed attempt to reduce health care costs in the United States. The Act was designed to increase affordability of health insurance for extremely low-income families; nevertheless, the Act exponentially increased health insurance costs for the majority of Americans. In America, majority rules-- why should health care be an
The real debate is how can we accomplish the goal of universal healthcare in the most affordable and sustainable way. The United States is evaluated as a wealthy country, yet there are more penurious countries who provide health maintenance, paid through higher taxes. “In the United Kingdom and other European countries, payroll taxes average 37% - much higher than the 15.3% payroll taxes paid by the average US worker” (Gregory). With this data, the only reform would be to end the private health insurance companies of dominant health services, and incorporate a single payer system. Conversely, it is factual that taxes will rise, but the implementation of universal healthcare will better the health of American citizens.
Health care should not be considered a political argument in America; it is a matter of basic human rights. Something that many people seem to forget is that the US is the only industrialized western nation that lacks a universal health care system. The National Health Care Disparities Report, as well as author and health care worker Nicholas Conley and Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), strongly suggest that the US needs a universal health care system. The most secure solution for many problems in America, such as wasted spending on a flawed non-universal health care system and 46.8 million Americans being uninsured, is to organize a national health care program in the US that covers all citizens for medical necessities.
Health care cost has seen to increase gradually as years go by. This has been influenced by major factors such as political influence, emerging chronic diseases, new procedures that are coming up including the technologies being invented for treating illnesses, pricing of medicines and treatment is not regulated and when treating ailment their may arise repetition of tests or a patient gets over treated for a particular ailment. The cost of healthcare has increased due to chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes etc. The lifestyle people are living in this generation has led to the development of diseases that are expensive to treat or has led to there being over treatment in such for a cure of a particular ailment.
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW INFLATION (InvestorWords, 2015) stated that inflation is the increase in the general price level of goods and services in economy, normally caused by excess supply of money. Inflation usually measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI). When the cost of producing goods and services goes up, the purchasing power of dollar will decrease. A customer will not be able to purchase the same goods and services as he/she previously could.
