Working in Partnership - Essay Example

Working in Partnership Introduction Partnership is defined a type of business where parties or the partners involved share losses and profits of the business where all the parties have invested. Limited partnership in United Kingdom consists of one or more people that can be termed as general partners. All of them are liable for obligations and the debts that are incurred. One or more persons who are involved are called limited partners. They contribute money or property of a certain stated amount which is used in the entire business. (Belien, 2000) Partnership concepts and collaboration are amidst the current most critical themes that are in social policy of labour. This is in relation to social care and health. Research shows that the terms are not well defined and therefore are very hard to analyze. Partnerships can only become successful when there are good systems laid in place. This is in relation to systems that are found in inter-professional collaboration. Health and social care are aspects that are very hard to achieve. This is especially in line with the differences in culture and power among a range of occupational settings. One has to know that various professions are having stiff competition among each other. (Belien, 2000) This calls on to partnering of these professions such that there is joint working among them. The government states that overall health improvement of citizen is actually more than treating them when they are unwell. According to the NHS plan, health improvement is a very integral part in each and every department of the government and not just the NHS alone. (Belien, 2000) Partnership relationships are very common in regional strategies that are government based. The government has the overall responsibility of ensuring that there is a healthy nation. This is amongst the priorities that are put forth. Various measures are in place in relation to promoting emotional and the mental health of the citizens. There has been identification of mental health as a priority that is set forth by the government. This is in line with overall investing for the health strategy. The target that has been set forth by the government is to reduce the entire proportion of people who have potential psychiatric disorder. This is measured using the GHQ – 12 score. This is to be effected by the year 2010. (Black, 2005) In promotion of mental health strategy, there is an approach that is integrated and it greatly focuses specifically on inequalities and determinants of the whole mental health. Many health facilities have to provide health care to patients. New health care problems can be prevented by nurses in hospitals. These health centres can provide the necessary services to the medically disenfranchised people. When the nurses are enough in the hospitals then the patients can be properly diagnosed. Research shows that most of the medically disenfranchised people are poor. Most of the patients in the United Kingdom are paid approximately $ 15,000.Some of these people may be insured. The amount that they are deducted could be approximately $ 5,000. This amount cannot easily be paid for by the patients. This then makes the patients lack access to the important health care facilities. (Blevins, 1995) The health centres that are community based are usually preferred. This is because the basis of their operation is on a sliding scale. In these health care facilities the patients only pay what they can. Research shows that there is a shortage of the nurses in hospitals to give the health care to patients. This is because most of the students in the training colleges are shunning this profession. One of the reasons for the decrease in the number of students taking up this course is due to the increased expenses in undertaking this profession. In fact the nurses do provide primary care but they are very poorly paid. It is very normal for the students to shun this profession. Even if loans are given to them they fear paying it back because the salary that they are paid after employment is not enough to cater for their daily needs as well as repay back the loan. (Goldman, and Elizabeth, 2005) It is good to note that nursing as a profession is very important. It involves caring for the sick in a very coordinated way. Comparing with the other professions, in fact nurses are the lowest paid. This includes the private and also the public rates. Where public rates mean the amount of salary that is paid to the nurses that work in the private hospitals. Private rates mean the amount that is paid to the nurses working in the private hospitals. This shows that all these rates are very poor. This has really discouraged many people to study a career in the nursing profession. Health plan is defined as an act by insurance companies that allow most individuals to make a choice of their own health care professionals, how to manage their own health expenses regarding their available funds, and also handling their own health issues. In this case, we find that most individuals are enabled to understand their everyday expenditure on health care provision. These individuals are believed to be looking for more resourceful care provided to them coming up as a result of a minimized consumption of heightened medical services. The beneficiaries for this health group plans are said to be mostly employers, self employed people, employees, and policy makers, who are meant to benefit from their understanding on the operational system, advantages and disadvantages of the present consumer driven health care that is provided by various health care companies. In this case we find that in the United Kingdom, an approximate of forty percent of employers are said to be offering their employees a health savings account, while twenty six percent of them are found to be still planning to offer a health savings account to their workers. It has been reported that the number of employers offering these plans have risen compared to the 2002 report that showed the market penetration. These consumer driven health care plans consists of programs that are meant to help the consumers in times of serious health conditions, particular consumers are enabled to join the care plans whereby, they are expected to make well informed choices from the various informational resources that they are provided with, by the health practitioners. These resources normally include the provision of