2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 INTRODUCTION The health care system of any country ensures that it maintains demand for its services and coverage of the same to the public. Coverage refers to the percentage of people in need of the health services who actually access them. The demand for and coverage of the health care services are impacted by many factors and client satisfaction is among them. The level of satisfaction to a service determines its future utilization. The Kenyan government has demonstrated the aim to increase the coverage of health services in the country as well as maintain the demand by the people. The initiation of ‘free delivery’ policy by the government and subsequent incorporation of the ‘Beyond Zero’ campaign are the most recent developments in attempt to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number five- improve maternal health. Today, women in Kenya can access free delivery services in the public health facilities. Moreover, the beyond zero campaign has seen the introduction of mobile clinics where women can access the free delivery services (Beyond Zero, 2015). This is aimed at reducing the distance barrier in implementing the free-delivery policy. However, these strategic measures are dependent on the level of client satisfaction to the services offered in the hospitals. The quality of maternity services and client satisfaction are directly proportional to each other. High quality maternity care will produce great satisfaction rates to the
Universal Healthcare sounds appealing, but it actually lowers the quality and quantity of healthcare services that are rendered to patients, thus downgrading the healthcare system as a whole. Not having to pay, with everyone having coverage leads to longer wait times for medical service and many people overusing health care services. Implementation of Universal Healthcare in the United States would lead to a detrimental crippling of the nation’s health system. For those countries that have implemented Universal Healthcare or a system similar to it, all or most aspects of the coverage such as cost and care is generally provided by and tightly controlled by the government, a public-sector committee, or employer-based programs, with most of the funding essentially coming from tax revenues or budget cuts in other areas of spending. This paper will conclude with comparing the US healthcare system to others and how the US has one of the most advanced systems in the world.
Having access to quality healthcare is major part of one’s life however the cost of care has been on the rise over the past decades and continue to rise every day due to many situation such
Health care systems are different in every country around the world. There are four main components that complete a health care delivery system, described by Shi and Singh (2015) as the quad-function model, which includes insurance, financing, payment and delivery of care (p. 5). Along with the components of the quad-function model it is important to analyze a countries access to care, their health outcomes and how public health is integrated into the health care delivery system. The United States has a unique health care system that is like no other country. Great Britian, in contrast, also has a unique system that is very different than the United States.
Health care systems are highly complex and require vast resources. Moreover, providing healthcare coverage to all citizens can be challenging for many countries. Different models and theories abound all over the world about how best to provide care and only the most developed countries have adequate resources to truly provide universal coverage to their citizens.
Healthcare inequality mainly revolves around the disparity in the quality of health and health services among different population groups in the society. It touches on the accessibility of health insurance and thus the accessibility of quality healthcare services among the different population groups. There disparities in the access to quality healthcare among the different races and ethnicities, social classes and between the two genders. These disparities are mainly influenced by and are reflective of the differences in access to health insurance among these population groups. These disparities ultimately lead to similar disparities in healthcare services access, health outcomes and the presence of disease among these different population groups. There are several factors that influence access to health insurance and quality health services, referred to as determinants of health among the populations. There are cultural, environmental social and economic determinants to health which create an unfair playing ground for the different population groups in American society. This paper examines the social determinants to health, the extent to which they affect access to health insurance and quality healthcare and ways in which they can be reversed to enable equal access to health insurance and health care services among these populations. The issue of disparities in access to health insurance and by extension access to quality healthcare services is important because it affects
The United States health care system is lacking the needs to create a reliable system to achieve quality, access, cost, and educate for the consumers. Despite the efforts of the government to find a common ground to meet the standard for the societies, the system has yet to have a major improvement. These issues must be reexamined to fix the broken system. The United States health care expenditure is another issue that needs to be addressed to achieve the future goals of the healthcare system in the United States. Healthcare societies will need to interact differently by incorporating consumer’s empowerment, technology, and education to meet the future goals of the health care system. Also, the consumer must be highly educated on the purpose of preventive care to lower the risk of chronic diseases which account for a lot health care spending. The process of correcting the United States health care system will take time and effort from all individual to achieve greatness.
