Cost Of Health Care Essay

More and more people with medical insurance are relying on the health care system as new technologies and treatments become available. This leads to a grater number of claims for payment by insurance companies, the costs of which are passed back to health care consumers. The baby-boom generation is entering its peak health-care using period. Over eighty million Americans will turn 50 in the next 10 years. The cost of providing heath care for these individuals will be staggering

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

One dominant economic feature of the healthcare industry is the growing need for both basic and specialized healthcare due to the continued aging of the “Baby Boomer” generation. This generation consists of over 79,000,000 individuals born in the US between 1946 and 1964. As this generation has aged, the need for healthcare has increased dramatically. Let us take a look at some statistics:

There is a growing trend in the United States called pay-for-performance. Pay-for-performance is a system that is used where providers are compensated by payers for meeting certain pre-established measures for quality and efficiency (What is Pay-for-Performance, n.a.). We are going to be discussing what pay-for-performance is. There are different aspects of pay-for-performance which include; the effects of reimbursement by this approach, the impact cost reductions has on quality and efficiency of health care, the affects to the providers and patients, and the effects on the future of health care.

Over the recent years, healthcare in the United States has drastically changed. The industry has experienced continuous growth, due to an array of events. The introduction and passing of Affordable Care Act, the increase of Baby Boomers (individuals born between 1946-1960) reaching the age of retirement, and potential passing of immigration inclusion laws has impacted and will continue to impact America’s healthcare landscape. Numerous factors associated with the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal aspects are key indicators into the potential success of the industry.

Health care in the United States is currently facing a looming crisis that requires an urgent response of intervention. With the baby boomers population on the rise, there will ultimately be an increased need for long-term care (LTC) services. Pratt (2015) defines baby boomers as “the name given to the large number of people born in the period following World War II, between 1946 and 1964” (p. 17). According to Mikulaschek (2013), “Beginning in 2010, the roughly seventy-eight million baby boomers began turning sixty-five at a rate of three to four million per year leading to growing concerns over meeting their healthcare demands” (p. 86). This brings the number from about forty million in 2010 to seventy-two million in 2030 causing them to account for almost twenty percent of the total U.S. population (Mikulaschek, 2013, p. 96; Pratt, 2015, p. 17). This alarming rate will correspond to the increasing number of elderly individuals with chronic conditions who depend on LTC services for daily functioning (Pratt, 2015, p. 17). This influx of baby boomers presents the health care industry with a plethora of issues related to costs, quality, and access to the LTC services that this population so desperately needs.

Every individual in the world deserves to enjoy health and wellness. Maintaining or achieving proper health needs enables individuals to be productive at work and leisure. Traditionally, many people have had barriers obtaining adequate healthcare due to economic constraints or personal inconveniences. Despite impressive technological advances in medicine, the challenge of delivering quality healthcare to the Americans continues to be debated amongst the nation’s political and healthcare leaders. The aging baby-boomers and the increased number of uninsured people add to the equation of population growth which results in limited access to primary healthcare for the entire public. On the

The debate of cost verse care in the United States (U.S.) health care system is a conversation that has to continue. The stakeholders and policy makers should continuoulsy work to adjust cost based on a compassionate care model to bring the highest quality of care to U.S. patients. Continual adjustments are needed at all levels of our health care system to sustain care coordination. The practical health care model can guide the cost side while a compassionate care model has to be used to counter. Both sides can join to structure a functional cost effective healthcare system. The three most important aspects to understand when making healthcare decisions in the U.S. are economics, research, and ethics.

I 've learned while conducting these interviews that both individuals have similar issues with the healthcare system.

The cost of healthcare continues to rise in the United States. Americans are struggling to pay out of pocket expenses related to needed surgeries. Many individuals are responsible for the entire bill because they don’t have any health insurance. Many people are now reaching out to other countries for needed live saving procedures. This paper will explore some of the reasons for this change, the trends, and the globalization of healthcare along with the pros, cons and risks to the patient. The questions that begin each paragraph are the homework assignment questions. A decade ago the idea that medical procedures might move offshore was unthinkable. Today it is a reality. What trends have facilitated this process?

The future of health care will be impacted by the population, need, demand and utilization of services. The United States is facing unprecedented growth in older adults and decrease rate of new birth rates that will tax the health care system. In 2020 the U.S. is predicted to have 3.4 million new retirees while younger cohorts are shrinking and this trend will continue to expand into 2050 when the population over 65 is expected to rise 21.6 percent because of the expected 78 million baby boomers retiring (Longevity, 2011). In addition, the fertility rate has declined over the last 40 years due to increase in female labor force, marital dissolutions, economic, average age of first marriage, reduced desired family size, education and social

There have been trends relating to the aging population that is affecting our healthcare system. With new advances in medical technology and treatment, people are living longer with what once used to be a terminal illness, now today these illnesses are treatable as chronic conditions (American Hospital Association, May 2007). As a result, as the baby boomers age, there will be more demand for healthcare services due to them living longer with chronic treatable conditions (American Hospital Association, May 2007). To meet the aging population demand for healthcare services, more medical professionals will be needed to be hired to provide medical care for them. Also, the aging population is becoming more ethnically diverse, there will require

There is no denying the fact that the cost of health care in the United States has been on a constant rise than the wage of the employees that pay to have access to better healthcare. There is the general fear among these employees that if the rising cost of the health care is not brought under control, there will come a time, and some analyst think, the time is already here, when those employees will not be able to afford health care for themselves and their families. This fear of the unknown is particularly evident among those closer to retirement. Employers of labor have for quite sometimes now, been shifting the burden of the high cost of affordable health care to their employees, and that has significantly reduced employee standard of

According to the American Geriatric Society, by 2030, 20 percent of the nation’s population will be older than age 65. Advances in cutting edge medical technology will be helping the baby boomer generation and generation X to live longer, creating an increase in the elderly population. This aging population will require a parallel increase in physicians and other health professionals that are trained in geriatrics to care for it. However, despite the projected increase in the elderly population in the U.S., geriatricians, or physicians specialized in the care of the elderly are not expected to increase proportionately (Office, n.d.). Although there are several reasons for this discrepancy, one major factor is economics. Geriatrics is the

An aging population is a population with an increased median age due to an increase in life expectancy, accompanied by a decrease in fertility rates. This phenomena is already occurring in other countries, and the United States is expected to undergo a similar demographic shift. The population of citizens aged 65 and over is projected to double in the next few decades, from 43.1 million in 2012, to 83.7 million in 2050, and life expectancy is expected to rise at the same time (Ortman, Velkoff, Hogan, & others, 2014). The most important consequence of this is an increase in the percentage of older people from 13% to 20%. An increase of these amount while seemingly insignificant is going to pose a significant burden on the societal support systems set in place to help older individuals. These burden while widespread across different departments, is poised to heavily impact a healthcare climate that is already stretched to the brink. It is essential for adequate preparation to be made in form of public policies that plan for the future. The three most important public policy issues facing the United States are reauthorizing the Older Americans Act, ensuring long-term services and supports, and health coverage for older individuals.