Why Is the Cost High of Staying Well - Essay Example

Research paper: Why is the cost high of staying well? Health is a priority concern in life. In the recent past, it was asole responsibility for each individual to care for their health. Now, it is a collective responsibility and the government has since spread its arms for the rescue of her people. The cost of staying well however, has risen. Entitlement programs such as major healthcare plans are sucking the government revenue dry. The government in response shifts this burden to the taxpayer. The taxpayer then has to part with a lot of cash to stay alive. The topic of discussion is important in the sense that the Federal government is mandated to reduce the cost of living yet the reverse is actually happening. This article discusses the reasons the cost of staying well has risen and my targeted audience is any American in the taxpayer list. An American taxpayer needs to be alert at all times when it comes to budgeting. This is because there are programs in place that are at the point of breaking the government bank. As Mortimer B. Zuckerman puts it, “Entitlement programs are on the verge of breaking the government bank” (Zuckerman In close approximation, the federal government spends more than half if its budget on entitlement programs, with major health care plans taking the lion’s share. Evidence is clear in the sense that when a statistical survey was conducted by the bipartisan policy Center, it revealed that in 1992, 14% of the Federal budget was for major health care programs. In 2012, 22% and the Center projected a 32% budget on all domestic spending by 2022. Health care bills are indeed high. It is has become common for many people not to admit that some cancer treatments run at very high costs. Advancement in technology ought to reduce the cost of spending. We have to acknowledge however, that this is not in the case in medicine. This is not to say technology in health sector is any less important. In fact it is, only that the cost of utilizing the machine or service for a medical purpose is far much expensive to the needy. Emergency room visit for instance, can exceed the cost of an automobile. The amount of dollars that would be spent on the dosage of upcoming new drugs will be unbearable. (Zuckerman) To stretch my argument further, according to a recent analysis by Steven Bill in Times magazine, our System costs 150 percent more per capita than UK and 100 percent more per capita than Canada. Further US spend almost twice as much on per capita income In comparison to other high-income countries. US spend more than 18% of its GDP on health in comparison to France’s 12 percent. (Zuckerman) To begin with, our hospitals charge extraordinary rates. Their rates in a way favor the insured wealthy but disfavor the uninsured. According to Times analysis by Steven Bill, the insured patient can get a discount ranging from 30 to 50 percent beyond low medical rates. This is necessitated by the fact that the insurance companies have a way of negotiating with hospitals. The uninsured, who are the majority however, have to meet the full cost of the hospital bill. This is what causes the escalated profits of the non profit hospitals. Bill was able to show that the average operating cost of 3,000 non profit hospitals which are exempted from income tax is more that that of a thousand profit hospitals put together. In response, the non profit hospitals argue that the rich people from overseas pay the bills and their pay cover for the uninsured as well. (Zuckerman) Next, there are the drivers of cost. The high tech tests conducted in the emergency rooms cost too high. The uses of CT scanners in American emergency rooms have increased recently as Brill noted. This was aimed at increasing security and bettering the care. To some extent this can’t be denied. But it is also important to note that patients have gone through unimportant processes or even worse, exposure to lethal radiations for instance. The hospitals have one more way of charging the customers in excess. They send them to in-house laboratories for unnecessary checkups to increase the costs. The other way in which the cost of staying well has risen is a result of medical malpractice in which case a doctor is tempted to over-test for fear of being accused in medical malpractice. The providers therefore pay settlements to escape being sued. It therefore becomes difficult to sue the providers and even if one would, they would claim in defense that they have a point to argue basing their argument that their care was reasonable based on what was known. (Zuckerman) Medicare spends a large sum on patients not fully healed in hospitals or those who are harmed. Readmission alone may cost as much as $25 billion in one year. On the other hand, the Medicare patients are readmitted to hospitals within thirty days of discharge. If you input the prescription drug prices to already escalating cost, it will rise even further. As Zuckerman noted from Brill’s analysis: Research by McKinsey & Company estimates that "overall prescription drug prices in the U.S. are 50 percent higher for comparable products than in other developed countries." If we had the same prices, its estimated we could save close to $100 billion a year. Amazingly, the law "restricts the biggest single buyer – Medicare – from even trying to negotiate drug prices." (Zuckerman) Another contribution to the rising cost is Obamacare. As much as it will force insurance companies to be more elaborate in outlining their policies and restricting the use of hospital bill collecting, it is not of much help. This is not to say in any way that obamacare is not significant. The point is, Obamacare will benefit the few million more Americans who will be lucky to get insurance protection. On the contrary, the benefit does not alter the healthcare prices or even alter the health care cost curve. We have always just estimated the cost of staying well. When Medicare was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, he estimated it would cost $12 billion. The actual cost was $110 billion. Reformers and human rights activists have consistently made attempts to alter the manner in which doctors and hospitals are paid, with the proposition that they be rewarded for their quality and efficient work. Zuckerman cited Kaisar health News and USA today, "only 10.9 percent of health care spending last year by employer-sponsored plans was based on value as opposed to volume, or the number of services performed." (Zuckerman) Zuckerman also cited another source from a non profit group representing 21 of the country’s employees. The non profit organization, Catalyst for Payment Reform’s group head was quoted. "Nine of every 10 dollars is paid into the health care system with no attention to whether the care provided was performed well or poorly, or whether it was appropriate in the first place." The traditional free-for-service model, the article noted, accounts for 89 percent, pays providers a fixed price for every service delivered. "with no limits on those services and without regard for results.” consequently the current growth is spending is unbearable. Value based system would change the payment system would change if value based system was to be employed. Zuckerman quotes the institute of medicine. "to remove the incentive for redundant and inappropriate care, now estimated to account for as much as a quarter of the nations $2.8 trillion in annual health spending, according to the Institute of Medicine." The main idea is to move away from a supply driven system to a patient-centered system, thus maximizing values for patients. In reality hospitals have declined the use of value-based approach that will pay them less to deliver better care. The effect is continuous rise in the cost of staying well. In summary the factors which cause the cost of staying well to rise include; extraordinary rates which are charged by hospitals; high-tech tests conducted by physicians as well as the equipment used in the high-tech tests are demanding large amounts of money for their purchase as use; obamacare which poses as a threat rather than a strength, readmission of harmed patients as well as those who are not fully recovered from treatment. Another cause is the approach used in determining the pay for hospitals and what the patients need to pay. We know that healthcare is a matter of life and death and should therefore be given the necessary attention it deserves. Work cited. Zuckerman, Mortimer B. The High Cost Of Staying Well The U.S. Gets Poor Bang For Its Medical Buck.. US News 2013 : 1,2. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. Brill, Steven. "Bitter Pill." Time 181.8 (2013): 16-55. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Aug. 2013. Read More