...different reasons. An aging population, illegal immigration, and technology advancements are some of the few influences on rising healthcare costs in America. It is imperative that health care costs are managed and soon because the government is finding it quite difficult to sustain everyone’s needs. In addition, healthcare reforms must be made to lessen healthcare costs before the quality of healthcare reduce in a drastic way. Healthcare spending has been on a continuous incline in America throughout the years. According to Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, in the year of 2008 health care cost rose to $2.3 trillion in the United States; this was 4.4% higher than 2007 costs. Healthcare costs are averaging a little over %16 of the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In 2008 Medicare spending increased 8.6% and Medicaid spending increased 4.7% in the same year. In addition, hospital stays physician rates, clinical visits, and prescription medications increased as well. 31% of a $1.6 trillion healthcare cost has been designated strictly for hospital stay care. Clinical and physician services are accountable for about 22% however, proposals from physicians account for a much vaster percentage of health care costs. Prescription medications make up about 11%; which has continuously increased over the past 10 years. The remaining health care costs branch out from administrative, long-term care, and other miscellaneous expenses. United States health care system is said to be...
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...“Impact of the Health Care Reform on Social Insurance versus Private Insurance” Introduction: Health care cost in the United States continues to spiral out of control. It has become a national crisis for the Unites States government to solve. Medicare, a government health care national program funded by taxpayers is no longer a sufficient funding pool to support the elderly and retirees. In 2012, Medicare program has a growth deficit spending, which totaled $492 billion and expected to hit $895 billion in 2022. Medicare reform was a signature discussion amongst last year presidential candidates. Now we once again asked ourselves the question will healthcare reform work this time? More importantly, should the US government reform existing health care into a social healthcare program, similar to our neighboring country, Canada? Or whether the US government should continue supporting the health care hybrid model: public health care and private health care. Under the public health care, the government continues to subsidies healthcare coverage through Medicare program to the elderly and the retirees. Under the private health care, private corporations continue with employer-based insurance program to provide coverage for the working population? As we know it today the costs of health care continue to soar and the costs are not uniform across the population. With the increasing prevalence of chronic illness amongst the aging population, about 30 percent of the population...
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...Williams Background The United States, being the most diverse society in the world, has a long and unsuccessful history of attempts at healthcare reform. We spend almost $2 trillion dollars per year on healthcare, yet not all American people have medical coverage (Barton, 2007). A huge percent of the population have to rely on outside sources, such as benefit health care from an employer or from government programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. As compared to other nations, our society has people that are more overweight, live under more stress, and are less in physical activity. Additionally, our healthcare system underperforms compared to with other nations in critical areas such as, access, quality and efficiency (Davis). How did our system get this way? Why are we paying so much while other nations not so much? A history of major events - The U.S. healthcare system is trying to evolve with modern times; however, as time goes on, our current situation becomes more apparent: * In the 1950s, the price of hospital care was growing; however, more attention was diverted to the war in Korea. Many legislative proposals were made, but none could not be agreed on. * In the 1960s, hospital care expenses doubled, and despite over 700 insurance companies selling health insurance, a large percentage of the population could not afford it. During this time, Medicare and Medicaid were signed into law. * In the 1970s, as Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) begin...
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...of our current healthcare system 1. A history of major events 2. Impact to healthcare organizations III. Defining the problem A. Political disagreements B. The increase of expenses IV. Literature Review A. Is U.S. Healthcare deteriorating? B. Effects on the profitability of local hospitals V. Analyze the Problem A. Raising insurance premiums B. The uninsured VI. Possible Solutions A. French Healthcare system B. A public option VII. Implementation Plan A. Financing VIII. Justification A. Access of care B. Quality of care C. Utilization of resources IX. References - See last two pages. Background The United States, being the most diverse society in the world, has a long and unsuccessful history of attempts at healthcare reform. We spend almost $2 trillion dollars per year on healthcare, yet not all American people have medical coverage (Barton, 2007). A huge percent of the...
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...The Future of the U.S. Health Care System James Hackett HCA305 The U.S. Healthcare System Kendra West June 20, 2011 The Future of the U.S. Health Care System Healthcare continues to evolve at an alarming rate in reference to the services available. This research paper will focus on the delivery of our countries health care system that is radically different now than at the time of the U. S first becoming of a country. I will identify the essence of hospital facilities as well as outpatient care. In a combination with these issues I will show changes in technology in the healthcare system and explain why the government should take aggressive action in controlling health care in the United States. Health care is a privilege attainable by the wealthy, a benefit provided solely at the discretion of an employer, a government subsidized insurance plan for the elderly or a charitable gift provided based on the goodwill of the employer. We are now blessed with a system that has enormous potential for the improving the quality and quantity of life. There have been enormous numbers of health care interventions that improved the quality of life. However, the improvements in quantity and quality of life occurred in concert with costs that to the wealth of the country. Our health care system is now extremely expensive, costing us over a trillion dollars a year and consuming 13.2 percent of our gross domestic product in 2000. Although the aging of the population contributes...
