Lack of Awareness and Inability to Afford Healthcare - Research Paper Example

Awareness and Affordability in Healthcare Sector Introduction In his endeavors, mankind is in constant quest to make life better and build societies where social happiness and wellness are of paramount significance. Healthcare is a fundamental aspect of every person’s life. The human race cannot be smooth and successful without investment in this sector. Unfortunately, the journey has been rugged for the healthcare sector. Some challenges have been solved while many remain unsolved. Accordingly, there is a need to reform healthcare and make it affordable to the members of the society. Problem statement Good health is essential to every person’s development in every sphere and sector of life whether social, cultural, economic or political. The society cannot function effectively when a vast majority of its members are of ill-health. The major drawbacks in the sector are lack of awareness and un-affordability by many patients. In a society where majority of people do not have high purchasing power, there are always problems of access to quality healthcare due to the expenses involved. The problem of awareness has detrimental impacts on this sector and is responsible for the increase in mortality rates. The number of deaths occurring due to lack of awareness stand at 13% and incapability to afford healthcare contributes to 27% of the deaths (Linda, 2013). Thus, there is need to address these serious problems of lack of awareness and un-affordability to restore societal good health where every person can access healthcare. Research Aim The aim of this research is to investigate the aspects of lack of awareness and inability to afford healthcare, in terms of causes, effects and recommend suitable ways of spending the available funds to provide quality healthcare and create awareness. Specifically, the research looks at the reduction of healthcare costs to accommodate the poor, improvements to reduce the cost of healthcare without compromising its quality, precautions to treat the public before their conditions deteriorate, creation of awareness with regards to the current health-care related issues and maintenance of high standards of public hygiene. Methodology For this research, healthcare related journals were used as the main sources of information. Different informational journals were consulted to provide information upon which the research is based. The information was analyzed qualitatively and presented to help in restoring sanity to the crucial sector of healthcare. Findings It was evident from the sources that healthcare is one of the most important sectors in the life and development of any economy. Health is wealth and lack of good health puts the society in a state of pain and misery. Reducing the cost of Healthcare The reduction of the cost of healthcare should be a deliberate effort to ensure that the low level citizens are able to access it (Haseltine, 2013). There are many lessons to learn from Singapore, currently ranked 6th in healthcare excellence. It is interesting to note, however, that Singapore spends less on its healthcare than many developed countries. There is a need to cut the costs of healthcare that keeps rising at alarming rates. The cost for caring for the elderly members of the society is higher than that of the younger ones. Unfortunately, the elderly population keeps rising each waking day (Haseltine, 2013).. The American healthcare industry must now take deliberate actions to control healthcare related costs and pay for the health conditions for the current generation. Besides, there is need to provide a blueprint for the future. Healthcare should be made affordable to all people regardless of age, sex and economic status. moreover, the cost reduction should not compromise the quality of healthcare provided. One way of doing this is through restructuring of the public hospitals and giving them more autonomy to make them function like private ones (Haseltine, 2013). This will give them a chance to manage themselves and make decisions freely on matters of staffing, deployment of resources and compensations. They will also employ more medical practitioners to serve the rising number of patients, thus making healthcare affordable to all people. The Singapore case adopted the Medisave system, an effective medical saving plan that expanded the provident fund (Haseltine, 2013). Employees were expected to contribute a certain amount. Similarly, employers would contribute a specified amount. The contributed funds would be used to pay for healthcare related funds and insurance plans. This program succeeded and can be implemented with a lot of success to improve quality of healthcare and reduce costs significantly. There is also a need for the government to intervene directly in the healthcare industry where necessary and keep the costs down. Engaging competition and market forces in the industry will improve the services and raise the standards of efficiency and effective healthcare service delivery. The basic medical services ought to be affordable to all people. A healthy nation is a working prosperous and successful one. As such, there should be a promotion of individual responsibility for one’s own health and prevent excessive reliance