As we move to a value based model in healthcare, it is imperative we contemplate the dilemma of who is the ultimate risk bearer. At the end of the day, that entity should be the one receiving the financial value of our efforts. Presently, the entity holding the financial obligation for paying for services is not the recipient of the saved dollars. This is becoming more prevalent as newer and more expensive treatments are available that impact an illness early in the disease process. One might disagree with the premise that a certain level of healthcare is a right, but we as a nation have effectively made this decision. For instance, deemed as illegal to refuse treatment of emergent care, we do not allow people to die at the footsteps of our …show more content…
Is it a purely financial one? Obviously not, as the ultimate cost effective alternative is completely unacceptable to us. Since a human life has greater value outside of pure dollars and cents, we do not and should not take the cheapest route. Therefore, the issue becomes how we measure that value as it relates to services needed. Do we think about it on an individual level or a societal level? These are the conundrums we face. For instance, I go to the emergency room for a headache. I have no neurologic signs, nor is it the most debilitating pain I can imagine. In all likelihood, just to ensure that I do not have a deadly illness, I will receive a CAT scan of my head. As an individual, this is an excellent offering, but awful from a societal perspective, as the likelihood of finding an issue is low, and resources have been used that might have gone to the care of others. Our present payment model does not tie those two facts together. At a macro level, if we make the assumption there is only a finite pool of dollars, you can tie this CAT scan to a number of immunizations that could be given. Do I order the CAT scan or do I provide the immunizations? Is the quality about the individual or about the whole? Of course it depends on who is paying and what are the risks of not providing a
Consequently the U.S. spends more money than any other country on health care, and the medical care that is being provided may be compromised. Research has shown that the lack of health care insurance compromises a person’s health. However, there continues to be unnecessary death every year in the U.S. due to lack of health care
In the article, Joy Victory discusses how the medical system favors patients who are rich and insured. Victory has written many different articles about current health issues that affect everyone in the
For the President, Congress, and its various budgetary agencies, a ideal healthcare system would manage the cost of healthcare, while promoting quality services and equal access to all United States citizens. However, it’s an equation that has eluded the American government unto this day. Furthermore, the idyllic healthcare system would provide preventative care, emergency care, and other maintenance from conception to the death of an individual. Furthermore, while the perfect system is progressive enough to cover every American from life to death, it should be conservative enough to limit the growth of the budget deficit.
The lucrative healthcare companies in America have created an immeasurable gap between good healthcare only being for the privileged upper class Americans which has left a horrible effect on the middle and lower class Americans. As modern medicine achieves new heights, the prices of healthcare seem to tread right behind maintaining an unbroken pattern that American classes have grown accustomed to over the past few decades of paying more for less. Leaving many Americans uninsured, underinsured, or even in debt. In a speech Bernie Sanders a U.S. Senator from Vermont spoke at a presidential campaign October of 2015 which he discussed the unruly problematic healthcare trend of price gouging, that is the medical industry getting the most it can from American citizens. In a blog Bernie Sanders states that “46 million Americans today have no health insurance and even more are underinsured with high deductibles and co-payments” (Sanders). 18,000 Americans die every year from preventable illnesses because they cannot cover the cost and don’t go to the doctor when they should. Sanders summed this situation up with this “Health Care is a Right, Not a Privilege” (Sanders). After researching the issue of healthcare, I have come to the conclusion that the American healthcare system is disintegrating due to the ravenousness of modern medical industries, first I will discuss a few reasons to why the healthcare system is failing the modern American
Leonard Peikoff believes that national healthcare is unethical and tramples on the individual “negative” rights of hard-working Americans. He makes a point of clearly defining what our “negative” rights are; they are our ‘unalienable, individual rights’ as Americans, in the context in which it was written in the Declaration of Independence, the right to “life, liberty, property and the pursuit of happiness”. According to Peikoff, “…all legitimate rights have one thing in common they are rights to action, not to rewards from other people.” (Peikoff 2); it is this right to action (pursuit) which Peikoff attributes to the success
Paradise Hospital, Inc. is a for-profit hospital. As the facility’s new hospital administrator, you have been tasked with improving the service value of the hospital. The administration has not done this process since the hospital began operating in the year 1995. The investors are not familiar with the value proposition strategies of hospitals in the current day America.
