Health Care Problems Essay
Health care provision system refers to structures and measures that have been put in place by the health department of the United States to ensure provision of high quality health services to whole population in America. It is based on the institute of medicine suggestions that every health care institution, professional bodies and public and private buyers should embrace to reduce the prevalence of diseases, physical impairment and trauma and to advance the health and performance of the people of the United States of America (Gillies et al, 2006).
The United States of America’s health care provision system has a character of being of high quality and efficiently harmonized within a strong community health system. This has the positive impact of providing best possible health education services to the entire populace and individuals. Besides the health care provision system had undergone major positive changes that consist of muiti dimensional approach to all the health experts in communities. This has brought about enhancement of health among the learning and many other institutions.
The system also boasts of the improved health data keeping and retrieval technology that suits the terms of health education delivery. System’s information technology is concurrent with the education and in the process delivering a prominent health care provision system. Additionally, the health system enjoys good funding directed towards other programs among them health education inclusive of research that helps in gathering and keeping the correct data and knowledge that is passed to population through the education programmes. There are loans and grants to health education programs (Gillies et al, 2006). In additionally, the system has efficient administrative structures and systems of the health institutions country wide. This has come with the simplification of codes and billing in majority of health centers easing their operations that entails the dissemination of health information.
Lastly, the system has put measures in place to ensure that extensive research is conducted in diseases prevention and management among other issues in this field. Through this, the health system has ensured adequate information is provided to health education experts and providers making a success of their work and eventual impact the population (Ledford, 2008).
Apart from the impact on the presence of health education services, features of this health care provision system have various effects i.e. both negative and positive on the health way of life of the people. First, the availability of improved information technology by the system has led to increase of personal and the entire population’s awareness of health issues, especially among the young generation. Besides increased awareness, health experts and scholars have been motivated in carrying health research that has led to finding and documentation of true and current information in the field of health (Revere et al, 2001). This has been brought about by the rewards that are presented to researchers for their hard work. This is facilitated by the funding of the education programs by the health care provision system and also through the loans and donations by various monetary bodies towards the same feat of motivating research by health experts in the population. To add on, the effective administration of health systems, and research have contributed to finding and spreading of information to people making them master the simple ways of disease prevention, treatment and admission and readmission procedures.
Revere et al (2001) observes that there is another positive impact on the health behavior of the population, which is reduction in the cases of smoking and alcoholism. This had a positive impact of lowering the prevalence of diseases that are related to these two bad lifestyles. However, the health care provision system had a negative impact on the behavior of the population. People’s living standards improved and this came with the related life style health disorders that consist of obesity and the accompanying lifestyle health disorders like hypertension, and elevated cholesterol levels. These increased the mortality rate in the population.
Health Care Problems & Solutions Free Essay Example
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2008) estimated that 15.3 percent of Americans were uninsured in 2007, or 45.7 million Americans. President Barak Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have proposed a plan to address the need to increase medical coverage and access to care for many of those who are uninsured or of lower income status (Obama & Biden, 2009). This program, which implements a form of socialized medicine, is not new. It has been adopted by many other countries with varying success. The reasons behind the violations of universal health care directives have been historical in nature. These include; rationing of medical care, distributive justice, scarcity of resources, and coverage for catastrophic illnesses, funding for the program and containing costs. A discussion of the recent efforts towards the achievement of a universal health care coverage would shed more light on this topic.
Challenges in developing effective global health policy are not hard to point out. The United States, Canada, Japan, United Kingdom and other developed nations are still absorbed on how to deal with their domestic health challenges. Moving over to instituting a truly effective global health policy is therefore definitely not a first priority. Developed nations have pumped in trillions of dollars into the developing countries with the aim improving the lives in the poor nations but the concern is that these nations are increasingly becoming dependent on aid. This raises the question of the smaller manageable solutions as the preferred mode of dealing with the global health crisis.
Bodenheimer and Grumbach (2005, p. 151) define rationing as the limitation of resources, including money, going to medical care such that not all care expected to be beneficial is provided to all patients; and the distribution of these limited resources in a fair manner. In the United States, money is becoming scarce, rather than Health commodities (Bodenheimer & Grumbach, 2005, p. 151.) In other countries, health commodities are scarce, and must be rationed in an equitable fashion. The scarcity of money available for medical care in the United States has significant implications with regard to justice in health care among patient populations.
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Distributive justice is the determination of who receives what amount of health care, wealth, education, and who pays for medical care (Bodenheimer & Grumbach, 2005, p. 148.) A central question that varies from one health system to another is whether resources should be allocated based on need or based on one’s ability to pay. In the United States, resources are allocated for the neediest and seniors via Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP. Otherwise, just allocation of health resources is based on one’s ability to pay. According to Royner (2008) the true costs of the plan are very difficult to measure. The United States is projected to pay about 460 billion dollars for Medicare in the year 2010, and spends 21% of the federal budget on health coverage to include Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP (Westmoreland, 2006). In the year 2006, the United States engaged in about 600 billion dollars of deficit spending (Westmoreland, 2006). Can the United States afford to add to its health system expenditures in order to increase access to care?