The availability of healthcare is an extremely important issue in the United States. There are millions of Americans that are uninsured in the U.S. A high amount of uninsured people are from minority groups such as Hispanics and African-Americans. High deductible payments, the cost of prescription drugs, and lack of health insurance coverage cause many Americans to choose to live without insurance to save money for everyday expenses beside healthcare. Without health insurance, people do not have access to quality healthcare. Most citizens are aware of the issues in the healthcare system, but the disagreement comes when discussing how the best approach on ameliorating the system. Some believe that a more public and universal healthcare system is the best approach. Others believe that America works best through free enterprise and private institutions, and believe health insurance should be more privatized. However, health care has been shown to work best and be more available through proper public government control as it will allow for all Americans to have access to equal healthcare, in which money does not dictate health.
According to the Bloomberg website, the United States is ranked 50th out of the 55 countries that were assessed as a country having one of the least efficient healthcare systems. Not a very good rank for such a developed country. More importantly, it is not very good for a country that is considered to be a high-income country. It brings up the question asking how other health care systems are in other countries around the world especially in low income countries. What are the affects by having limited access to health care in counties like Guinea, Ethiopia, or Mali? Below are a few ways in which low income countries are affected by having little access to health care services.
Historically people were less aware of the healthcare policy and their health status. They have dissatisfied with the health care delivery
* Cobra premiums are so expensive that 90% who qualify do not choose this option.
Of particular concern is women and maternal health in Ethiopia. According to the millennium goal developments, the fifth goal is to reduce maternal mortality rate by 75% by 2015. One reason that maternal health needs to be increased in Ethiopia is because of the large amount of women who die each year. According to Skolnik (2012), the highest maternal mortality ratios are in sub-Saharan Africa, where there are 940 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. This means that a woman in some countries of sub-Saharan countries of Africa such as Ethiopia face 250 times the risk of dying a maternal death as does a woman in the high-income countries. (Skolnik, 2012) There are many factors that come into play when looking at maternal health. Among the first are the nutritional status and general health status of the mothers, in addition there is a link between maternal death and the level of education and income of the mother (Skolnik, 2012, p. 191). In order to help reduce the high incidence of maternal mortality rate focus should be turned to wards identifying ways to improve the access to care for women who are pregnant. I believe this issue is the important to tackle because it can improve the prenatal care that women in Ethiopia receive resulting
The healthcare system plays a key role in the economic stability of our country, as every year trillions are spent in attempt to combat disease and health issues that plaque humanity. As it makes up a significant amount of the expenditures in the economy, so the costs associated with health care of those in pain from illness and injury, including lost productivity, increased need of assistance in living and also the cost of death in some cases, is important to the economic stability and over all standard of living in our country. The key to economic prosperity is balancing the need for care with the costs of illness to keep as many people healthy and well without breaking the bank of collective society. The costs of healthcare have been increasingly problematic in recent years with so many issues surrounding the current system. With the “total health care spending in the United States expected to reach $4.8 trillion in 2021, up from $2.6 trillion in 2010 and $75 billion in 1970, meaning that health care spending will account for nearly 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or one-fifth of the U.S. economy, by 2021” (Aetna). With this in mind it is apparent that as we look at the trillion-dollar industry of the medical community it seems that it needs to be a major focus of our nation as a whole and with the many issues come many creative solutions. First let us analyze the reasons behind the current cost and the major problems facing this industry and than discus what
Ideal healthcare system will be the one that works for all the individuals in the community without disparity or confusion. With an ideal healthcare system, members in a community will get adequate access to care, basic information, better research and information for the patients (Yvonne, 2009).In this paper; I will discuss the various key factors to be addressed in the development of an ideal model of care.
There is a vast number of different interventions available to improve maternal and child health. However, it is still unclear which interventions are the more appropriate for the low- and middle-income countries, where the burden is the heaviest and healthcare resources are very scarce. To understand whether the maternal and child health needs of poor communities are best served by focusing attention on the delivery of a few but cheap and effective interventions, this paper examines current situation and interventions available in two different countries - Ghana and Sri Lanka. This essay also emphasizes the importance to consider existing disagreements about how the policies and interventions should be delivered to address the needs of poor communities.
There are effective interventions to significantly reduce child mortality and improve maternal mortality but the problem is that they are not delivered to the populations in need at the right time and with enough coverage. (IMNCH, 2007)