Health insurance is available from several sources. Private health insurance is provided by private companies. Subscribers pay health insurance companies a monthly fee for health insurance. In return, the company agrees to pay the doctor and hospital costs if the subscriber gets sick. There are different levels of coverage that a subscriber can purchase, but the cost of a health insurance policy is also set by the amount of risk the subscriber is willing to take. The more expense the subscriber is willing to pay, as either deductible or co-payment, the less the insurance company will charge for the insurance. Some Americans purchase their own health insurance, but most employers pay for the health insurance of its workers. Often this insurance …show more content…
price, quality, convenience, and superior products or services); however, competition can also be based on new technology and innovation. A key role of competition in health care is the potential to provide a mechanism for reducing health care costs. Competition generally eliminates inefficiencies that would otherwise yield high production costs, which are ultimately transferred to patients via high health service and delivery costs” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). “Competition in health care markets benefits consumers because it helps contain costs, improve quality, and encourage innovation” (https://www.ftc.gov). Competition compels companies to deliver increasing value to customers. The fundamental driver of this continuous quality improvement and cost reduction is innovation. Without incentives to sustain innovation in health care, short-term cost savings will soon be overwhelmed by the desire to widen access, the growing health needs of an aging population, and the unwillingness of Americans to settle for anything less than the best treatments available. The United States can achieve universal access and lower costs without sacrificing quality, but only by allowing competition to work at all levels of the health care system. Prices remain high even when there is excess capacity. Technologies remain expensive even when they are widely used. Hospitals and physicians remain in business even when they charge
Among all the countries visited by Reid there is a wide range of cost for health coverage. In Great Britain, because the hospitals are government owned, citizens pay nothing outright for their health coverage, but they do pay higher taxes than in the US. In Japan, all people in the country have to sign up for health insurance, whether it be through their employer or through their community. In Germany people pay based on income and, whatever the price, they split the total cost with their employer. Switzerland citizens all have to pay...
The current health care landscape has been characterized by large scale consolidation and vertical integration of payers and providers. This has led to a handful of dominate players with substantial influence, and an increasing overlap in responsibilities between payers and providers. Although payers and providers have traditionally been on opposing sides, battling each other about quality of care versus cost-effective care, they are shifting to working together to achieve better value.
Health care establishments have an obligation to ensure that every individual obtaining care from them will get the best and most valuable treatment regardless of their race, culture, or economic status. The term diversity can be defined as “the quality or state of having different forms, types, ideas, etc, or the state of having people of different races or different cultures in a group or organization”, according to the Webster’s dictionary (2015). The changing demographics due to migration have led to diversity in many cities and states in the U.S. as well as other countries in the world. These changes in the U.S. have today led to the government encouraging health care organizations to explore ways numerous ways
Since 1985, the rapid rise of healthcare costs has had a ripple effect on the healthcare industry. Most of the cost increases are associated with medicines rapid advancement. Like most technological advancements, the newest treatments and most advanced diagnostic machinery have a higher cost. Understandably, patients expect the most advanced and effective treatments to be utilized for their care. The effects of rising healthcare costs are illustrated in the diagram below (Intermountain Healthcare [IHC], n.d.).
These modules display that competition is competent of raising value for consumer's period of time. Quality and procedure advancement lead to lower prices, which in turn end results in improving consumer satisfaction. This paper also assesses significant data on the influence of rivalry, especially in regards to system prices, quality of care, and patient happiness; shows and investigates an assessment standard of competition and patient satisfactory in health care with propositions for practical research; and provides outlines for future fact-finding and
Increasing prices for medical treatments, consultations, and drugs is another element in increasing health care costs. Increasing prices of health care services and drugs were the main reason for increasing health care expenditures between 2009 and 2010. Poor productivity is another element of increasing health care costs. Because there is little or no intervening growth in productivity gains for health care, health care costs would increase over time; and because of inelastic demand health care expenditures would also increase (Baumol, 1988). Because it is difficult to measure value of health care service, it is very difficult to evaluate productivity gains in health care. Referrin...