A second challenge lies in the marketing needed to get the legislation passed. Former President Bill Clinton failed to pass similar health care reform legislation in 1994. Democratic House Majority Whip James Clyburn endorses an incremental approach to health reform legislation (Kaisernetwork.org, 2009). Concerns exist as to whether trying to pass large scale expensive changes may reduce the potential for such legislation to be passed. Former President Clinton has gone on the record as opining that the Obama health care reform proposal has a better opportunity to pass than his proposed legislation did due to the poor economy and ballooning deficit spending that currently exist (Kaisernetwork.org, 2009).
Most Americans cannot afford quality health care and that efforts to achieve a universal health coverage have historically been violated.
Given the statement on what I have leant, one might anticipate resistance on the part of Managed Health Care special interests to a government payer tax based health care system. Distributive justice, as it stands in the United States, leaves about 46 million people without affordable access to health care. Health care in the U.S. is not rationed due to limited medical facilities, providers, or resources; but rather by scarcity of money. Specifically, citizens who do not qualify for government funded programs like Medicaid/Medicare and who are uninsured find themselves without access to health care. As the United States under the leadership of President Obama, embarks on a pathway that will result in a paradigm shift away from capitalist based medicine and toward a more socialist form of medicine, the aforementioned are only a few of the challenges that exist. The inability in the provision of the most affordable and cheapest healthcare rests with the above stated factors.
The author believes the health reform package, as it is presented, faces numerous obstacles. The costliness of the plan, the poor state of the current economy, and the difficulty in marketing and passing health reform legislation are only a few. In addition, there are a good number of Americans who now have good access to care, and may be subject to changes that reduce the freedom of choice and standard of care they are accustomed to in order to make health care more equitable in our country. These individuals may be resistant to downgrading the care they currently enjoy. Also, special interest groups serving managed care organizations will most certainly be resistant to the government payer plan and exert their influence upon legislators. Countries who have adopted similar health care reform have discovered difficulty in cost containment and challenges in rationing health care resources.
Health Care Access Program
Access to good medical care is one of the greatest human needs. However, this has remained a dream in the eyes of not only millions of Americans but to millions of people around the world. Healthcare systems drain almost every economy with many leaders pushing for programs that would facilitate access to quality medical care. This been seen in the United States with several leaders pushing for legislation that is aimed at improving the US healthcare access program. The question which many people have asked is whether the American Healthcare system requires change. The system has always been ranked best for several passed years in the world but continues to lose popularity with Millions of Americans and politicians being dissatisfied with the system’s role in providing healthcare. There is an up rise of healthcare costs and lack of access to these services, constituting to a major crisis in a nation that enjoys a super power title. This has led to a search of possible solutions needed to restore the reputation of the system to allow the over 40 million Americans who are unable to access Health insurance enjoy an affordable healthcare coverage (Kimbuende et al. 2010). This essay explores Jim Doyle health care access program which is among the efforts witnessed in reinstating the American Healthcare Access Program. Elements of the current program have also been briefly covered to achieve a better understanding of the existing problem.
The U.S Health care system was ones described as the best in the world. However, there has been a continuous increase in healthcare costs for several years making many people to disregard it. The healthcare expenditure rose beyond $ 2.3 trillion in the year 2008, which was more than triple the 1990 healthcare budget and over eight times the amount spent in 1980. As a result, the need to cut down Healthcare costs in the United States has received significant priority with many people calling for urgent measures. These efforts have involved mainly the government consumers and employers. It was noted in 2008 that the U.S Healthcare system expenditure accounted for over 16% of the country’s GDP- Gross Domestic Product falling in the group of highest costs especially among industrialized countries in the world (Shi & Singh, 2009). Many analysts have continued to project future increase in healthcare costs since it was not an issue to be handles overnight. This dilemma has seen the U.S president Barrack Obama lead in the promoting reform efforts in the health sector.
It is important to note that many Americans do benefit from several investments in the healthcare. However, the increase in medical care and economic recession witnessed in recent years has placed severe strains on major systems which have always financed healthcare and insurance programs like Medicaid and Medicare (Shi & Singh, 2009). Many employers and workers have felt the burden due to the increase in premiums involving employer-sponsored coverage. With the increase rate of wages unable to match health cost rise, many American have found it difficult to pay for healthcare services leaving them at the edge of poor healthcare. As mentioned before, government programs like Medicare and Medicaid play a mega role in funding healthcare in the United States in spite of their slower increase compared to private insurance groups.
