In order to make ones’ health care coverage more affordable, the nation needs to address the continually increasing medical care costs. Approximately more than one-sixth of the United States economy is devoted to health care spending, such as: soaring prices for medical services, costly prescription drugs, newly advanced medical technology, and even unhealthy lifestyles. Our system is spending approximately $2.7 trillion annually on health care. According to experts, it is estimated that approximately 20%-30% of that spending (approx. $800 billion a year) appears to go towards wasteful, redundant, or even inefficient care. Such rising health care costs penalize the citizens within our nation in multiple aspects. The first set of individuals that are affected are families and seniors because it affects the amount of money that goes into their pockets, which results in a difficult time balancing food, rent, and the basic necessities for living. Next, small businesses and fortune 500 employers are affected because such increased costs cause rising health care costs to become more expensive to add new employees to their payroll and more difficult to cover retiree fees when that time comes. Finally, the federal, state, and local governments are forced to increase Medicare and Medicaid costs, which results in cutting other priority funding such as public safety and education. Health care costs affect family finances in two major ways: out-of-pocket spending, such as co-pays, deductibles, and prescriptions, and the family’s share of the health insurance premium. The United States health care spending growth continues to annually increase in expenditures that have stabilized at less than 4% per year. Rising cost-sharing is largely at... ... middle of paper ... ...t is also difficult to maintain overall operations. Operations are effected simply because of health care delivering patient care which significantly declines when the overall cost continues to raise. Overall, the increase within health care costs is effecting our nation significantly. Not only does it affect consumers but also organization. As it continues to increase everyone is finding themselves unable to pay for such changes. Reducing such growth within the health care costs requires a collaborative, inclusive, and dual-party approach. Strategies for reducing the costs include but not limited to: promoting prevention and healthy living, improving patient safety, and promoting transparency on medical costs and quality. If the nation works on such improvements, hopefully we will be able to turn the health care system into something we can all afford once again.
Healthcare has now become one of the top social as well as economic problems facing America today. The rising cost of medical and health insurance impacts the livelihood of all Americans in one way or another. The inability to pay for medical care is no longer a problem just affecting the uninsured but now is becoming an increased problem for those who have insurance as well. Health care can now been seen as a current concern. One issue that we face today is the actual amount of healthcare that is affordable. Each year millions of people go without any source of reliable coverage.
For the last five years of my life I have worked in the healthcare industry. One of the biggest issues plaguing our nation today has been the ever rising cost of health care. If we don't get costs under control, we risk losing the entire system, as well as potentially crippling our economy. For the sake of our future, we must find a way to lower the cost of health care in this nation.
Since 1970, health care spending has grown at an average annual rate of 9.8%, or about 2.5 percentage points faster than the economy as measured by the nominal gross domestic product (GDP). Annual spending on health care increased from $75 billion in 1970 to $2.0 trillion in 2005, and is estimated to reach $4 trillion in 2015. As a share of the economy, health care has more than doubled over the past 35 years, rising from 7.2% of GDP in 1970 to 16.0% of GDP in 2005, and is projected to be 20% of GDP in 2015. Health care spending per capita increased from $356 in 1970 to $6,697 in 2005, and is projected to rise to $12,320 in 2015.” (Henry J,
(W. Lease, personal communication, July 23, 2010), the “unknown” of the recent health care reform legislation is an external influence that is most relevant to our organization, stated by William Lease, senior vice president of clinical support services. Mr. Lease states, that health care reform legislation will impact our organization in many ways; especially after 2014. While more employees will have health insurance coverage and there will be more patients to treat; the need for controlling costs and improving efficiency is i...
Yong, Pierre L., Robert Samuel Saunders, and LeighAnne Olsen. The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes : Workshop Series Summary. Washington, D.C.: National Academies, 2010. Print.
The person pursues healthcare service with great expectations such as quality health care, latest technological interventions and low cost for their service. Nowadays, one of the challenges facing by the health care providers is providing appropriate care and identifying their needs in a cost effective and comprehensive way without compromising the quality of care. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reported “an rise in healthcare spending from $2.34 trillion in 2008 to $ 2.47 trillion in 2009, the largest one year increase since 1960” (Pickert, K, 2010). “The action to improve the American health care delivery system as a whole, in all of its quality dimensions such as efficiency, effectiveness, equitability, timeliness, patient-centeredness, and safety for all Americans” (IOM, 2011).
There are huge impacts of the rising costs. Many people can not afford health insurance. Of the families that do have health coverage, 50 percent are concerned about having to pay more for that coverage in the future, while 42 percent fear they will not be able to afford coverage at all. (National Coalition on Healthcare, 2005, Facts on heal...
