Article Review Assignment Commonwealth Fund Article - Essay Example

A lot of money is required to fight with the health expenditures. Health care expenditures are rising at a fast pace with every passing year. It has risen to an alarming figure since the past 6 years imposing threats and stress on the income, businesses and families.1 US has been making efforts to reduce the expenses by increasing the quality of health care and insurance systems. They are making every possible endeavor to slow down the rate of expenditures that is spent in large amounts on medicines.

To control this even healthier environment should be provided so that the public comes across less hazardous situations and this way the expense can be controlled to quite a limit. Health care expenditures are posing a threat on the federal budget too since a large amount is spent on health issues whereas this amount can be used towards a much better direction. Efforts were made to organise public care to reduce the size of the budget which is being lavishly spent on health care. Over the last few years it has risen to triple the amount from 5 percent to 50 percent.

Reports show that U.S. spends approximately 16% of GDP on health care compared to 8 to 10 percent in most major industrialised nations.2 Studies show that efforts by third party payers to lower cost growths have achieved mixed results. Although private insurance payers have reduced their expenditures but still a large number of parties still fail to do so. This leaves the overall figure of health care expenditure unchanged to quite an extent. Some of the worth mentioning and cosiderable factors contributing to these problems are inadequate and inefficient use of care,incentives or rewards provided to the workers are very high which exceed the normal budget and as a result the economy suffers.

The price of the medicines and cure provided is way too high. It is not at all compatible with normal man's 12income. This leads to frustration and mental stress which itself requires a cure. There is lack of care. Public is not aware of the precautionary measures that need to be taken and thus they suffer from diseases which require expensive medicines. There is not accurate transfer of information. Inadequate information can lead to wrong prescription which can be equally harmful. Long Term Factors Contributing to Health Expenditure: A few long term factors are also responsible for the high expenditures.

They are also considered as the most primary ones. This includes introduction of innovative technology, new ideas and machinery without instructions for their proper use. If the ideas are not properly put into action they might give birth to ineffective and simultaneously wrong use. Proper guide will not be provided and thus it is bound to enhance the problem even more. If the services of some other hospitals are taken into consideration, they increase the federal budget consequently giving rise to expenses.

Chronic diseases are rapidly increasing and the federal budget sometimes does not allow purchase of the appropriate medicines and even if this is done, it sometimes badly affects the country's economy and poses threat to the country's budget. This situation makes it even more difficult to cope up with other expenses the state has to cater to.4 One major reason United States suffers more than