Need for health care services - Essay Example

Need for health care services Access to quality health care services can at times be very expensive and may drain thefamily’s savings should a family member suffer as long serious chronic infection. To save families from such traumas it is encouraged that people take health insurance covers. With a cover, a family is not tormented with medical bills as the cover provider settles it all. The American society has one of the most literate consumers globally. However, the access to health insurance covers is still not nationally appreciated in the country, a substantial number of Americans do not have insurance covers.

Reasons given for the inaccessibility of such services vary from family or individual to individual, the most common being the high rates charged by the service providers. Provision of insurance covers is a business in which after accessing covers, people pay monthly or annual premiums. The rate of the premiums is never directly proportional to the type and quality of coverage provided, this therefore influences a number of people to opt for self-settlement of medical bills in the health facilities in case of an emergency (Aday 81).

On of the main mandates of the government is to ensure that every American accesses quality health care services, the national insurance cover provision is not widely accepted despite fact that it is a lot subsidized. This follows the claims that private health service providers have proliferated most of the regions in the country making access to public facilities a lot difficult. The choice to take up a cover or not to is a personal decision and the state cannot ever impose such choices on its citizens.

However, the government should influence the process of making such decisions by ensuring that the public has the general knowledge on the policies and should further [provide incentives to the access of such services. All state employees have insurance premiums paid for them by the government (OCarroll 88). However, the government does very little in effecting the acquisition of such services especially to most of the poor population in the country. Most of Americans in private business make this choice entirely by themselves, the exorbitant rates charged by most of the service providers and the uncertainty that characterizes such services eventually influences most of them on the contrary.

Those employed in the private sectors have their employers provide them with such services as a means of motivation and to boost their morale to work. The employer provides a basic percentage of the cover by deducting the amount from the employee’s salary. Most employers do this without consulting their employee and in collusion with the service providers. This exploits employees besides imposing service providers that they may not be comfortable with. Every individual has the right to choose, by forcefully placing an employee under scheme denies them such, claims of collusion between employers and the service providers further hamper the quality of the service provided (Medical Group Management Association 3).

In brief, the mortality rate in the American society is quite low. However, this is not in correspondence to the access of quality health care services, which is quiet, costly. The government takes care of all its employees by providing them with a national health cover, the privately employed are also covered by their employer despite the quality of such services being low. The poor and the jobless on the other hand are never considered. This makes them vulnerable thereby accounting for the mortality rate as currently recorded.

Works CitedAday, Lynn. At risk in America: The health and health care needs of vulnerable populations in the United States (2nd ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003. Print.Medical Group Management Association. Electronic health records: status, needs and lessons. Englewood: MGMA Press, 2011. Print.OCarroll, Peterson. Public health informatics and information systems. New York: Springer, 2002. Print.