It also makes employers pay for their employee’s health care. That expense is covered by raising the prices of goods and services. Obamacare actually has a lot of out-of-pocket expenses as well. If you were to make 24,000 dollars a year, and have no health insurance your premiums would be brought down to below 7% of your income. If you were to have in accident your out-of-pocket could be 5,200 dollars.
According to WHO, “this population ageing can be seen as a success story for public health policies, but it also challenges society to adapt, in order to maximize the health and functional capacity of older people as well as their social participation and security.” The UK is considered to have an ageing population (2013- 10 million over 65 in UK); some may perceive this to have negative consequences due to several factors: for instance, many argue that the ageing population places pressure on public health services. On average, those over 65 spend 9 nights compared to an average of two nights for the rest of the population per year. Moreover, the elderly are more likely to have co-morbidities hence visit doctors more frequently. They are also more likely to need carers to help them with some daily activities. Consequently, this puts strain on social care services.
The Revolution of Medical Technology Technology has revolutionized the medical field, bringing it into the future and saving lives around the world. Better communications from doctors, online medical health records and new life saving technology has increased how quickly a doctor diagnoses patients and the communicative relationship between doctors and patients. Despite others claiming that using technology is dangerous to patient privacy, special has actually made medical technology very secure and safe. It has also increased communication between doctors around the world, helping with difficult diagnoses and finding cures together. Technology within medical practices has enhanced the field due to quicker diagnoses with new software programs, which has helped reduce the spread of rare diseases, as well as given patients and doctors quick access to records and generally has improved the care hospitals can give, as well as its efficiency.
Although the medical technology advances and better health care improved life expectancy age, the world’s population is steadily becoming older, which can bring negative results for society. In the last century, some countries, particularly in developed countries, have shifted policy in the direction of low fertility. Combined with the advances in medical technology, people get better assistance, which makes the average age increases within a short period of time. As a result, people are happy with living longer. However, aging population problem emerges.
There have been many new advancements in the medical field in the past few decades. Medical advancements improve people’s lives by prolonging lives, and reducing the risk of disease. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration regulators to re-engineer the complex review and approval process for new medical devices. The FDA last year announced a new Medical Device Innovation Consortium charged with simplifying the process of designing and testing new technologies (MacRae). The MDIC will help the industry to be more equipped to bring safe and useful medical devices to market quickly and at a lower price (MacRae).
In the past costs could differ wildly due to factors like age, health, or you could be discriminated based on your gender. The act restricts inconsistencies in what you can be charged. Many of individuals who can't come up with the money for the coverage will not be liable to maintain coverage. This act puts our budget and economy on a steady pathway by dropping the deficit by over one hundred billion dollars over the next decade and even more in the long run. The main focus of the act is to cut the governments reckless spending and reining in fraud, waste, and abuse.
The public deserves to be healthy and have access to qualified doctors. For some poor people, they not only cannot afford such expensive therapy costs but also the result of treatment maybe has uncertain danger. Secondly, there is an increasing number of funds are invested in alternative medicine. According to a survey, Hollenberg (2006b) predicted that the consumption of alternative medical methods maybe more than 13.5 billion dollars in USA and more than 1.5 billion pounds in UK, which accounts for a large revenue for a country. This means that research complementary alternative medicine may waste numerous funds of country.
US Healthcare 2050 What will US healthcare look like in 2050? According to Getzen (2013), trends in better health will lead to greater need for long-term care and chronic care for the aging population while correspondingly trending toward less acute illnesses (p. 438). Personalized prognostic healthcare will lead to healthier longer lives (Lawrence, 2010). Physicians will become leaders of teams within healthcare organizations rather than the independent practitioners we are familiar with today (Getzen, 2013, p. 438). Thus, the concept of the primary care physician will become a thing of the past (Lawrence, 2010).
Corporate Wellness Programs Corporate wellness programs are critical to the fiscal fitness of organizations in the United States today. Corporate wellness programs vary in their methods, but the end goals are the same: decrease medical costs and increase employee productivity. Healthcare costs now consume over 50% of corporate profits and continue to increase at nearly 12% a year (Powell, 1999, p.15). This dramatic rise in costs has caused employers to look for innovative ways to combat the costs. In addition, larger companies now operate with more employees in smaller a space, which creates more stress and allows for ailments to spread faster.
What does the future hold? Only the future knows. The United States spends vast amounts on its healthcare, while falling short of achieving superiority over other developed nations. One cannot overlook that the deepening recession has left many without jobs and therefore lacking health insurance. According to Fairhall and Steadman, (2009), even though the recession is hard on all, it is worse on the uninsured due to health care and insurance cost rising faster than incomes.