There are many elements affecting increases in health care costs. The proportion of old people in the US population increases and aging population can raise health care expenditures. Because, compared to younger people, older people use more health care services as they are more likely to have non-communicable diseases. Non-communicable diseases are not caused by infection and they cannot spread among people such as, heart disease, asthma, diabetes, and cancer. Health care costs for non-communicable diseases is expensive and these diseases continue for a long period of time which shows that health care expenditures will rise due to aging of population.
Roughly 2.8 trillion dollars is spent currently on health care in the United States (Kliff, 2014). In 2013, the United States spent almost 50 percent more than the next highest health care spender, France (The Commonwealth Fund, 2016). Many experts agree health care costs consumes a significant portion of economic output as well as increased premium costs. Several factors are contributing to cost escalation such as defensive medicine, increase in the elderly population, and growth of technology (Shi & Singh, 2016). The United States is considered to have mostly a private health care system, however it spends more money on the public health care system than countries with a completely public health care system. Government funded programs, such as Medicare, play a considerable roll in health care expenditures. It is projected that Medicare expenditures will rise to 9 percent of the GDP by the year 2050 (Shi & Singh, 2016). Further concern arises with drug costs in the United
Currently, an imbalance exists, leading to nonproductive tensions (Nolan, Bisognano, 2006).” Clinicians often see themselves defending patients and professional standards against the finance department. They see themselves as the protectors of quality. The finance professionals see themselves protecting the resources of the organization. The finance department usually provides supervisors with weekly or monthly cost reports of expenditures against the budget (McConnell, C, 2010). This is difficult for management because the clinicians see that they need new equipment to help the patients and the finance professionals see unnecessary spending that could be saved for something more important. Management must figure out how to decipher how to keep their clinicians happy and finance professionals happy. Management must figure out how to handle difficulty between staff members and ways to reduce the cost but keep the quality of care up especially with the budget the finance department have gave
The movement for changing the Health Care system believes that there is a need for change because of the problems that the system faces today cannot be handled. Every month, 2 million Americans lose their insurance. One out of four, 63 million Americans, will lose their health insurance coverage for some period during the next two years . 37 million Americans have no insurance and another 22 million have inadequate coverage . Losing or changing a job often means losing insurance. Becoming ill or living with a chronic medical condition can mean losing insurance coverage or not being able to obtain it. Long-term care coverage is inadequate. Many elderly and disabled Americans enter nursing homes and other institutions when they would prefer to remain at home. Families exhaust their savings trying to provide for disabled relatives. Many Americans in inner cities and rural areas do not have access to quality care, due to poor distribution of doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics and support services. Public health services are not well integrated and coordinated with the personal care delivery system. Many serious health problems -- such as lead poisoning and drug-resistant tuberculosis -- are handled inefficiently or not at all, and thus potentially threaten the health of the entire population. Rising health costs mean lower wages, higher prices for goods and services, and higher taxes. The average worker today would be earning at least $1,000 more a year if health insurance costs had not risen faster than wages over the previous 15 years . If the cost of health care continues at the current pace, wages will be held down by an additional $650 by the year 2000.
Reforming the health care delivery system to progress the quality and value of care is indispensable to addressing the ever-increasing costs, poor quality, and increasing numbers of Americans without health insurance coverage. What is more, reforms should improve access to the right care at the right time in the right setting. They should keep people healthy and prevent common, preventable impediments of illnesses to the greatest extent possible. Thoughtfully assembled reforms would support greater access to health-improving care, in contrast to the current system, which encourages more tests, procedures, and treatments that are either
In society today many of the policymakers are looking to find ways to decrease the current levels of growth without reducing access to the necessary medical care services, while at the same time not creating burden on the patient population. In many cases though, organizations are looking at past strategies in order to decrease cost. Many health care organizations are exploring new approaches that seem to hold promise to decrease the cost of medical treatment. The future of health care in the United States will need to be focused on implementing cost reduction systems to improve overall cost to patients.
Despite the established health care facilities in the United States, most citizens do not have access to proper medical care. We must appreciate from the very onset that a healthy and strong nation must have a proper health care system. Such a health system should be available and affordable to all. The cost of health services is high. In fact, the ...
Access to healthcare provides financial stability by assuring people that they will not be financially destroyed by injury or illness. Additionally, when people can afford regular medical care they tend to avoid chronic problems and financial stress. In a study provided by the American Medical Students Association, researchers reviewed the costs and benefits of universal health care. They came to the conclusion, after reviewing other articles and statistics from multiple sources, that, “The annual cost of diminished health and shorter life spans of Americans without insurance is $65-$130 billion.” (Chua 5) This comes from people not having adequate health care and then losing their jobs because they...