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...Influencing Factors of Health Care Expenditure: Opportunities to Improve Canada’s Statistics [Authors Name] [Institutional Affiliation(s)] Author Note [Include any grant/funding information and a complete correspondence address.] Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………2 Comparing Health System Performance…………………………………………………4 Sweden’s Healthcare Policy Framework………………………………………………...8 Canada’s Opportunities for Improvement………………………………………………..9 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….11 References……………………………………………………………………………….13 Influencing Factors of Health Care Expenditure: Opportunities to Improve Canada’s Statistics Globally, the number of variations that contribute to the government’s financial contribution to the health care system is great and ever changing. The amount of money spent on health expenditures varies as well, and is specific to each country. In countries with a high income, such as the United States and France, the per capita health expenditure averages over 3,000 USD, while in countries that are considered resource poor, such as Israel and Mexico, the average per capita amount is only 30 USD. (Ke, Saksena, & Holly, 2011). Wide variations in health expenditure are also specific to each country’s economic development. Less resourceful countries have been noted to only spend less than 3% of GDP on health, while other, more economically developed countries spend more than 12% of GDP on health. (Ke et al.,2011). The growth...
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...Food Stamps Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Abstract This article describes the benefits of the Medicare system while exploring the many challenges of the program. The United States Medicare program is the closest program to universal health care for one portion of the population. While providing some level of health care to most elderly citizens over 65 years of age, it sometimes is found to be highly confusing to its patients. Additional concerns explored by this paper relate to the costs, quality of care, and availability to all who need this insurance. When all of the pros and cons are explored, one final concern arises. Amid the rising costs of medical care, prescription drugs, and costs of program administration, will the funding of this program continue and will this be a program that the young families of today can depend upon for their retirement years? 1. Introduction: The rules and regulations of Medicare Simply stated, Medicare is the federally financed health insurance program for people aged 65 and over, certain individuals with disabilities, and individuals with end-stage renal disease. Medicare Part A covers hospital and other inpatient stays. Medicare Part B is optional insurance, and covers hospital outpatient, physician, and other services. Medicare Parts A and B are known as original Medicare or Medicare FFS. Medicare beneficiaries have the option of obtaining coverage for Medicare Part A and B services...
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...challenges that every other developed country is facing: a growing elder population and the ever increasing costs of healthcare in conjunction with a waning economy. Alarming statistics, such as the following, will demand Germanys attention as well as the vast majority of developed counties with questionably sustainable health care systems. Populations in developed nations have been rapidly aging for several years at a rate that will only increase before achieving equilibrium between 2050 and 2060. Most developing countries outside of Africa also will experience a rapid growth in older populations over the next forty years and by 2030, these countries will contain 70 percent or more of the world's population that is ages 60 and older (Polivka & Baozhen, 2013, p. 39). Germany’s Type of Healthcare System The German social health insurance (SHI) system is an internationally prominent health care system primarily funded by payroll contributions shared by employers and employees and managed by nonprofit sickness funds. Whereas, like the United States, financing is tied to the labor market, in comparison Germany has nearly universal health insurance coverage. Care is delivered by self-employed, office-based physicians in the ambulatory sector and by salaried physicians in the hospital sector (Carrera, Siemens, & Bridges, 2008, p. 981). The key to the German’s choice of social insurance is the unique role of sickness funds and...
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...Citizens living in rural areas should receive the same quality of care as those living in urban settings. Substantial differences exist in quality and access to health care for persons living in rural America. The shortage of physicians in rural America calls for immediate attention and change, as the inadequate supply of physicians is affecting the quality of patient care. The life expectancy of persons living in rural America is actually declining due to treatable conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. These illnesses could be managed with proper medical treatment. This paper addresses these issues and recommends two solutions. Healthcare is in crisis in many countries, not least of which is the United States. We hear on the news how health care providers are unable to provide medical care to an increasing number of chronically ill and the aging population. There are a number of systemic failures, none is more difficult to correct than the basic lack of human resources. There are simply not enough physicians to service the needs of the population. The problem is intensified in rural areas, where specialized physicians may not be found within several hundred miles. The healthcare system needs a way to do more with less and stretch a limited amount of resources to work more efficiently. Many people living in rural America have inadequate access to medical care. “While about 20 percent of the U.S. population lives in rural...