Why is it that the United States is one of the industrialized nations in the world yet it is unable to provide healthcare to its citizens? Does it lack resources? The answer is definitely a no. This scenario continues to negatively affect millions of Americans with research indicating that more than 18,000 people lose their lives in America as a result of unaffordable health Insurance. This figure is approximated to be quite high with some research institutes reporting over 40,000 deaths (Shi & Singh, 2009). With all these challenges, there has been every need and call for quick and workable reforms in restoring the American Healthcare system leading to emergence of proposed bills and programs from governors and other leaders. One of these is the Jim Doyle health care access program.
Jim Doyle health care access program
Acquisition of healthcare for Wisconsin has been Governor Jim’s high priority administration responsibility. He is determined to expand the access to medical care amidst massive challenges by making maximum use of government funds and adoption of free market approach. The Program is focused at streamlining and simplification of all state programs in order to reach majority if not all those in need with his main objective guided by the principle of simplicity. His key initiatives towards reversing the healthcare system especially for those who hail from Wisconsin include but not limited to the following:
A healthcare coverage of over 98%. The governor stated the need of every child in Wisconsin having access to Healthcare insurance in the year 2006. Two years later approximately every child had access to health through BadgerCare Plus. BadgerCare Plus allows the accessibility to good healthcare regardless of the level of income with special emphasis on pregnant women, aging youths, farmers and self-employed parents. The program further augments healthy behavior and preventive practices. The program has shown growth evidence with its membership population crossing the half a million mark by the end of 2009.
Low cost of drugs
SeniorCare Program focuses on providing low cost on prescribed drugs for about 90,000 seniors in Wisconsin. The program can easily be accessed through simple application with research indicating that it provides better drugs compared to Medicare Part D. The state further has an additional advantage to bargain and acquire these drugs at a much reduced price. Furthermore, SeniorCare has led the state in maintaining a simple and comprehensive program. It does not have a tight enrollment period or penalty which characterizes Part D of Medicare. Unlike other programs which have asset test, SeniorCare programs only requires the completion of an application form without a torturous process experienced in many Healthcare programs (Fact Sheet: Governor Doyle’s Health Care Leadership, March 12, 2009).
Under the leadership of Governor Jim Doyle, there has been the expansion of a statewide concern for the elderly the less fortunate in the society. To achieve this, the Program focuses on provision of home care, to make it accessible to those who can not access health centers due to their physical state. The program is a long-term initiative aimed at providing health accessibility without any delay and is managed by Medicaid Program. This has resulted into reduced monthly health costs and has allowed a saving of about $ 450 per month (Fact Sheet: Governor Doyle’s Health Care Leadership, March 12, 2009). The Success of this program is however attributed to the fact that it Wisconsin has established systems of business and data collection procedures guaranteeing access to healthcare by the most vulnerable in the community. It has been viewed as one of the most cost effective programs in the United States.
Quality purchase for Medicaid affiliates
The program does not only aim at making healthcare affordable and accessible but also identifies itself with the need of having quality services to Medicaid members through Pay-For-Performance (P4P) initiative (Fact Sheet: Governor Doyle’s Health Care Leadership, March 12, 2009). This is a mega step in ensuring accountability and in transforming the entire Medicaid Program into a worthwhile purchaser of medical outcomes. It shapes healthcare systems and outcomes of millions of the Medicaid Program.
Cost reduction and quality improvement through technology
Advancement in technology has become key in the entire program steered by Jim Doyle. This has promoted the keeping of medical records and easy access through electronic advantage. The healthcare electronic exchange was created in 2005 by the Governor. Another Advantage is the fact the major electronic providers like GE, Epic Systems and Marshfield Clinic are located in this state. This has turned out to be quite significant in collecting patients’ history records and in facilitates the attention given to emergency cases (Fact Sheet: Governor Doyle’s Health Care Leadership, March 12, 2009).
Like in any other nation, Healthcare is a major sector of the American economy. The system has however been under pressure and criticism for being unable to provide medical coverage to all its citizens with over forty million Americans being uncovered (Kimbuende et al. 2010). On the other, Jim Doyle health care access program is very significant in promoting health in the state of Wisconsin. The program has a target of over 98% of Wisconsin residents and it has been ranked second in offering of health insurance cover in the US. It is quite affordable, focuses on vulnerable family members and convenient to all residents regardless of their income levels.
The United States of America’s health care provision system is a reform policy that was put in place to attain a high quality health service delivery to the entire American population. The system came with a number of both positive and negative effects on the health of the people, but the benefits supersede the negative effects. Besides the negative impact can be easily solved by proper treatment procedures and making people aware of how to prevent them e.g. the emergency of obesity and its related health risks like hypertension.