Introduction
Healthcare involves maintenance and restoration of health through diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases which is carried out by trained and licensed medical practitioners. Healthcare sectors and hospitals face various challenges in their attempts to provide quality services to patients. Economic issues contribute intensively to such challenges. It is hard to believe that despite the fact that the United States being among the richest countries, it has an inefficient, fragmented and bureaucratically wasteful healthcare system thereby leaving over 47 million people uninsured and millions of others under-insured (Fottler & Malvey, 2010).
Pressing economic issues impacting on health care sector in Unites States
Economic issues impact negatively on the healthcare industry in the United States thereby compromising the service delivery. Among the current and future economic problems affecting healthcare sector include,
High cost of healthcare
The general high cost of health care in America has made it a nightmare for most of the patients to get an adequate medical attention. Despite spending twice what the next wealthy country spends per person, America has been ranked 54 in access to healthcare ("Causes of High Health Care Costs", 2016).Several factors are believed to have caused this alarming high cost of healthcare. Among the factors are; direct and aggressive drug advertisement to consumers in newspapers, televisions and radios; direct pushing and campaign contributions by drug and insurance companies; frivolous lawsuits in courts; fragmented and complicated health care policies and entitlement programs; high cost of medicines; lack of electronic healthcare for patients. As a result, the industry has faced several challenges in ensuring that it executes its mandate entirely to the less privileged individuals with limited resources.
Inability to curb healthcare-Associated infections.
There are several infection associated with healthcare referred to as healthcare-acquired infections (HAIs). These acquired infections cause the United States a lot of fortunes each year thereby leading to losing of thousands of lives. The research shows that about 1 out of 25 hospitals has, at least, one patient suffering from such infection which can have severe consequences (Houle & Fleece, 2011). In 2011, an estimation of 722,000 HAIs was recorded in the United States acute care hospitals and an estimate of 75000 hospital patients death cases experienced during hospitalization were as a result of HAIs (Levine, 2009). Other than the deaths encountered as a result of healthcare-acquired infections, it also comes with a financial price thereby making it even harder for smooth operations within the healthcare sectors eventually endangering the lives of both the patients and the service providers.
Remaining gap in healthcare safety net
The United States is one of the countries that do not provide insurance cover to its entire population which limits the rate of seeking for timely medical attention and accessing health care facilities. For instance, over 47 million people uninsured and millions of others under-insured (Williams, 2007). To be precise, the less advantaged citizens with limited resources are not guaranteed and lack the ability to avoid severe financial burden when they fall sick indicating that the healthcare safety can be strengthened further to accommodate all regardless of once economic status.
Delays in seeking care and increased use of emergency care
The usage of regular health care and preventive services is unlikely for the uninsured Americans thereby resulting to increased medical crisis and hence making it more expensive for medical conditions like diabetes and blood pressure which are regarded to be ongoing conditions. As was recorded in a study published in 2007, the likely possibility of uninsured persons to receive medical care after an accidental injury is very limited as compared to the insured persons. As if that is not enough, the uninsured are also twice as those insured liked to receive none of the recommended follow-up care. Those who lack private insurance have a higher chance of being diagnosed with late-stage cancer as compared to those who ha insurance (Williams, 2007). These delays in seeking care as a result of financial incapacitation pose a significant threat to the healthcare sector in the United States.
Shared costs of the uninsured
Just as discussed earlier, the majority of persons in America are not insured, but they have to be attended to in case of any disease or injury. The total medication costs for the uninsured have to be passed to the insured via health insurance premiums and cost shifting or be taken care of by tax payer’s money which eventually lead to economic downturns both to the healthcare sector and the country at large. Such economic downturns have been established to place a significant strain on state Medicaid and CHIP programs (Fottler & Malvey, 2010).
Significant effects of economic issues on the health care industry
The highlighted economic issues have an adverse impact on the health care industry. Other than limiting individuals who seek to attain an appropriate Medicare, these economic problems have jeopardized most operations in this sector thereby compromising the integrity of service provision at large.
High healthcare cost in America has impacted negatively on the healthcare industry. Large healthcare expenditures including insurance premiums, out-of-pocket expenses, and taxes devoted to health care have not only risked the lives of most people who are not financially stable but also eroded what an average family has set aside to spend on other necessities. This increase in cost also affects the portion of household’s state taxes and federal devoted to government health programs like; Medicaid, Medicare, public health and veterans’ health care. The primary effect of lack of adequate insurance to individuals is that it causes a barrier when it comes to accessing healthcare system and thereby impeding timely medical attention thus eventually endangering the lives of most people in America.