T.R. Reid uses cost, quality, and choice to fully evaluate healthcare systems all around the world. As an American citizen, I have always thought our system was unfair. The poor suffer more than the rich for going to see a doctor for the same reason. In chapter one of The healing of America, T.R. Reid comments on how many Americans have also started to notice that the American healthcare system is not as great as we once thought. Not only is it unfair, but it is also expensive and unsuccessful (9). By looking at all the other countries’ healthcare systems, Reid would then be able to better pinpoint how America can better its health care system by taking portions of those health systems.
As Americans, we pride ourselves in our rights and freedoms. The right to express ourselves freely, the right to bear arms, and the right to pursue life, liberty, and property. However, this has created an entitlement complex in the American people, making it difficult to discern who has the right to what. One of these issues of entitlement is found in the American Health Care system and who has the right to it. Simply put, the Health Care System is the diffusion of medical and health services to the public. However, a problem arises as there is much conflict on whether or not Healthcare is a personal choice or should be provided by the government. It has been a difficult decision-making process as there are extremes on both sides of the argument.
In recent years, health care has been a huge topic in public debates, legislations, and even in deciding who will become the next president. There have been many acts, legislations, and debates on what the country has to do in regards to health care. According to University of Phoenix Read Me First HCS/235 (n.d.), “How health care is financed influences access to health care, how health care is delivered, the quality of health care provided, and its cost”.
Health care in the United States is driven by a patchwork of services and financing. Americans access health care services in a variety of ways — from private physicians’ offices, to public hospitals, to safety-net providers. This diverse network of health care providers is supported by an equally diverse set of funding streams. The United States spends almost twice as much on health care as any other country, topping $2 trillion each year. (WHO.INT 2000) However, even with overall spending amounting to more than $7,400 per person, millions of individuals cannot access the health care services they need.(Foundation 2009) So when the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a the Affordable Care Act or ACA) was passed in the summer
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the 2010 health reform act that could extend insurance coverage to as many as 32 million Americans, which also included policies that affect the quality of coverage insurers must offer (Knickman & Kovner, 2015). In addition to this, the ACA created a range of programs focused on furthering change in how medical care is organized and delivered, with a goal of reducing costs and improving quality and outcomes (Knickman & Kovner, 2015). However, these goals come at a cost. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact the ACA had on the population it affected in the United States as a nation, but specifically in the state of North Carolina; describe the impact of economics of providing care to patients from the organization’s point of view; examine how patients were affected by the ACA in terms of the cost, quality, and access to treatment; and explain the ethical implications of the ACA.
Everyone has their own views on what they think the United States healthcare system should consist of. Consequently, the healthcare system has been flawed for many years and does not plan to change anytime soon. According to Luft (2006), “rapid and wide-reaching technological innovation, the ready access to care for the insured, and clinical and patient autonomy” (p.1). These are some of the strengths the US healthcare system are proficient in providing. In contrast, the weaknesses of the healthcare system outweigh the system’s strengths. Luft (2006) examined and acknowledged the following:
Another benefit associated with free health care system is that it preserves life as it ensures free treatment to the entire citizens despite their financial status. Apparently, the life of a human being is sacred and incomparable with any amount of money. It is unethical for an individual to die due to lack of finance. As stated by Obama, the United States is known to have the most skilled doctors and healthcare facilities in the world (526). Ironically, the two third of the Americans have no access to health insurance cover, meaning, they cannot afford to get the health services from the best doctors and the best facilities in the country. To protect life and to avoid unnecessary deaths of the innocent citizens, free access to medical services should be a distinct system to be employed in the United States of America.
Globally, the United States has one of the largest and most convoluted healthcare systems, whereas universal healthcare coverage seems extremely farfetched. Annually, the US spends over $3 trillion on healthcare. Nevertheless, we have the worst health outcomes when compared to other industrialized countries. As stated by Anja Rudiger (2008), “Recent data suggest that around 101,000 deaths a year can be attributed to the underperformance of the US healthcare system.” Thus, the United States’ healthcare system greatly relies on revenue. Both funding and the distribution of services are commercially structured and held accountable by investors to increase financial gains. According to Andrew Jameton and Jessica Pierce (1997), “the US healthcare system increasing appears to have
The health care system in the United States is one of the greatest concerns facing Americans today and is an issue both moral and economic in nature. Some think the system should stay, for all intents and purposes, the same. They believe that the right to healthcare is a stepping stone toward socialism, and that it is the responsibility of the individual to obtain health care. These are usually the more ideologically conservative citizens and politicians who believe that medicine should remain a free enterprise, not to be constrained by government interference. Then there are those who believe that healthcare is a right, and the federal government has a responsibility to make sure it is available to all citizens, not just those who can afford