A Brief Note On The Price Of Healthcare Essay

I did not know the government was a major purchaser of prescription drugs. This is how they set and control the prices for Medicaid, Medicare and Veterans Affairs recipients programs. They pay for a certain portion of their medication and this is why some recipients pay nothing or a very small amount for their prescription.

As we advance in our healthcare system and continue to find cure for the deadly diseases we are also faced with prescription drug prices rising much faster than they were a few years back. Drug prices are increasing at an unmaintainable rate without any sign of reduction. People who are heavily affected by this rise are mostly elderly citizens and also the poor of this country because they can barely afford these expenses. These people either have no money to pay for their copays or no health insurances at all.

Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.

The prices of prescription drugs in the United States are by far the highest in the world. [1] On average, Europeans pay 40% less than Americans for the same medications. [2] Consumers have been resorting to several ways, sometimes putting themselves in harm’s way, to alleviate the burden of high prescription drug costs. Some buy their medications online or cross the borders to neighboring countries so they would be able to afford buying their needed medications. Others have resorted to the illegal act of selling their unused medications in online forums just to recover part of their expenses. Many factors contribute to the increased drug prices in the United States including research and

There have been many studies performed focusing on the rising costs of health care and some of the findings state that the rising cost of healthcare premiums is a worldwide problem. However, I believe they are higher in the U.S. In 2015, U.S. health care costs were $3.2 trillion. That makes healthcare one of the largest U.S. industries, equaling 17.8 % of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in comparison to the late 1960s; where healthcare costs were only $27 billion, or 5% of the GDP, which averaged $9,990 per person each year. The main reason for the rising cost of healthcare is a combination of government policies and lifestyles changes. Examples included lack of coverage or costly coverage, lack of available coverage for

Our Healthcare system is clearly business based according to the article “Cost Conundrum” and on the movie “Escape Fire”. In the movie it had an impacting story of an older lady who had heart problems where she went to a doctor and they were going to charge her thousands of dollars were later she went to a different doctor and they charged her a couple hundred dollars for t he same procedure. I couldn’t believe that in a different office she would get the same procedure done for a lot cheaper than in the other doctor’s office. Also, it surprised me how the medical staff are giving all these medications to our soldiers were they are clearly

The cost of health care has been at the forefront of politics for years. It is one of the most talked about topics not just in political venues but also country wide. Every American has an opinion on how our economy can be fixed and they are passionate about health care reform. The price of insurance alone causes many Americans to not have coverage. For those that can afford coverage, the struggle to pay co pays is immensely crippling their bank accounts. Of these burdens on Americans today, the most frightening fact lies in the cost of prescription medications.

“The amount people pay for health insurance increased 30 percent from 2001 to 2005, while income for the same period of time only increased 3 percent.” (Source: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). The rising cost of healthcare is a huge problem in America today. In this paper I will analyze the different issues and causes for the increase in cost.

1 Kaiser Family Foundation Report on the Uninsured. Available at http://www.kff.org/uninsured/7451.cfm. 2 Danzon, P., et al. “The Impact of Price Regulation on the Launch Delay of New Drugs.” Health Economics, 2005; 14(3): 269-292. Available at http://hc.wharton.upenn.edu/danzon/html/Journal_Articles.htm. 3 The Boston Consulting Group. “Ensuring Cost Effective Access to Innovative Pharmaceuticals – Do Market Interventions Work?” April, 1999. Available at http://www.bcg.com/impact_expertise/publications/files/Ensuring_Cost_Effective_Access_Innovative_Pharmaceuticals_Apr1999.pdf 4 Thorpe, K. et al. “Differences in Disease Prevalence as a Source of the U.S.–European Health Care Spending Gap.” Health Affairs (Web Exclusive) Oct. 2, 2007. Available at www.healthaffairs.org.

One of the issues that is widely discussed and debated concerning the United States economy is the healthcare system. Unlike in the majority of developed and developing countries, the healthcare system in the United States is not public, meaning that the state does not provide free or cheap healthcare services. This paper addresses many of the factors contributing to the rising cost of healthcare.

Grossman’s model states that a person utility is based on health (H) and other non-health related goods (Z) that the person consumes. The production possibility frontier for Grossman model shows the tradeoff between home good production (Z) and health (H). Unlike usual production possibility frontiers, an individual needs an optimal level of H to maximize consumption of Z goods.

There is no doubt that healthcare cost are rising out of control. No one likes the

Controlling the expenses of therapeutic forethought has long been a slippery objective in U.S. wellbeing strategy. Marmor, Oberlander, and White in their article The Obama Administration's Options for Health Care Cost Control: Hope Versus Reality, state that “The United States spends more than any other country on medical care. In 2006, U.S. medicinal services using was $2.1 trillion, or 16% of our terrible household item. In the meantime, more than 45 million Americans need wellbeing protection and our wellbeing conclusions are unremarkable contrasted and other rich democracies.”

The LCH model posits that people save when income is greater than the resources needed to meet current consumption and that people borrow when income is insufficient. The basic model of the LCH, however, does not explicitly consider financial shocks, such as an unexpected health condition and the corresponding impact to savings or the accumulation of debt. Debt associated with a home or car loan is viewed as a necessity while credit card debt is frequently viewed as excessive spending; but in reality, those in severe credit card debt are often those who have experienced a recent job loss and/or health problems (Drentea & Lavrakas, 2000). As people age, their health care needs begin to change. An increase in the consumption of health care services may require the allocation of additional household resources to health care costs not covered by insurance and depleted savings. The increased use of health care services may also lead to increases in borrowing (Kim, Yoon, & Zurlo, 2012). As more employers eliminate retiree health insurance coverage, retirees will have Medicare as their primary source of health care coverage. Some retirees may even have a gap in coverage if they lose their job or retire prior to the age of 65, when they become eligible for Medicare. This occurrence may lead to a significant number of consumers being exposed to a higher potential for medical debt.

US Healthcare system is the most expensive and complex system across the world, doctors will attend training in various levels in US Healthcare system for better results. The cost of the medicines are so expensive as lot of tests, research and developments will include to finalize it. (education-portal.com)