U.S. Medical Care System - Research Paper Example

? U.S. Medical Care System U.S. Medical Care System There are many reasons why people choose to use health care services, which according to priority include treatment against disease, treatment against broken bones and injuries, to prevent future health issues, relieve from pain and trouble free life, and routine checkup details on various health problems and differential diagnosis. What has been observed is that health care services may either be suitable and of high quality, highly priced or affordable. According to different studies and changing trends in medical health care services, the treatments and diagnosis have greatly improved over the years. The changing trends in health care help to understand the future needs of healthcare services, help predict the cost that is necessary for different treatments or increase information in what coaching and initiatives can be taken to physically cure the patients. Medical sciences and services related to these areas have been extremely advanced nowadays, and all this advancement has taken less than a decade to reach this height. Emerging and advanced techniques have emerged which include newer forms of drugs, testing equipment as well as methods to ensure that the patients are responding to the treatments provided to them. Even providing the facility of surgery has been completely transformed using high tech equipment and drugs are available which assist to save the lives of millions of people in the world. The treatment that required several weeks to perform is now performed in hours and sometimes in minutes. New medicines have assisted in early cures of different diseases. Since 10 years, the operating organization whether they are private or public has advanced in curing many diseases and disabilities by finding enormous ways to fight the cause. There have also been developments in the public health field where with the help of different practitioners, awareness is provided to the people about how to prevent different diseases. Major guidelines have been devised for the public to follow recommended paths to avoid diseases and other disabilities. Health care facilities work together to assist the people in preventing disease states as well as work towards providing treatment of different ailments (Weinerman 1950). The Nineties was the time when Medical care in United States of America saw great reforms following the announcement of President Clinton that every citizen should have Universal Insurance. This system was not truly adapted and a new form of health care services which were labeled as Managed Care Services was announced. This Managed Care Service had a wide impact on the Medical care services and completely changed the pattern of insurance policies. But with these brief changes, the United States of America was still not able to fix the issue which the medical services were facing for 30 years. It has been observed that more than 40 million U.S. citizens do not have Medical Insurance Facility and these services keep on getting expensive day by day. There is no evidence that these changes in the medical services will in near future improve the issues faced by the American citizens. Up till now the Health care services provided in the country are still inconsistent in terms of cost. The government of the U.S. spends a lot of money on health care services in comparison to any other country in the world and the doctors and service providers tend to have a greater earning as well. People living in United States with active insurance have the facility to gain benefit from some of the most expensive Medical Services in the world which include magnetic imaging which is a very costly diagnostic imaging technique. This increasing cost is the reason that every American citizen should have access to Medical Insurance. Many researchers believe that most of the services that an American citizen with Medical insurance receives are too much and these services can be utilized for other people living in the country. They also believe that most of the citizens who are uninsured are getting minimum health services and some cannot even afford the costly healthcare services in the United States. The evidence that more than 40 million uninsured people are living in United States and do not have access to proper healthcare reveals the fact that serious consideration should be placed for the better health of all the citizens (Bernstein et al 2003). It is clearly observed that most of the medical advancements and health care services have improved and reformed in the last decade of the twentieth century. But when President Bill Clinton was unsuccessful in reforming the Legislative sponsored Medical insurance, Medical services in the country completely changed. Most of the medication services in the United States were taken under Managed Care and thus the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) started gaining profit on most of the Medical services in the country. This was the time was when the Medical services started to get pricy and due to this, Medical insurance became difficult and out of the reach for the average earning citizens in the country. By the end of the decade Managed care services received great criticism and many citizens protested against this injustice (Oberlander 2002). U.S. medical services have long been the most expensive services in comparison to other countries of the globe. This was owing to the initiation of the Medical Care Services in the country. Most of the organizations in the country started to give