Health insurance is a type of insurance that typically covers an insured person’s medical and surgical expenses. The insured person could either pay costs out-of-pocket and then they are reimbursed by their insurance company or the insurance company would pay the costs directly to the healthcare provider. The provider is a clinic, hospital, doctor, laboratory, health care practitioner or a pharmacy. (Nordqvist 2012). Medical assistance would be required in every individual’s life at some point in their lifetime. Which is why the question then is raised whether health insurance should be a basic human right afforded to the general population or if it should be a product that is marketed. In some countries such as Norway and Canada, the government
Controlling the cost of medical care is an essential element of health care reform. Without adequate cost control measures, ensuring widespread access to care may become unsustainable. Cost containment approaches should not compromise value in health care; however, cost containment efforts should focus on reducing redundancy and waste, improved care management, and improved delivery of excellent value in health care. According to Jessup (2012), containing the costs of care can be useful to government, employer, and household budgets, but it may have a detrimental impact on innovation since health care costs are the main source of revenue for medical innovators. One of the health care treatment that is controversial and is costly is the patient
In the medical industry, the quality of demand always remains constant despite the changes in prices and quality of services being provided. There usually is need for a regulatory agency to keep an eye on the market forces in the business so as to ensure the patients are not exploited. There are several regulatory agencies in the healthcare sector and it at times can be overwhelming (Stange, K. 2014). The main regulatory agency is the government, but it has several other agencies under it. These regulatory agencies play a role in not only the medical industry but also in the health insurance coverage.
Ever since the Affordable Care Act went into effect, the healthcare industry has experienced an increase in hospital mergers throughout the country. Even though Affordable Care Act has made it easier for many Americans to have access to preventing medicine and despite many efforts, the system remains in a complete state of disarray. Patient care has not improved in the industry. Nevertheless, hospital administrators argue that mergers are going to benefit their patients by reducing cost, provide better services and help them to achieve their desired outcome with the minimum use of resources and efforts. On the other hand, experts believe that hospital mergers will influence the healthcare market by causing medical costs to inflate.
The United States health care system is one of the most expensive systems in the world yet it is known as being unorganized and chaotic in comparison to other countries (Barton, 2010). This factor is attributed to numerous characteristics that define what the U.S. system is comprised of. Two of the major indications are imperfect market conditions and the demand for new technology (Barton, 2010). The health care system has been described as a free market in
Some of the changes included new medical and surgical procedures, like increase in pharmaceutical prescription, joint replacements, medical devices such as CT scanners, electronic health records (EHR), and transmission of information (Terry, 1994). Although these new changes improve health care services, the high cost, however, affect both people and businesses. Another change that occurred in the early 1990s was the number of Americans enrolled in a health maintenance organization (HMO) (Gold 1991). The number enrolled grew tremendously from 36.5 million to 58.2 million. Some of the changes that occurred during the decade among HMOs: “the rapid growth of for-profit HMOs; the rapid growth of network and individual practice association (IPA) models; the growth of mixed-model HMOs; product diversification; industry consolidation at the national and local levels; the decline of community rating methods; altered payment arrangements with physicians; increased patient cost sharing; declining hospital use; and increased use of clinical guidelines” (Gabel, 1997). Furthermore, in the 1980s and 1990s customers had high expectation for quality services due to Increase in deductibles and copayments. In conclusion, the health care system has not only undergone some drastic changes in the past two decades, and it will continue to evolve. All the changes forced health care organization to take some type of action; and the action taken by a health care system seeking correction and balance has been to look for ways to contain costs by adapting (CQI) continuous quality
Healthcare is a complicated and often controversial aspect of policymaking. Healthcare systems can range from national healthcare that is government provided to private, market based insurance systems. Access, quality, and cost are some of the most important factors to consider in creating healthcare policy. When it comes to deciding what policies are funded and provided by the government, many people agree that public libraries, parks, and public education are all responsibilities of the government to provide. However, healthcare is one of the most widely debated aspects of public policy, especially in the United States. Healthcare is often debated to be either a right or privilege. The healthcare systems in the United Kingdom and the United States are examples of how healthcare has been viewed as both a right and a privilege through the policies and systems that govern each.
My name is Dominique Clemons and I am writing to you in response to your views on today’s Healthcare issues, specifically the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s main goal was to cover uninsured Americans, which it did. I understand that is has not given coverage to every American, but it has drastically lowered the uninsured percentage. So, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is not at all a “train wreck” as you described, but it does need some work. And although you were opposed to its passage, I think instead of working so hard to repeal it,
The primary potential benefits of learning about health economics related to government involvement in healthcare economics, financing, and delivery are government intervention in the market to control price, quantity, and quality of services. According to Hicks L. L. (2014), the regulation of the market by the government is to control price, quality, and quantity by direct action such as instituting price controls, establishing professional licensure requirements, or accessing and regulating the quantity of services and enforcing competitive behavior in the market. The government has the authority to intervene in the market place and influence any aspect of health care delivery. For instance, the government can control the number of health care providers, services they provide and/or even prices providers set for services. Government involvement in health economics, financing and delivery also have a strong influence on innovations and new health technologies. The introduction and use of new medical technologies and equipment for treatment are also control by government. If not controlled by the government it could lead to high usage thereby increasing healthcare