Why Are US Health Care Costs So High - Research Paper Example

What is the greatest obstacle preventing the US from having a more effective and cost-effective healthcare system? Introduction The health system of the country is in tartars. There are several issues that need to be addressed to improve the system. One healthcare issue faced is the current shortage of medical staff and nurses. Different healthcare organizations have been affected by hospital staff turnover. Majority of the medical workers have been overworked and hence deciding to leave the profession. Currently, the decreasing number of nurses and medical personnel is a major problem with no new trainees joining the profession. Because of this, we have very many medical injustices and errors occurring each year. The success of a nation is determined by the health of its citizens. This facilitates economic development because the population is healthy and productive. The older population in America is stressed with the need for health insurance, something very expensive and almost unaffordable (Wieners 48). Because of this, it is necessary to have an insurance collectivism whereby the people are safeguarded from incurring exorbitant expenses for health care services. The issue of health care has widely been debated in the country. Just like the Medicaid Program, I believe something much more is needed to reduce the expenses incurred by the older generation when searching for medical support and care. Background Today the US is one the countries where a lot of money is spent per individual on issues related to healthcare. This is something that has been stressing the elderly citizens as well as the young ones. That being the case, the government has always been spending enormous amounts of money on other issues instead of tackling the health crisis faced in the country. Experts believe that the issue of health care is seen in the country as a hindrance to other agendas, but this should not be the case (Thompson 1). A lot of money is spent on secondary issues such as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Also, while security is something important, it should not be highly considered compared to the health of the common citizen. From the studies that have been conducted in five key States in 2001, it has been indicated that medical debts always contribute to about 46.2 per cent of the bankruptcies recorded. Another study conducted in the year 2007 showed an increase to 62.1 per cent. The medical expenses in the country have also remained hence making it hard for the people to access better health support (TEDxBigApple). These facts therefore support the need to have free insurance for all legalized citizens of the country. This is the only way the rights of the people can be addressed and have a healthy nation. The logical explanation of any given country is always determined by the health of all its citizens. Possible Answers Today the U.S. is one of the wealthiest countries in the world yet is cannot make sure all the citizens of have proper medical care. Health care in the country is very expensive both from the public and private providers. In 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that over fifty million people in the country had not insurance cover (Anderson 3). This indicates that majority of the people decide to live without any form of health cover rather than paying exorbitant amounts for the cover. Looking at it keenly, the citizens pay very heavy taxes for this health benefit to be provided (Squires 1). However, this is something yet to be realized. It would be wise tax the people and provide them with free medical cover and health insurance. Currently we have many citizens who do not have access or qualify for the insurance provided by the government; others cannot afford or purchase insurance, and other individuals are not insured by private employers. Such people have remained without any medical cover. Taxes paid by the people should always be used to address issues like people’s health and not concentrating much on foreign issues (Fox 1). Budget reports from different states appear colored with huge earnings but the allocations are never fair or address the issues affecting the common citizen (Yong et.al, 64). Healthcare is currently not offered to all the people despite the fact that they are ever taxed. There are very many unemployed and retired individuals who also pay heavy taxes. It is therefore appropriate that some privileges such as health insurance are provided for free to all the citizens of the country. Many people in the country have argued that the country has prospered this way without such insurance policies, and therefore this is something that cannot be altered. They believe the social solidarity moves or features such as Medicaid are adequate enough to provide appropriate healthcare to the citizens. On my side, I believe change is currently taking shape both internationally and domestically. People are today complaining about proper health and even voting decisions have largely been based on the same issue. It is necessary to examine most of the government expenditures and make sure the first priority has been the taxpayer and any other person who is a legal citizen. Healthcare, for instance, is a major issue and deserves solid attention from our government (Ulmer, Michelle & Burke 12). The nation will develop economically when the people are not worried of income to cater for insurance premiums every moment. This should be the current focus for this nation. The medical profession has been advised to embody the Total Quality Management (TQM) approach to address the faced issues like reduced number of medical staff. TQM has been changed to Continuous Quality Improvement, CQI, and has been suggested to all organizations to explore the existing opportunities in satisfying the needs of the patients (Kane 1). CQI approach can help healthcare organizations to employ new employees in the medical field and give them adequate training and intervention. This will help to address the faced problem. The professionals in the field should come up with new and rigorous measures to increase the number of medical professionals by addressing turnover rates and encouraging young learners to choose the medical career. The CQI replaces the word paradigm assurance with a new one which is improvement (Rogers 1). The reason why the CQI approaches are necessary is because they examine the faced problem and then design a plan to address the vital quality attributes which are efficacy, efficiency, equity and patient centered care, and by so doing provide quality healthcare. Today the health programs in the United States do not provide care to every citizen despite the fact that every individual has to pay taxes (U.S. Health Care Costs 1). Their paychecks always reflect such taxes but there is nothing the government is doing to offer them proper medical support. It would be something great if a small portion of these taxes collected from the people were used to make United States a healthy nation and by so doing make sure the citizens do not worry of insurance premiums. This will be achieved by providing legalized citizens with health insurance for free. This will boost the morale of the people towards economic excellence (Interactive Map). In terms of overview, innovative financing is an approach that can do miracles towards the development of a given nation or society and which involved funding from governments and other donors. With this kind of funding, it should be realized that the governments are the ones required to play the greatest role here. It is very true that there are very many ways through which excellent innovative approaches can be realized of giving aids. With innovative funding, the word innovative comes into play, meaning that it is necessary to come up with the rightful approaches through which the funding to a given project or agenda is proliferated. This has been done appropriately by encouraging Non-Governmental Organizations in different parts of the world (Ulmer, Michelle & Burke 15). Towards better innovative funding, it is very necessary that there are a wide number of sponsors and donors. There should as well be means through which there are larger increments on aids, although this has to be done in a competent manner which will not in any manner distort the rational means and procedures that have been put in place towards making decisions for taxations and overall spending.  