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Impact of mammography treatments on breast cancer
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Recommended: Impact of mammography treatments on breast cancer
You faint, feel light-headed or experience some sort of abnormal event that requires you to finally pay a visit to your physician. The story goes downhill from there. You are diagnosed with some sort of health disease, perhaps stage 3 breast cancer, and the doctor says the tumor is still growing! In front of you, lay your treatment options of chemotherapy that can reach about $120,000. It 's intriguing to know that your private health care insurer would much rather pay for your treatment options than the chemopreventive care you should have received. Why is this the case? This paper focuses primarily on the preventive care, specifically mammograms for customers of private for-profit health care insurers and whether they should continue spending …show more content…
Bernie states that the private companies are less concerned about providing quality affordable health care than “to make as much money as they can. Eric finishes with a statement in which Bernie says that no money will be made from health care until we strengthen in primary care. In return, this matches patients with the right doctor and reduces the number of emergency room visits.“What we need to do is greatly expand primary health care, put money into disease prevention, and come up with a system which is not designed to make the drug companies and insurance companies rich, but to provide quality care to all of our …show more content…
Reid refutes this claim by introducing Wynder’s discovery which has saved millions of people from contracting tobacco-induced cancer. However, in the case of a mammogram which doesn’t seem to save as many lives as expressed by the 5 more women who survived in the Canadian study, the preventive care is not worth it. In fact, 10% of all men treated surgically for prostate cancer experience impotence or urinary incontinence to false diagnoses and radiation poisoning. In addition, an article in the New York Times states that one woman who starts screening in her 40s, two in their 50s and three in their 60s, out of 1000, will avoid a breast cancer-related death. I believe these statistics are concrete reasons why for-profit private companies should stop spending on mammogram preventive care. 2,500 women would have to be screened over 10 years for a single breast cancer death to be avoided. Wynder’s discovery may have saved billions of lives, but mammogram tests do not contest to those saved lives as expressed through the statistics
Membership Services (MSD) at Kaiser Permanente used to be a modest department of sixty staff. However, over the past few years the department has doubled in size, creating minor departmental reorganization. In addition the increase of departmental staffing, several challenges became apparent. The changes included primary job function, as well as the introduction of new network system software which slowed down the processes of other departments. These departments included Claims (who pay the bills for service providers outside of the Kaiser Permanente network), and Patient Business Services (who send invoices to members for services received within Kaiser Permanente). Due to the unforeseen challenges created by the system upgrade, it was decided that MSD would process the calls for both of the affected departments. Unfortunately, this created a catastrophic event of MSD receiving numerous phone calls from upset members—who had received bills a year after the service had been provided. The average Monday call volume had risen from 1,800 to 2,600 calls per day. The average handling time for each phone call had risen as well—from an acceptable standard of 5.6 minutes to an unfavorable 7.2 minutes. The department continued to be kept inundated with these types of calls for the two years that these changes have been effect.
As the author highlighted in this book, the quickest way to be diagnosed for prostate cancer is to be screened for it; the same notion applies for many other diseases and illness. With the advent of the technological age, doctors are now able to see more than they did before, and therefore, are more quick to diagnose illnesses and cancers early. As Welch explains, the problem with that is that not all illness or cancers will kill you; some cancers will stick around, but never cause any harm. So, this leads to screening for cancers that were never going to kill a patient, that end up being detected early on and dealt with, thus giving credit to early screening as a success story. As Welch explains, most illnesses and injuries that undertake a natural course of events, without medical intervention, usually heal on their own. This is problematic because it creates this idea that medical intervention is helpful and necessary, when that is not always the case. In general, as a society, the benefits of medical care have been over-exaggerated, while the harms of medical care have been largely ignored. If Welchs’ instructions were followed, a closer examination of the effect of screenings and tests would be the new medical
Rachel was 40 years old when she moved from India to USA with her husband and four kids to fulfill their American dreams. She knew little english and had great difficulty fitting into the new environment in America. She was unable to work because she had to take care of her 10- month-old daughter. Her husband, who was a lawyer in India, was now working at Forman Mills for minimum wage. Recently, Rachel was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer. Her doctors said her tumor is almost seven years old and if she has routine check ups, her survival rate will be higher. Rachel did not have a health insurance and because of this, she postponed necessary care and avoided preventive care. Even though she gets basic treatments from Public Healthcare Center it is not enough for this chronic disease. Her family is helpless; if her husband took insurance coverage from workplace there would be little money left for their daily expenses after paying for insurance premiums. Her husband is now planning to take another job so he can take workplace insurance and save his wife.
When one examines managed health care and the hospitals that provide the care, a degree of variation is found in the treatment and care of their patients. This variation can be between hospitals or even between physicians within a health care network. For managed care companies the variation may be beneficial. This may provide them with opportunities to save money when it comes to paying for their policy holder’s care, however this large variation may also be detrimental to the insurance company. This would fall into the category of management of utilization, if hospitals and managed care organizations can control treatment utilization, they can control premium costs for both themselves and their customers (Rodwin 1996). If health care organizations can implement prevention as a way to warrant good health with their consumers, insurance companies can also illuminate unnecessary health care. These are just a few examples of how the health care industry can help benefit their patients, but that does not mean every issue involving physician over utilization or quality of care is erased because there is a management mechanism set in place.
