Currently, in the Obama administration, several acts have been passed to overhaul the healthcare system today. President Obama has also put healthcare reform as his top domestic priority. Both administrations, past and current, have attempted to enact several different policies in terms of healthcare reform; this essay seeks to examine the differences and similarities between the two while analyzing the social, economic, and political environments for the times the policies were discussed and/or implemented. Due to the increasing numbers of the population without healthcare, this problem continues to be an intense area of debate. According to author Michelle Andrews, healthcare remains a top domestic issue…but the candidates are focusing on major reform, and, when referring to healthcare reform, they generally focus on two primary areas: accessibility and affordability (Andrews, p.32).
Ethics, market integrity, and the role of regulation in facilitating market integrity have major implications for private industry, government, political groups, and special interest groups. The Bipartisan for Health Care, LLC is a not for profit advocacy group that emphasizes ethical contribution toward improving health coverage for all Americans. The Modern Health Care for All Americans reform effort to transform health care plan constitutes an important public policy initiative that exposes formidable challenges for individuals, and organizations with an ethical dilemma (Obama, 2008). In the current business environment the fundamental considerations of health care involve various morally relevant factors that express straightforward goals that seem well-matched with consequentialist ethics. According to Salladay (2006), consequentialist ethics ethical choices are relative to the context in which they must be made and should be guided by the desired outcomes, which must be beneficial (p. 24).
Reflection Journal: Cost/benefit of Sustaining Life Social and Organizational Issues in Healthcare Southern New Hampshire University Written by: Pratikkumar Patel The economic evaluation of health and environmental interventions for sustaining a life is becoming increasingly important. In the light of limited funding, such evaluations can provide an important tool to demonstrate the economic return of investments in intervention, compare the effectiveness of one intervention against another and help policy-makers allocate their limited budget. As I see my career as a Healthcare Administrator, it is important for me to know method of economic evaluation that values all benefits against all costs. The resulting cost-benefit ratio gives an indication of whether or not the benefits outweigh the costs of an intervention, and hence provides a decision-making tool with a broad societal perspective. In this journal, I will be reflecting about how insurance companies, hospitals, and patients can use Cost-benefit analysis for sustaining a life.
America has their reservations that a universal health may not work because of its lack of choices and freedoms. There are pros and cons to having a universal health care system. For one, a universal health care offers free health services to people that cannot afford health care the services they need. The cons, is that a universal health care system often results in long wait times for patients and not everyone may receive the type of care that they need. The rising cost of health care has cause the government to step in and control regulations and spending; thus creating a health care reform system.
Reimbursement and Pay-for-performance Theresa Kilgo HCS/531 December 16, 2013 Dr. Rachael Kehoe Reimbursement and Pay-for-performance There are a lot of problems within the health care system that State, Federal, and Local governments are trying to correct the matter by moving away from the fee-for-services model and move to the pay-for-service model. One of the problems is cost and efficiency of health care, and one of the ways that they are trying to fix the problem is with pay-for-performance. That can be defined as an incentive that provide financial funds to health care providers to carry out improvements focused on achieving prime patient issues, this program is widespread and many states have adopted the program, and many have a report that they have seen an increase in quality of care. This program was created to improve the healthcare systems, however, many authors have different meanings and roles of pay-for-performance but all agree on the definition and function of the program, “the objective of pay-for-performance initiatives is to link reimbursement to quality and efficiency as an incentive to improve the quality of health care, as well as reduce system wide costs” (Shi & Singh, 2012, p. 237). There are a lot of pros and cons of pay-for-performance in health care (see appendix for charts.)
In order to improve the nation’s health and end the disproportion in health care to vulnerable populations, the social determinants of health must be addressed foremost in order to achieve an understanding of the issues that are affecting so many Americans and what must be done in the fight toward equality in the U.S. health care delivery system. All of the social factors are a part of a cycle, one affecting the other. Elements of each social factor influence the others in a specific way. These social factors mainly affect the underserved populations of racial and ethnic minorities, women and children, rural residents, the uninsured, homeless peoples, mental health patients, patients with chronic illness or disabilities, and HIV/AIDs patients. In the U.S., social factors are associated with lower overall health care usage and access (Shi & Singh, 2010).
“During the 2008 US presidential election, then-candidate Barack Obama (US Senator, D-IL) campaigned for the need to reform the American health care system, stating that the cost of health care was a threat to our economy and that health care should be a right for every American”("History of the," 2011). Health care reform was on top of the would-be presidents’ agenda. In November 2008, President Barack Obama took office. In 2009 and 2010, he continued to try to persuade Congress to pass the reform on health policy. “An explicit health policy can achieve several things: it defines a vision for the future which in turn helps to establish targets and points of reference for the short and medium term”("Health policy," 2014).
Health Care Utilization Paper Samantha Beck December 4, 2012 The debate on the health care reform has been a big issue in the last few years now. The legislation behind it has become controversial to say at best. I will be discussing how the health care reform has affected the access of health care. How it affects utilization of changes. Explain what universal health care could be, and my experience with the health care expansion.
Universal Healthcare The Debate Gracen Parker October 9, 2009 The health care reform debate has been a long and fierce one, and with good reason: with the wellbeing of the nation at stake, the debate has centered on the role of government and the market with regards to regulating, controlling and managing the healthcare system. While the debate is complex and multivariate, the fundamental divide on Capitol Hill is still overwhelmingly between advocates of an increased governmental role and those opposing it. The system that emerges must be one of reduced waste and increased options—a system fundamentally reformed. The most obvious benefit of universal health care is greatly-reduced cost for individual
It offers seniors with several options. One of the big choices is taking preventative care by utilizing the wellness visit (http://www.physicianspractice.com March2011.) Thus, seniors are helping to ensure a healthy future for themselves. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is aimed at expanding access to health care and lowering cost barriers to seeking and receiving care, particularly high-value preventive care (MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2011 Oct.) Healthcare is one of the top social and economic problems facing Americans today. Medicare operates with 3% overhead, non-profit insurance 16% overhead, and private (for-profit) insurance 26% overhead (Journal of American Medicine 2007.)