Cost, quality, and access to United States health sector are continuing to pose problems to the delivery of health services (Mcglynn et al., 2003). Cost refers to the total expenditure of production of health services that is the money the health sector spends to care for the various patients. It includes machine cost, technologist fee and the cost of any other equipment associated with the provision of medical services. Quality in health care involves getting the correct care to the right patient at the right time. Quality care often means safer care for the various patients who seek medical attention. On the other hand, access refers to physical accessibility, availability, affordability and acceptability of a medical institution.
The cost trends in the health department in the US include; there is a substantial reduction in health care spending growth meaning more people can now afford better health services (Marmot et al., 2008). Secondly, the health care price inflation has recorded its lowest rate in 50years meaning that the health cost is relatively constant, and hence prices are affordable by a larger population in the United States. The United States government plays a significant role in providing access to health services for its citizen. The passage of patient protection and affordable care act in 2010 aimed at providing affordable health services to citizens. Furthermore, this law proposed reforms to health care and health insurance market to offer better and affordable services to individuals. Some health initiatives have also come to play to provide accessible and high-quality health services to citizens; a good example is the healthy people 2020 action.
Two indicators can be used to measure access to health, and these are general utilization and coverage of particular intervention (Shengelia, Murray & Adams, 2003). General usage has a disadvantage of ignoring the socio-economic composition of a country and hence cannot be used for cross-country analysis. General utilization indicates that lower income group has less access to health services than their higher income counterparts. Coverage of a particular intervention through health human resource and health system financing indicate that governmental support for the low-income group results in better access to health services.
The quality of service is of vital importance to the society as it reduces mobility and mortality. Better quality of care means increased the lifespan of an individual, and this is a key indicator of a country's development. Patient experience during the health process will play a significant role in increasing the patient’s acceptability of the health institution.
Reference
McGlynn, E. A., Asch, S. M., Adams, J., Keesey, J., Hicks, J., DeCristofaro, A., & Kerr, E. A. (2003). The quality of health care given to adults in the United States. New England journal of medicine, 348(26), 2635-2645.
Marmot, M., Friel, S., Bell, R., Houweling, T. A., Taylor, S., Commission on Social Determinants of Health. (2008). closing the gap in the generation: health equity via action on the social determinants of health. The Lancet, 372(9650), 1661-1669.