health lessons, support programs for health care, and also the consumers are allowed to use the health secondary resources such as; the history on the health of a particular member of the group and also they are given access to the health check library . They are also informed on the treatment cost estimator, prescription pricing tool, and the pharmacy location tool. For a consumer to join the consumer driven health plan, he is provided with a tax-exempt health account through which the individual is enabled to pay his expenses on health to a particular amount set, and also the individual is offered with a high deductible insurance policy that pays for the health expenses through this system, the employee is allowed to save money for future health care operating costs. The employers carry the responsibility of helping these individuals in selecting good health care professionals, who offer their services at a reasonable cost, and who are promising enough to offer an improvement in the health status of an individual. Since the plan involve health insurance, which practices activities that are said to be beneficial to the society at large, such as reducing a number of risks and also ensuring that the individuals are provided with the best health care services that the individuals could not be able to afford. Though it carries these responsibilities clearly, many people have argued that this plan has created some negative side effects to the employees who are said to be offered services that are more expensive than their personal benefits, whereby, one is forced to pay the insurance premiums afterwards under which their salaries are reduced, since the inflated premiums are always paid by their employers. An increase in the demand of good health care by most employees has led many employers to try and reduce their medical expenses by paying a fixed amount of money towards each individual in his company instead of paying a fixed cost on the amount of benefits. This is normally done by an employer offering one or more consumer driven health care plans to his workforces, whereby, he contributes a health plan that is of the lowest premium cost and in the case where an individual picks the most expensive plan then the employer seeks to motivate the employee in considering the cost when choosing a plan, by paying the added cost on the plan. (Robert, 2007) We find that, this consumer driven health plan normally carries different activities which involves; an employer paying a predetermined amount of money towards each employees benefits, the employee is given a tax free account through which they are given the authority to control and use their funds in paying for their health expenses and the legality for this process is that the accrued money in the account which is unutilized in the account is always saved to be used in future. The account is accompanied by a high deductible insurance which pays for major health expenses for the individual and on top of that, the person insured is given an on-line support which is meant to track his medical bills, he is also thought on how to maintain good health and is allowed some discounted costs on particular services offered to him. The demand for these services in the United Kingdom is rapidly increasing due to the following factors; the consumer driven health plan is widely known to be offering more power and flexibility in managing their medical expense, this comes up as a result of frustrations resulting from the restrictions and complications of a managed health care system. Under this, we find that the health plans comes up with an objective of reducing the infringement of health insurance into the health care professions and also the restoration of a self-regulating doctor to patient association, therefore we find that, the plan offers diverse health care providers with different prices rather than a planned cost for the services. (Schaeffer, 2002) The accounts utilized by the consumer driven health care plan that are authorized by the federal laws are: This account is usually put as an exemption from the governmental income tax and taxes on social security. These accounts are normally attractive to many individuals since they are controlled by an individual himself. It is known to carry various advantages which include; a high deductible insurance policy for health, the unused money in the account is usually brought forward to a future use, the account also gives the individual the permission to use the funds for other purposes, that is, it does not restrict one to use the money on health issues alone. The employee holds the account permanently despite his shift from the particular company. The federal law provides that the medical savings account is only obtained by, a self-employed consumer, or a company that has not more than fifty employees. The other type of account is the Health Reimbursement Arrangements which is usually used by an employee to pay his medical expenses, these expenses are said to relate to the Medical Savings Accounts, under which they are tax free, and comes with a high deductible insurance policy with the unused money kept for future use by the consumer. The only difference between the two accounts is that this account can be opened by a company with more than fifty employees with a less defined and more elastic system funded to the employees. Also the payment for the bills is controlled by the employer himself and in the case where the employee resigns from the company he is not allowed to leave with the money thus the unspent money remains with the employer. The Health Savings Accounts goes along with a high deductible insurance policy to an individual who is insured, and it does not need this accompaniment if the consumer is uninsured thus bringing a great distinction with other health accounts. This account allows an individual to withdraw money that is meant for purposes other than that of the health after paying an income inclusive of a fifteen percent fine for the money to be withdrawn. (Strunk, and Gabel, 2002) The final account that is applicable in this consumer driven health care plan is the Flexible Savings Account, which does not charge any tax on the health care expenses paid by the consumer. This account has got its own restrictions, whereby it is clearly stated that an individual does not have the mandatory to withdraw money, which is meant for other purposes rather than that of the payment of medical