priority to Managed Care and health care services via the Managed care service became a normal practice. At the end of the decade, almost 92% of the people from organizations were enrolled in the managed care service. In early 2000, managed care decided to announce a program for older and disabled people for providing this group with medical care. But it was observed that this program did not gain a lot of popularity among the organizations to enroll the pensioners (Bernstein et al 2003). Health and health care provision differences have unduly affected the minority communities living in the United States. In 2003, a report from IOM (Institute of Medicine) stated that, “tackling national and international differences in Healthcare, advocates that eliminating dissimilarities become a national priority.” Regardless of this statement, it was evident in the 2008 National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR) that health differences were growing. Minority communities like Africans, black people, American natives and some of Asians persisted to be susceptible communities inexplicably poorer, and uninsured or underinsured. These minorities’ face issues have health problems and present with a higher rate of disability, chronic diseases like diabetes, Kidney and heart failure as well as cancer. A reliable research shows that more than 80,000 deaths per year are attributable to ethnic and racial health differences (Pamies et al 2009). Looking at the rate at which the health care services are being used gives an important view point of the people and how often do they require health care services. Their feedback also gives an idea how much satisfied are they with the healthcare services. Most of the people in the United States tend to visit hospital to avail the healthcare services. These numbers of patients visiting the doctors did not show any significant change from the last 10 years neither rising nor declining significantly in between the last decade. Looking at the fact of 1992, it comes to attention that Emergency Departments also do not show a significant change in visit. At an equivalent time, the speed for sickness visits to emergency department increased from twenty one to twenty four visits per one hundred persons. Statistics also reveal that the OPD visits have also increased in past decade. This increasing rate has emphasized the horizon of hospitals to expand their OPD services (Grant 2000). (Cherry et al 2010) This concludes that after so many reforms in the Health care system of the United States of America, no policy has been implemented to provide for the availability of healthcare services to all the citizens of the country. The government has taken into account of providing improved quality for the insured people through the Managed care system but 40 million uninsured people have not been taken into consideration. After the terrorist attack on the nation in the year 2001 on September 11, many people anticipated that a period of change would now be observed in the healthcare sector like other sectors. This slogan of “United we stand” was adapted by the citizens of the country. Many Health insurance companies believed that reforms in the Health care system would be brought once again. They anticipated that health insurance programs and other services would be possible after the incident. But the issue still remains the same as the number of uninsured people keeps on rising day by day. Economic instability due to the expenses on the war on terrorism in the period by President Bush followed by the tenure of Barrack Obama still creates many hurdles in taking serious consideration with regard to the healthcare sector. Although many amendments have been made to facilitate people by Managed Healthcare Services but there is no sign of positive change for the uninsured people living in United States. Thus, greater reforms are needed for ensuring the proper health of all the residents of the country (Cutler & Wise, 2006). References Cutler, D. M., & Wise, D. A. (2006) “The U.S. Medical Care System for the Elderly.” Health Care Issues in the United States and Japan. University of Chicago. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/chapters/c7359.pdf Bernstein AB, Hing E, Moss AJ, Allen KF, Siller AB, Tiggle RB. (2003) “Health care in America: Trends in utilization.” Hyattsville, Maryland: National Center for Health Statistics. Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/misc/healthcare.pdf Cherry, D. K., Lucas, C., Decker, S. L., & National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.). (2010). Population aging and the use of office-based physician services. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Grant, P. D. K. R. (2000). Is there a method to this madness?: Studying health care reform as if women mattered. Toronto: National Coordinating Group on Health Care Reform and Woman, Centres of Excellent for Women's Health Program, Women's Health Bureau, Health Canada. Oberlander, J. (January 01, 2002). The US health care system: on a road to nowhere?. Cmaj : Canadian Medical Association Journal = Journal De L'association Medicale Canadienne, 167, 2, 163-8. Top of Form Pamies, R. J., United States., & United States. (2009). Ensuring that health care reform will meet the health care needs of minority communities and eliminate health disparities: A statement of principles and recommendations. Rockville, Md: Office of Minority Health. Weinerman, E. R. (September 01, 1950). Appraisal of Medical Care Programs. American Journal of Public Health, 40, 9, 1129-1134.Bottom of Form Read More