Health financing is fundamental to the ability of health systems to maintain and improve human welfare. Health financing provides the resources and economic incentives for the operation of health systems and is a key determinant of health system performance in terms of equity, efficiency, and health outcomes. At the extreme, without the necessary funds no health workers would be employed, no medicines would be available and no health promotion or prevention would take place. It is concerned with how financial resources are generated, allocated and used in health systems. Health financing involves the basic functions of revenue collection, pooling of resources, and purchase/provision of interventions in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs) …show more content…
Governments use a variety of financial and nonfinancial mechanisms to carry out their functions, including directly providing services; financing, regulating, and mandating service provision; and providing information. A substantial literature is devoted to the various sources for financing health services and the economic and institutional effects of using these sources in terms of efficiency, equity, revenue-raising potential, revenue administration, and sustainability. Pooling deals with the accumulation and management of revenues so that members of the pool share collective health risks, thereby protecting individual pool members from large, unpredictable health expenditures. Risk pooling and Prepayment allows pool members to pay for average expected costs in advance, relieves them of uncertainty, and ensures compensation should a loss occur. Pooling coupled with prepayment enables the establishment of insurance and the redistribution of health spending between high- and low-risk individuals and high- and low-income individuals. Purchasing/provision refers to the mechanisms used to purchase services from public and private providers and to ensure efficiency in resource
The United States is projected to spend nearly 20 percent of the Gross Domestic Product on healthcare by 2020.According to a Mckinsey study $447 billion of the 1.7 trillion the U.S. spent on healthcare in 2003 was in excess of what it should have spent based on its wealth. A 1 % increase in the rate of health-spending results in an increase of about $2 trillion in spending on health over the next 10 years.
Miller, H. D. (2009). From volume to value: better ways to pay for health care. Health Affairs
A positive aspect of this mechanism is that it adds in a middle man, controlling and regulating insurance, minimizing risks of adverse selection for both the insurance company and the customer. When insurance is distributed by private companies, adverse selection occurs and companies refuse insurance to high risk groups and institute costly underwriting practices to others (Heath, 123). In addition to preventing adverse selection, this insurance mechanism provides all individuals with the basics of care. As of 2011, it was reported that 100% of the Canadian population was covered under the public health insurance (Nationmaster). Unfortunately, the public insurance mechanism has
“Homelessness can be the cause as well as the result of poor health” (Wise, Emily, Debrody, Corey &ump; Paniucki, Heather, 1999, p.445). This is a reoccurring theme that has existed within the homeless population for decades. While programs to help reduce this constant circle are being put in place all over the country to provide medical services for the homeless to be able to go to, many are still finding that health care needs for individuals as well as homeless communities are not being met. Many studies have been completed that study both the opinion on healthcare by those who have access to sufficient health care and homeless people’s perceptions on health care administration. While many companies are working to provide more personal health care systems, it appears that the larger problem is with a lack of people know about the health care systems that are in place to help them. Companies are trying to advertise more often to inform homeless people that there is health care out there for them.
There are several issues concerning the uninsured and underinsured patient population in America. There are many areas of concern the congressional efforts to increase the availability of health insurance, the public image of the insurance industry illustrated by the movie "John Q", the lack of good management tools, and creating health insurance coverage for all low income Americans. Since the number of uninsured Americans has risen to 43 million from 37 million in the flourishing 1990s and could shoot up even more severely if the economy continues to decrease and health care premiums keep increasing (Insurance No Simple Fix, 2001).
There is an ongoing debate on the topic of how to fix the health care system in America. Some believe that there should be a Single Payer system that ensures all health care costs are covered by the government, and the people that want a Public Option system believe that there should be no government interference with paying for individual’s health care costs. In 1993, President Bill Clinton introduced the Health Security Act. Its goal was to provide universal health care for America. There was a lot of controversy throughout the nation whether this Act was going in the right direction, and in 1994, the Act died. Since then there have been multiple other attempts to fix the health care situation, but those attempts have not succeeded. The Affordable Care Act was passed in the senate on December 24, 2009, and passed in the house on March 21, 2010. President Obama signed it into law on March 23 (Obamacare Facts). This indeed was a step forward to end the debate about health care, and began to establish the middle ground for people in America. In order for America to stay on track to rebuild the health care system, we need to keep going in the same direction and expand our horizons by keeping and adding on to the Affordable Care Act so every citizen is content.
Healthcare plays an important role in almost every person’s life at one point or another. Many times, one can get caught without, or underinsured and it can be detrimental to their livelihood. With the rising cost of healthcare, it is likely that having a national healthcare policy in place, and as an individual, being able to afford and obtain adequate health insurance has not been required until now. With the new national healthcare plan, it is required for all citizens to obtain and maintain some sort of public or private insurance policy. The rising costs can be attributed to many things. A significant reason for the astronomical cost of health care is because of the staggering amount of uninsured or underinsured individuals receiving medical attention and almost many never paying the bill. Those who do have insurance have seen a gradual increase in their premiums and deductibles to make up for this.
Today healthcare cost is constantly rising. It is important to ensure that patient 's health are maintained and supported outside the clinical settings such as their homes and communities. Healthcare organizations play an important role in serving people to provide an effective health care and improve the patients ' outcome. They focus on activities and strategies to provide a high quality care for many communities. This is their way of helping people and their community healthy. Organizations have a way of improving the patient 's outcome through monitoring of patients especially those who have high medical needs.
In general, access to healthcare describes how easily an individual can receive appropriate medical services. These include measures of access health insurance coverage, ability to see a physician and obtain needed medical attention, ease of obtaining after-hours care, and short waiting times for doctor appointments. Throughout the entire world, better healthcare access correlates to better health status and lower hospitalization rates as the whole. The United States has always tried to reach equality and justice in politics. This also applies to healthcare accessibility. The United States has gone through many reforms and reconstruction to better increase the accessibility for everyone nationally, but there are still multiple setbacks in the way of a more readily available healthcare system.
Medicaid is currently the largest source of funding for medical and health related services for people in the United States with low-income, disabilities, nursing home and community-based long-term care. Medicaid has been referred to as a safety net for the needy. As a parent of a disabled child, I have a personal interest in the Medicaid system, its history, current functioning, and future plans.
To comprehend our current health care system, it is important to understand the history and how health care has evolved in the United States. The healthcare system we have now didn't always exist. Believe it or not, before 1920, most people would not of known what health care coverage meant! So how did the United States turn into one of the few developed countries lacking nationwide healthcare? Understanding U.S. healthcare history will help you understand the dynamics that built the system that, we struggle with today. Furthermore, I will make conclusions on the current problems we are facing.
Levit, K. R., & Cowan, C. A. (1991). Business, households and governments: Health care costs, 1990. Health Care Financing Review, 13 (2), 83. Retrieved from: Ashford University Library
Medical debt is one of the top reasons why many households experience financial hardship. Countries such as South Africa have been living poverty for a very long time. Adding a fatal medical condition in the mix, will only make the financial impact that much greater for the denizens of that country. The South African government has made several attempts to implement a universal health care system across the board. Lanchet writers Bongani M Mayos (2012) and colleagues published an article, stating many challenges that would still need to be addressed in order for national health insurance to become available for all.
...ue to numerous medical errors. With the amount of medical errors that currently do occur which is a current health care issue it cost the health care billions of dollar each year to fix the mistakes that were made.
Health care has always been an interesting topic all over the world. Voltaire once said, “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” It may seem like health care that nothing gets accomplished in different health care systems, but ultimately many trying to cures diseases and improve health care systems.