Health Care Spending - Coursework Example

Health Care Spending Couse: Health Care Spending For any developed country in the world, health has to be paramount and supported by a credible agency of the government. For example in the United States of America, large percentages of health activities have been privatised to ensure maximum operation and efficient service delivery. Lager proportion is owned by the private business sector, with the government owing the least proportion. Healthcare activity is made to be a non-profit activity so that any activity related to health is treated with diligence. As a result, it is necessary to examine the health Care spending in the United States of America. Current national health Care expenditures in the US In comparison to the previous years, the US health Care expenditure has been increasing over the period. The national health spending has been increasing at a slow rate from the year 2009. This is attributed to the deep recession that was experienced during that time. The current national health Care expenditure in the US is the sum of both private and public health expenses. This expenditure covers diverse areas such as: provision of health services that is accompanied by; curative and preventive activities, emergency aid designated for health, nutrition activities, and family planning. However, this does not include the cost of providing water and sanitation. There are expectations that national healthcare spending will rise faster. This will be facilitated by the recovery of economy. Businesses, the government and households spend $2.9 trillion on health care, which is a 3.8 percent increase from the previous years. This increase has been influenced by the Obama care of health insurance coverage. Current national health Care expenditures in the US have increased more than two times since the year 2000. This value has also increased more than four times from the year 1990 (Emanuel, et.al, 2012). Status of national spending on health care Amount of money that is spent on health care is considerably low in comparison to the demands by the health care activities. There are various activities under health care that need to be addressed, for example there is need for the provision of care activities to the aged, and there are also various health care activities that vary with age groups. With the changes evident in the economy, population and need, the current level of expenditure on health care does not meet the demands in the healthcare sector (Schoen, et. al, 2009) The spending on health care is currently not enough to meet the necessary demands. There are certain aspects that need to be addressed and be merged with health care provision. They include areas such as, provision of water and sanitation. Some of the significant aspects that make the current health care spending inadequate include the following: Hospital cost increases: Spending on health care services scaled to 4.6 percent in the year 2011, it also rose above the 3.8 percent growth rate for the year 2010. This is still expected to rise higher in future (Schoen, et. al, 2009). Provider prices: Health care provider in the hospitals charge higher prices for both service delivery and access to improvised technology in provision of necessary healthcare (Barros, 2010). Medical technology: High cost of provision of health care is also influenced by the cost of expensive technology used in the hospitals (Barros, 2010). Aging population: the aged individuals need advanced healthcare for their wellbeing. Provision of such care activities contributes a large percentage towards the increased cost of care in the institutions that provide care to the aged individuals (Barros, 2010). In consideration of the need to provide an essential health care to the US citizens, much has to be invested to cover the cost of health care. In order to meet the projected health care expenditure, various agencies that help to finance health care need to provide addition funding to meet the increasing cost of health care provision. Since heath care is paramount in US, it has to be made accessible to all individuals despite any obstacle. It is the responsibility of the government to provide necessary mechanism to ensure accessibility of all individuals to health care How to meet the cost of health care economically The United States can save $2 trillion that is budgeted for healthcare. This is possible if the U.S. government uses its influence in both the private and public sectors to cut rising costs in line with economic growth. The government has to work together with some of the financiers of the health care such as, Medicare and Medicaid. Collaboration by other insurance agencies such as: TRICARE, the Veterans Health Administration and the Childrens Health Insurance Program. These organisations contribute a significant sum of money towards the provision of a sustainable health care to US citizens. In addition, these organizations are important in the covering the cost of health care for the citizens (Schoen et. al, 2009). Expenditure of the public health care financers Medicare Medicare is a national social insurance program that helps to pay for the cost of the public’s health care needs. Medicare is also administered by the Federal government of the US. The agency has various roles such as: it pledges access to health insurance for Americans that are 65 years of age. It also guarantees health insurance to older individuals who have worked and paid into the Medicare system, younger people with incapacities and individuals with end stage renal diseases. It is the major payer for approximately 15.3 million inpatient stays in 2011, this represent representing 47.2 percent of total cumulative inpatient hospital costs in the United States (Emanuel et.al, 