A Case Against Universal Health Care
Melody Hicks
MHA-620 Health Policy Analyses
Dr. Martha Plant
February 23, 2015

Change within the healthcare industry is occurring at an exponential rate. Although change is not new to healthcare, the underlying reasons for change are diverse compared to other industries. Consumer perception that healthcare is a right has inspired regulatory changes that affect both access and quality of care, adding to the already escalating costs. The entry of investor-owned companies into the acute-care markets in the late 1960s has created a challenging and changing healthcare environment, which threatens the survival of those unable to adjust to the trends of the industry (Johnson, 2009).
Other factors contributing to unpredictable changes in the healthcare industry include the exclusive expertise of the providers, the physician/hospital relationship and related referral patterns, the absence of a traditional competitive market, and the fragmentation of the industry. The concept of change is far too broad to justify any one definition. Extenuating circumstances and unpredictable shifts within the healthcare industry require a strategic management model that addresses both change and changing. Visionary leaders must be alert to external change and have the organization prepared to respond by changing internally. Consequently, everyone in the organization plays a role in change management. Among the many definitions of change reported in the literature, transitional and transformational changes provide the most practical distinction relative to the scope and depth of change. Transitional change, sometimes referred to as developmental change, is associated with the incremental adjustment or “tweaking” of processes. These changes may or may not influence the variables and methods of measurement within the system but are