The United States (U.S.) has a health care system that is much different than any other health care system in the world (Nies & McEwen, 2015). It is frequently recognized as one with most recent technological inventions, but at the same time is often criticized for being overly expensive (Nies & McEwen, 2015). In 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (U. S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.) This plan was implemented in an attempt to make preventative care more affordable and accessible for all uninsured Americans (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.). Under the law, the new Patient’s Bill of Rights gives consumers the power to be in charge of their health care choices. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.).
Bernie Sanders is promising an opportunity to all Americans to obtain healthcare. Universal health care will be a great relief for those who do not have health care and cannot afford it. Many people and families go on living without having health care because it is too expensive. For those who do not have Health care, are constantly in fear knowing that if they get sick, it complicates the situation of where to go and get help or better themselves because it is so expensive for them. As of right now, there are approximately Over Thirty-Three Million Americans that still do not have insurance, Seven million, which happen to be immigrants coming from poor families. (Barry-Jester, Casselman). Bernie Sander believes “ Health care is a right, not a privilege.” (Sanders). He stands for equal treatment, everyone should be able to obtain health care at a reasonable and affordable price so that all people can get the help that they need without having to struggle their way to pay for it. Not everyone chooses where they are born and what family income they come from, it shouldn’t have to be that way with healthcare. The Affordable Care
Health insurance is currently an important issue in the United States. Everyday more and more Americans become uninsured due to job loss and an increase in premiums. These Americans add to the ever growing population of 45.7 million people who are currently uninsured (Bialik). Moreover only 27% of those uninsured are under the age of 65 (NCHC). This is staggering considering most of those who are uninsured have, or soon will, suffer from some sort of illness or injury. As a result they will not be able to afford proper treatment. Insurance premiums can range in cost from fifty dollars per month, to fifteen hundred dollars per month (Kreidler). An individual’s premium is determined by factors they choose as well as other factors looked at by their provider. The cost of health insurance in America varies depending on the controllable factors, like particular insurance policies, and uncontrollable factors, like age.
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. The Affordable Care Act was established to help eliminate the disparities found in those who are diagnosed with cancer. Although the ACA was set into action about a year ago, its ultimate goal is to improve the health of millions of Americans. However, enrolling millions of American into the right insurance plans is no easy task. It will require a lot of patience and surveillance. In addition, the ACA’s individual mandated penalty for those who opt out of insurance coverage is steep. There should not be a penalty for families or individuals who do not want to be covered by the insurance. It will be interesting to see how the ACA will impact the United States health care system in the future.
Managed care reimbursement models have contributed to risk avoidance by negotiating discounts, discouraging use, and denying payments for charges that appear to be false. Health care reform has increased awareness to the quality of care providers give, thus shifting the responsibility onto the provider to provide quality care or else be forced to receive reduced reimbursements (Buff & Terrell,
Health insurance, too many American citizens, is not an option. However, some citizens find it unnecessary. Working in the health care field, I witness the effects of uninsured patients on medical offices. Too often, I see a “self-pay” patient receive care from their doctor and then fail to pay for it. Altogether, their refusal to pay leaves the office at a loss of money and calls for patients to pay extra in covering for the cost of the care the uninsured patient received. One office visit does not seem like too big of an expense, but multiple patients failing to pay for the care they receive adds up. Imagine the hospital bills that patients fail to pay; health services in a hospital are double, sometimes triple, in price at a hospital. It is unfair that paying patients are responsible for covering these unpaid services. Luckily, the Affordable Care Act was passed on March 23, 2010, otherwise known as Obamacare. Obamacare is necessary in America because it calls for all citizens to be health insured, no worrying about pre-existing conditions, and free benefits for men and women’s health.
Health Care workers are constantly faced with legal and ethical issues every day during the course of their work. It is important that the health care workers have a clear understanding of these legal and ethical issues that they will face (1). In the case study analysed key legal and ethical issues arise during the initial decision-making of the incident, when the second ambulance crew arrived, throughout the treatment and during the transfer of patient to the hospital. The ethical issues in this case can be described as what the paramedic believes is the right thing to do for the patient and the legal issues control what the law describes that the paramedic should do in this situation (2, 3). It is therefore important that paramedics also
...on, which consists of not making tons of money, but in helping people fight their health problems and saving lives. That is why we should have a socialized/publicly funded health care system. To ensure that everyone gets the proper medical care, no more denying people because they do not have insurance.
Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.
Even if we lived in a capitalist society where everyone had access to the same basic healthcare program, the rich would arguably still be able to afford better care. The wealthy are able to pay more in co-payments, prescription costs, and the ability to go outside of the healthcare system and travel elsewhere to seek help. When you have disposable resources then the sky is the limit, where the poor have very limited options. Th...
The cost of US health care has been steadily increasing for many years causing many Americans to face difficult choices between health care and other priorities in their lives. Health economists are bringing to light the tradeoffs which must be considered in every healthcare decision (Getzen, 2013, p. 427). Therefore, efforts must be made to incite change which constrains the cost of health care without creating adverse health consequences. As the medical field becomes more business oriented, there will be more of a shift in focus toward the costs and benefits, which will make medicine more like the rest of the economy (Getzen, 2013, p. 439).