2012) Medicaid This is a social health care program for families and persons that have low income. It helps individuals that have insufficient income that cannot meet the high cost of health care. Medicaid is both funded by the state and the federal government to enable its smooth operation with no financial hindrances. Any individual under the poverty line in the US is eligible to this form of cove. This program takes into consideration of the US citizenship with low income or permanent residents of the US with low income. Under this cover, poverty is the major point of interest that qualifies one to the cover, but, they have to be permanent residents of the US. Future economic needs of the health care system The health care system of the US is experiencing some slow but significant changes that demand action to correct any flaws in the system. Expenditure of the system which is essential has been implicated by economic recessions. It is predicated that health sector is currently on 17% GDP. In addition this is likely to go up to 20-25%. Earlier on, recession hindered growth of healthcare expenditure. National health care spending is estimated to grow faster than the economy and there is need to align the cost of health care spending to economic growth. The Affordable Care Act is a target to make health care system affordable in future. The Act includes a selection of reforms to the way health care cost is paid for economically and delivered effectively. There is a reward that seeks to acknowledge the quality of care amongst the physicians and not the quantity. This reform has shown some effect by accelerating change in the entire heath care system. United States has some of the world’s most expensive heath care system. According to forecasters, due to the high cost of the health care system, the citizens are likely to contribute more than $9,200 towards health care system. Research also shows that most Americans die earlier and experience higher rates of disease more than individuals from other countries. To curb this, heavy health care spending have been proposed and passed into laws. The law serves to protect all the Americans health regardless of their income, age, education, whether they have health insurance and healthy behaviours. This will mean that the large cost will be met by the tax payers to cover the increased cost of health care system. Common wealth fund collaborates with the US government in the implementation of the health care policies that demand high monetary value. A number of uninsured Americans have been encouraged to support the policies at the States level. Federal government has also been supportive in the implementation of hearth care policies by setting a gross domestic product per capita as a mark for overall healthcare spending growth. The other roles played by Common wealth fund include, offering financial rewards for physicians and hospitals that partake coordinated team-based treatment strategies. Addressing faster growth rate of health care spending The faster rate of health care expenditure need to be taken care of before it goes beyond control. One of the suitable methods used to control this is the encouragement of the uninsured persons to take health care covers, to make the cost of their health care equitable by the health insurance organisations. These are some of the methods put in place to control the increasing cost of health care. Reducing health care expenditure rate requires collaborative efforts. According to stake holders, there is common ground where solution to this problem can be met. Some of the methods to address faster growth rate of health care spending include: lowering the cost of health care, partnering between health plans with providers to create advanced, high value payment schemes to reward value and quality over volume. Empowering patients with new coverage options that aim at high-performing providers and key tools like care coordination and case management for persons with enduring conditions. In areas where only the state that has significant roles in controlling the cost of health care, a state-federal partnership has to be encouraged to make the health care cost affordable to all (Emanuel et.al, 2012) Future financing of the health care Since there is a future projection of increase in the cost of health care, it is necessity to create a source of funding for the health care. Federal government in collaboration with the state can create an equitable health care that is accessible to all individuals. In addition, Common wealth fund create a pool of finance to implement policies that will provide a uniform growth to the cost of health care with economic growth. The government in collaboration with Medicare and Medicaid can also offer a more economical and efficient way of cover to its people. Payers and providers have to negotiate for payment rates that will be binding for all payers and providers in a state toward meeting the cost of health care (Emanuel, et.al, 2012). The privately negotiated rates will have to fit within a global expenditure target for both private and public payers in a particular state. With the above mechanisms in place the project increase in the cost of health care can be made equity and affordable. References Barros, P. (2010). The black box of health care expenditure growth determinants. Health Economics. 7(6):533-44. Emanuel, E., Tanden, N., Altman, S., Armstrong, S., Berwick, D., de Brantes, F., ... & Spiro, T. (2012). A systemic approach to containing health care spending. New England Journal of Medicine, 367(10), 949-954. Schoen, C., Osborn, R., How, S. K., Doty, M. M., & Peugh, J. (2009). In chronic condition: experiences of patients with complex health care needs, in eight countries, 2008. Health Affairs, 28(1), w1-w16. Read More