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...Arthur Avery Mr. Billing English February 24, 2013 Future Autobiography of Arthur M. Avery What a glorious day my sixtieth birthday. It is a beautiful morning, the birds are chirping and the sun is shining, warming the winter air. I get up from my bed from the gentle urging of my robot Janice. She awakens me with a cup of coffee and some strawberries. “Good morning Arthur, it’s time to get up and prepare for your birthday. I have contacted all of your family and friends and they will attend the festivities. “ I can’t believe it has been sixty years. I remember a time when life was so simple and people actually worked for a living. I grew up on a large family farm and we grew everything that we ate. Now the food is grown in hot houses and never touches the soil. The main work source was animals and humans. Families were larger; some families had seven or eight children because they needed a free labor source. The clothes were sewn and made of cotton, the same crop that we grew on our farm and sold at the market. Now we have recycled cotton or clothes made from seaweed or some other plant. We use to fight wars and lose human resources but now the world has changed and we use robots as soldiers. The cars all used fossil fuels and your car was your status symbol. The bigger the vehicle you owned supposedly the larger your status. You use to spend an enormous amount of time waiting to get a doctor’s appointment but this has changed. People owned their homes so that they...
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...CONTROLLING HEALTH CARE COSTS WHILE PROMOTING THE BEST POSSIBLE HEALTH OUTCOMES American College of Physicians A White Paper 2009 Controlling Health Care Costs While Promoting the Best Possible Health Outcomes Summary of Position Paper Approved by the ACP Board of Regents, September 2009 What are the Major Drivers of Health Care Costs? Major drivers of health care costs include: inappropriate utilization especially of advanced medical technology, lack of patient involvement in decision-making, payment system distortions that encourage over-use, high prices for health care services, a health care workforce that is not aligned with national needs, excessive administrative costs, medical liability and defensive medicine, more Americans with declining health status and chronic disease, and demographic changes including an increase in elderly persons. This paper addresses each of these drivers of health care costs and provides recommendations for controlling them. Why Do We Need to Control Health Care Costs? Improvements in health care have the ability to provide opportunities for all people to live better, healthier lives. However, the rate of increase in U.S. spending on health care continues to exceed economic growth at an unsustainable pace. The rate of growth in health care spending is the single most important factor undermining the nation’s long-term fiscal condition. Why Should Controlling Health Care Costs be Linked to Promoting Good Health Outcomes? Increasing pressure...
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...Table of contents 1) Table of contents 2 2) Introduction – Japan’s aging population and the implications to its economy 3 3) Article summary 4 4) Fiscal and Social Implications 5 5) Japan, against uncontrollable forces 6 6) Unemployment 6 7) What policies should the government implement 7 8) Conclusion 8 9) References 9 10) Attached Article 10 & 11 2. Introduction - Japan’s aging population and the implications to its economy Japan is an island nation located in the Pacific Ocean, east of Asia. With neighbouring countries such as China, North and South Korea...
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...Health Care in the Early 1960s Rosemary A. Stevens, Ph.D. My topic, health care in the early 1960s, has a double set of meanings for me. I am a historian, and the 1960s are now "history," ripe for new interpretations. Yet I was also an immigrant to the United States in 1961, fresh from working as an administrator in the British National Health Service. The period immediately before the Medicare legislation in 1965 shines in my memory with the vividness of new impressions: those of a young health care student trying to make sense of the U. S. health care system, and indeed, of the United States. The health care system and the United States as a society stand, in many ways, as proxy for each other, now as then: The whole tells you much about the part, and the part about the whole. In the early 1960s, health care was already a massive enterprise. By the late 1950s, hospitals employed far more people than the steel industry, the automobile industry, and interstate railroads. One of every eight Americans was admitted annually as an inpatient (Somers and Somers, 1961). To study health care, with all its contradictions and complexities, in the 1960s as in the present, is to explore the character and ambiguities of the United States itself, that vast, brash, divided yet curiously hopeful Nation. On the face of it, the United States was a country blessed by plenty in the 1960s, with hospitals and professionals that were the envy of the world. Among the marvels of modern hospitals that...
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...de l'Homme Alternative Systems of Health Care Provision Author(s): Timothy Besley, Miguel Gouveia and Jacques Drèze Reviewed work(s): Source: Economic Policy, Vol. 9, No. 19 (Oct., 1994), pp. 199-258 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, Center for Economic Studies, and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1344496 . Accessed: 24/12/2012 16:11 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Wiley, Centre for Economic Policy Research, Center for Economic Studies, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Economic Policy. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded on Mon, 24 Dec 2012 16:11:43 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Alternative systems of health care provision Timothy Besley and MiguelGouveia and of Princeton University University Pennsylvania 1. I[ntroduction Around the developed world, many health care systems are in crisis. Populations feel either...
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...Developing an Effective Health Care Workforce Planning Model Contents Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1 Getting Started with a Workforce Planning Model .................................................................2 Data – Collecting, Understanding, and Using ........................................................................3 Strategy – Understanding and Addressing the Business Need .............................................9 Planning – How to be Prepared for the Future .....................................................................12 Evaluation – Understanding Success ..................................................................................21 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................23 Literature Review ....................................................................................................................24 Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................26 Executive Summary is aging at a rapid rate; health care reform is expected to bring millions more patients into the system; and there are anticipated shortages in numbers of trained health care professionals to care for these patients. Therefore, the need to start now to develop more effective and efficient...
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