Economic Terms and Health Care History Rebecca Persinger HCS/440 February 13, 2012 Kathie Iaconetti History and Evolution of Health Care Economics Economics is a “social science concerned with the description and analysis of production, distribution, and consumption of goods, products, and services.” Resources are abundant in every economy, which include natural resources of capital, labor, and land but be fixed and limited because of their use to best satisfy society. A commodity range is produced to meet the unlimited wants of individuals in today’s society. Resources are limited and wants are unlimited, resulting in an economy problem of not producing products, services, and goods in an unlimited quantity (Getzen & Moore, 2007).
The recommendation that I believe would do the most good toward getting more URMs into the medical field would be the one that addresses the costs and financing of health professions education. This recommendation involves the reexamination of costs and financing of health professions training with an emphasis on the reduction or elimination of many health care field training costs for those that have low-incomes or are members of a URM. First off I think that all of the other recommendations are great and would defiantly help, but when it comes right down to it our world revolves around the almighty dollar. We can do everything in the world, even beg minority’s to get into the health care field, but they won’t be able to do it if they can’t afford the education. So, making changes in costs and financing would go a long way toward removing the financial obstacle, that way the other recommendations have a much better chance of being successful.
My theory also is that eventually people will start bidding on artificial organs and the richer people will have say over a family that doesn't have a lot of money. If doctors wanted to replace original organs with artificial ones, it would take a lot of perfecting and obligating a clean bill of health for the patient. Who, if anyone, should be a prime candidate for these types of artificial/synthetic replacements? Do you feel that anyone should have access to them? Even a life-long smoker or alcoholic who knowingly subjected themselves to harmful substances?
Obama said he will lower the drug cost by allowing safe medicines from other countries, increasing the use of generic brand names, and taking on drug companies that block cheaper generic medicines from the market. The Obama plan is requiring hospitals to collect and report health care cost and quality data. The plan requires the cost of illnesses for employers and their employees. The plan is to reform the insurance market to increase competitive by taking on anticompetitive activity that drives up prices without improving the quality of care. The Obama-Biden plan will promote public health.
What were the problems in the health care system that the Affordable Care Act of 2009 sought to address? What was the public option, and why did it not pass? How would the new health care program be paid for? What were some of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act? Some of the things that the Affordable Care Act of 2009 wanted to address were to make it possible for every American citizen to have insurance coverage; another problem they wanted the act to address was the help reduce the soaring cost of Medicaid.
MODEL CRITIQUE* Critique of Greg Critser’s “Too Much of a Good Thing” Citing statistics on the alarming increase in the rates of childhood obesity, especially in the industrialized West, Greg Critser (L.A. Times Op-Ed, 22 July 2001) argues that parents can help avert obesity in their own homes by more closely supervising the diets of their children, serving reasonably sized portions, and limiting snacks. Critser, who has extensively researched obesity in his book Fat Land: How Americans Become the Fattest People in the World (Houghton Mifflin 2003), argues that through education we can create a leaner cultural norm, much as the French did earlier in the century when faced with a similar problem. The stakes for maintaining a healthy body weight
He also asked the congress for cash-strapped local governments to hire more teachers and firemen. This affected American teachers and firemen because they had better opportunities to pursue their careers. In March 2010 President Obama created a National health care reform system for uninsured Americans. This system allows them to buy into health care plans with added subsidies and tax incentives but it also prevents the insurance companies from denying coverage. Economist believes that this system will do nothing to control cost but the budget office believes the bill will reduce the cost over a ten-year period.
The disadvantage for an uninsured person will be that they will pay full price at a non-negotiable rate, but they can shop smarter by the use of federal database of national health care costs. The insurance companies have a negotiated reimbursement rate, include variety population, young, elderly, healthy, and sick to evenly distribute the cost of the plan therefore, lower cost health insurance. The increase knowledge for consumers on health care insurance will increase competition and supply of healthcare insurance. The private and government insurance plans will put pressure on the providers to meet quality care guidelines in order to get reimbursed (Christensen, 2013). The ACA and the CMS have made insurance buying process transparent, allowing consumers to educate themselves on not only where to go for services but have also provided a platform for consumers to compare different insurances plans thus increasing the competition between different insurance plans and increasing the number of choices for the health care consumer (Young & Kirkham, 2013).
The question is: Should employers be allowed to charge smokers and obese people more for health care? I believe that all employers should impose an increase in health care cost for them. Not all employers agree with this unconventional practice but, nevertheless, this is a burning debate that ultimately affects everybody’s paycheck and well-being. In “Fat Tax” published by David Leonhardt in the New York
Consider the political and cultural difficulties that are in the way of making dying more humane, cost-worthy, and dignified. Now picture a new reality: widely available and socially acceptable killing of patients who are terminally ill. Why even mess with raising the taxes for insuring good hospice care for everyone? Why increase research dollars to find and develop more effective pain management? Why take the more difficult road to make the process of dying more humane when there is a shortcut that terminates the dying process itself? Financial pressures also may lead to incentives for active killing by putting a limit on funding for terminal care.