Currently, majority of the developments have been advocating for support schemes which demonstrate effective tax transactions towards financing (Yong et.al, 65). Another approach which can be purely innovative is through the use of airline ticketing towards getting or accruing funds which can be used for financing a global issue. There can also be a new kind of lottery done globally so as to increase financial assistance and collections. However, experts argue that any innovative kind of funding should never in any manner come up with opportunistic expectations, but should come out diligently towards ensuring that possible procedures and strategies have been adopted which are capable of getting the rightful amounts of funds towards the specific funding. This is why this approach would possibly work miracles for global healthcare. The world cannot only be at its peace when the greatest majority of individuals have been able to get appropriate healthcare services, and the reason an innovative funding approach is inescapable. In order to have appropriate financing, it is necessary that all the structure as well as taxation levels have been nicely presented and determined so that the very best approach would be adopted. It is also necessary that a concrete decision is arrived at in estimating the spending level which has to be done while giving the public the specific priorities needed. It should be noted that the best approach towards better healthcare is through innovative finance. Innovative finance is something which can greatly improve the overall effectiveness and performance of aid spending towards health care. There are a number of ways through which this can result in development of health care. Firstly, it is well known that innovative finance has the ability of improving what is known as inter-temporal kind of optimization. This is so because all the aid budgets will be issued from one year to the next this making it possible to have continuous operational management towards development of health care. This means that the available amount of funds shall be spend on the right time and for the right purpose. There will also be the sharp monitoring of diminishing returns thus being able to plan for the future operations and performances. There is also a continuous commitment of innovative finance towards new technological developments and advancements. It is very true that there will be very many benefits which shall be realized with commitment to new technology, and especially for health care development. This will make it possible to solve issues that come about due to warranties and technological adoptions in solving health issues. Also, such technological commitments tend to be necessary in addressing the dynamic inconsistencies and allocation of risks, thus making it easy to solve them. It is necessary to conclude by establishing how innovative finance be can be used and applied in the global health. To begin with, any finances which have been outsourced for health care purposes, the first approach can be in acquiring appropriate and enough facilities towards provision of better health. This can be done by ensuring that, not only the facilities have been purchased or constructed, but by ensuring that they have been equipped with adequate materials towards provision of better services to different people in the world. It shall also be appreciable that different NGOs have been involved in the practices because they have been noted to offer better operations which can result in better global health care within the shortest period of time. Therefore, it is necessary that more developments and advocates are realized so that it can be possible to raise more funds which will not only be aimed in addressing issues of health but all the other issues which might be playing a greater role in hindering economic development. Best Answer Towards better health care for the world, the best practice is only in doing more funding for it. This is so because it would be the rightful approach towards solving the major problems faced today. For example, there are very many serious diseases which are being found every day and therefore without preparedness it cannot be easy to solve such diseases while they emerge. There is also the need to understand that the health of a given society will be directly proportional to the possible goals and developments that shall be realized in the given society. This is to say, it should be better that more innovative funding is done for health so that there can be overall economic growth. The healthier a nation is, the easier it will be in a better position towards realizing its goals and objectives. Due to the problems such economic crisis and increased disease outbreaks, it shall be agreed that the necessary approach which will do miracles is to have a globe which is thoroughly engaged in doing more innovative financing for health. Conclusion Health is something important for a given nation, and the entire globe for that matter. This means that it would be necessary that a proper method for financing healthcare should be formulated towards ensuring there is a proper health structure for the entire world. This is the main reason why innovative finance comes in as a very good approach towards global health care. Innovative financing is a modern approach that has been noted to come with a number of possibilities towards increasing overall economic development while bringing in positive possibilities which can effectively accelerate all the measures and processes put in place towards poverty reduction. It achieves this by bringing closer aid money while at the very time making it possible for the money to work in the best manner. According to the greatest number of experts, it has been shown that, if it could be possible to come up with measures and ways of relaxing all the commonplace institutional difficulties and constraints like with healthcare by making sure that all money has been spent when the time is right while at the very time increasing the ability of making rational commitments and responsibilities, it would therefore be possible to make innovative financing work miracles towards the realization of better healthcare globally. However, it should be necessary for the donors and taxpayers to cooperate because such cooperation is necessary if the stated goals are to be realized in the given time. Works Cited Anderson, Karen M. How Far Have We Come in Reducing Health Disparities?: Progress since 2000 : Workshop Summary. Washington, D.C.: National Academies, 2012. Print. Brill, Steven. "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us." TIME 4 Mar. 2013: 16-55. Print. Brill, Steven. 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