Specific strategies that relevant entities/ stakeholders may use to address the issues
Specific strategies to mitigate these concerns should be put in place and in that essence; a comprehensive risk management team should be instituted by relevant entities to oversee all the operations in the healthcare sector which requires an inclusive, collaborative and a bipartisan approach. To reduce the gap in healthcare safety net and to avoid sharing the cost of the uninsured, there should be a proper civic education and sensitization especially to individuals with low income and limited resources and the private- sector workers. The education is about the insurance policy and its advantages since most consumers don’t have proper information and insurance literacy to go for insurance plans that suit their needs.
In ensuring that the high cost of healthcare in the United States is addressed, the government through relevant entities should put an end to the significant demographic shifts since it results in a reduction in many experienced and talented workers yearly. This move to an older population increases medical spending creating a funding crunch that the insurance companies and individuals are straining to absorb. Another strategy involves the avoidance of direct drug advertisement to consumers since this unnecessarily encourages the drug manufacturers to hike the drug prices at the detriment of consumers.
In dealing with health-care- associated infection (HAIs), it is of paramount importance to first acknowledge the fact that these infections are life endangering, and therefore, there should be a maximum adherence to hygiene and more particularly hand hygiene. Health care systems should ensure that all sanitation systems are up to date and motivate the staff to avoid contaminations that may eventually expose them and patients to these infections. These systems should also remind both the personnel and visitors about viral and bacterial infections control techniques. To ensure that there are no delays in seeking care; health plans should empower patients with coverage options which majorly focus on high performing providers and in providing case management for patients with chronic conditions. They should also promote transparency on medical cost and quality and even minimize health disparities as possible.
The strategic manner in which the United States can apply best economic practices from other countries in addressing these issues.
The most strategic and convenient approach which the United States can copy from other nations to solve these problems is by having a single system that provides universal health insurance coverage to the entire population by desisting from the fragmented and uncoordinated system between the public and the private sector. Since in United States patient directly pays the doctor for the services offered, most people cannot afford the cost of new high- technology services provided. The United States healthcare is significantly most expensive than other countries like Canada and Netherlands. Comparatively, using the 1989 data, per capita health expenditures were $2,354 in U.S, as compared to $1,683 in Canada and $1,135 in Netherlands (Fottler & Malvey, 2010). These statistics show that better healthcare does not necessarily mean high expenditure in the health sector.
The above differences in efficiency of healthcare provision in the United States in compared to other countries like Canada and Netherlands come as a result of the notion in U.S that healthcare is a privilege. It should be understood that healthcare is a right, and, therefore, the U.S government should chip in sufficiently to ensure that nobody is discriminated regardless of his/her financial base as evident in other countries like Canada and Netherlands. It can be realized by having a single system that provides universal health insurance coverage to the entire population.
Another possibility of addressing these issues is by bringing healthcare level down to be more manageable and ensuring that politicians who are responsible for healthcare are elected to a county council and mandated for the responsibility of healthcare in its geographical region. This method has been successful in Sweden since most politicians are only interested in the welfare of a few from their areas.
The likelihood of government and or private sector effectively addressing the issues.
It is evident that the healthcare system in the United States needs immediate attention so as to match the standards of other industrialized countries and the fact that failure to address these issues could have a global economic impact. In my assessment, there is the likelihood that government sector is willing to solve these problems adequately, and this can be justified by the formation of the U.S global health enterprise which consists of many areas both non-governmental and governmental and is purposely characterized by international collaboration, inter-sectorial and interdisciplinary areas. The motive behind its formation is to protect the U.S residents from the threats of health.
References
Causes of High Health Care Costs. (2016). MSD Manual Professional Edition. Retrieved 7 March 2016, from http://www.msdmanuals.com/professional/special-subjects/financial-issues-in-health-care/causes-of-high-health-care-costs
Fottler, M., & Malvey, D. (2010). The retail revolution in health care. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger.
Houle, D., & Fleece, J. (2011). New health age. Naperville: Sourcebooks..
Levine, R. (2009). Shock therapy for the American health care system. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger, ABC-CLIO.
Williams, R. (2007). Eliminating healthcare disparities in America. Totowa, N.J.: Humana Press.