on the state and the insurer. Healthcare begins from the individual level (Haseltine, 2013). It is a matter of personal initiative and everybody needs to participate in making his own life better and successful. Improvements in Healthcare Sector There is a need to improve the healthcare sector and make it very affordable with the relevant legislations such as Patient protection and Affordable Care Act. The Act prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to pre-existing medical conditions. It also seeks to have every individual to have insurance coverage (Gross et al, 2012). The implementation of such acts will see to it that the public have access to medical care even when they lack money as the insurance will take over and cover for the medical bills. The legislations force insurance companies to provide coverage to children under the age of 26 under their parents. It also seeks to create discount systems on prescriptions to senior members of society with high costs of drugs. The insurance sale is also allowed for any American (Gross et al, 2012). These fundamental legislations will improve American healthcare industry to great heights of success. Every American is should be required to have a cover failure to which he/she pays fines if there are no justifiable reasons. For those who cannot be able to raise funds for the cover, the government should step in and assist. It has been discovered that older people are more educated and understand elements of healthcare issues and legislation than young ones (Gross et al, 2012). As such, there is a need to improve the awareness of healthcare issues among the younger generations. There is also the need to make effective use of the modern technologies to improve healthcare sector. Creation of Awareness on Current Issues of healthcare There should be adequate investment in the future through research and adequate medical education. Information is power and individuals who have it are empowered to build their societies and self. The mass media plays a critical role in informing the masses about emerging public health issues. Mass media campaigns are purposive and intend to persuade the large scattered audiences to take conscious steps to reform their healthcare (Catalan-Matamoros, 2013). Advertising through the mass media focuses on peoples’ perceptions towards products and services. Adverts create desire and need and can be used to motivate people to use healthcare services. Besides, they are designed to serve the public interest and not personal. The motivational themes in communication and mass media campaigns promote healthy behaviors through creating fear of legal consequences, promoting positive societal and healthy norms, stigmatizing unhealthy behaviors and dangerous health habits and creating fear of self harm and harm to others (Catalan-Matamoros, 2013). There is a need to educate people on issues of hygiene to ensure that they do not succumb to conditions that occur as a result of poor hygiene. This education should also cover aspects of lifestyle and nutrition. Awareness of different diseases that spread due to hygiene should be created so that people are empowered to live healthily. Conclusion Access to healthcare should be a fundamental right of every person. Denying the right to healthcare is a matter of social justice that should not be tolerated in a society that seeks to move forward. In all sectors of life, people have to be of good health to function effectively. Unfortunately, this is not always the case as many people are either unable to access healthcare due to low purchasing power or lack the much needed awareness on healthcare. Healthcare should be a personal initiative that each person must take to improve his wellness and the good of the society. However, people cannot take that initiative when they lack the capacity to do so. Cost reduction and creation of awareness will create the capacity to let people take the initiative on their personal health. References Catalan-Matamoros, D, (2013). The Role of Mass Media Communication in Public Health. University of America Spain http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/24998.pdf Gross, W. et al (2012) American Attitude toward the Affordable Care Act: Would Better Public Understanding Increase or Decrease Favorability? Stanford University Press https://pprg.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/Health-Care-2012-Knowledge-and-Favorability.pdf Haseltine, W. A., & Brookings Institution. (2013). Affordable excellence: The Singapore healthcare story. Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution Press. (pages 38,64, 83, 106 and 128) http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=-QVmAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=healthcare+awareness+and+affordability&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Z3g9U9KpNsOaO-mggJgH&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=healthcare%20awareness%20and%20affordability&f=false Linda, D. (2013). Strategies for health care cost containment in 2013.Journal of Communication in Healthcare 6(1)1-3 Warden, G. L., & Griffith, J. R. (2012). Ensuring management excellence in the healthcare system. Journal of healthcare management/American College of Healthcare Executives, 46(4), 228-237. Read More