care expenses. The account provides that the consumer is allowed to make an early decision on the amount of funds to be put in the account. The accumulated funds that remains in the account is normally lost since there are higher incentives for a large amount of funds used on the billing of the health care throughout the year, this makes it hard for the employees to save their monies in the account. Nursing goes hand in hand with the insurance policies currently being offered in the market. Depending on the type of insurance policy, individuals can be able to insure themselves against many things; the most common is life insurance. Nursing centres n and homes are trying to work closely with insurance firms to offer their services more effectively. In most states of the U.K for example, more and more nursing homes are being developed to serve either the aging population or the disabled in the society. This group of persons is considered to be vulnerable to illnesses and they need frequent medical attention. Since most of them may not be having insurance covers, it is possible that they may not have enough funds to meet the requirement by themselves. Nursing as a profession also plays a crucial role in the management and carrying out f health care provision. It is considered one of the disciplines that not only need clean medical experience but also the moral ethics needed to achieve better results. As many entrepreneurs venture into the sector and things are becoming more complicated. Everywhere is business-the insurance firms and the heath centres-the result is that only the rich can obtain good health care services now and in the future unless governance policies and political willingness come in to the rescue of the poor members. This has been a subject of debate even in the legislative council of the federal government which wants to have all the aging persons be given state healthy care services. Although some families may afford to meet expenses incurred by their older members of their families, some find it difficult to do so. (Strunk, and Gabel, 2002) It has also been very difficult to offer nursing services to workers without insurance covers. Some of these workers may be victims of poor safety regulations in their places of work while others are victims of their own profession’s duties. The Americans working in Iraq are subject to poor health care services because of the delicate exposure from their work. This poses a challenge to the government to ensure that not only the soldiers are given medical insurance but also their family members as well. Some kind of illnesses is very costly for an individual who is not insured. A victim of the 9/11 terror attacks who sustained severe injuries may not be able to meet the general upkeep throughout their lives. For a poor worker who was affected by the event and was not insured, one can imagine the trauma their families are going through at the moment trying to make ends meet as well meeting the health care needs for their families members affected by the attacks. Monopolistic competition is always characterised by many consumers and producers of a particular product in a society, in this case of health we find that the producers are the medical practitioners who produce medical products and services to the consumers. We find that these consumers define there preferences on the health products and services that are available to them depending on their economic status. This implies that many health providers specialize in delivering a single service which is usually unique from other services offered by their competitors for example the dentists, surgeons among others. This has led to the health providers to be inefficient and ineffective in the provision of their services because, they have the tendency of regulating the prices of their products and services which in turn has led to the reduction of the benefits accrued by the consumers. Health care is important but it is ranked as a second issue for government action. Americans' top health care concerns are mostly related to economic insecurity, rising costs, and the problems of the uninsured. The biggest perceived health threats are cancer, HIV/AIDS, and avian flu. Although most citizens in U.K do not think that the health system is in crisis, the public remains dissatisfied with both this country's health care and public health systems this occurs to have been revealed in opinion surveys conducted in 2006. The trend of receiving health care beyond U.K. borders is expected to increase as long as personal spending for health care and insurance premiums escalates beyond the grasp of low- and middle-income. Presently, in some low-wage industries, more workers who are eligible for benefits reject employer-provided health insurance because it is viewed as being unaffordable. Research shows how the following concepts in relation to the current economic status in United Kingdom have impacted the health sector. Partnerships have both negative and positive aspects for service users, organizations and even practitioners. To practitioners, they get the opportunity to share ideas and also help one another in line with giving medical services. This highly benefits the service users because they get quality service given to them. Practitioners get help from other professionals and this actually makes their work very easy. (Warren, 2005) Conclusion Partnerships have become quite common since the twenty first century. . Partnerships can only become successful when there are good systems laid in place. This is in relation to systems that are found in inter-professional collaboration. Health and social care are aspects that are very hard to achieve. This is especially in line with the differences in culture and power among a range of occupational settings. Such partnerships always have their positive and their negative aspects. Reference Belien, P. (2000): Healthcare Systems - A New European Model? Pharmaco-Economics; Vol. 18, supplement 1, 85-93 Black, B. (2005): False Diagnosis; the New York; Prentice Press Blevins, S. (1995): The medical monopoly: Protecting consumers or limiting Competition; Cato Policy Analysis pg 246 Goldman, D. and Elizabeth M. (2005): U.S. Health Care - Facts about Cost, Access, and Quality. RAND Corporation, Page 4 Robert, P. (2007): Without Health Benefits, a Good Life Turns Fragile, New York Press Schaeffer, S. (2002): Rising Health-Care Expenses Outpace U.S. GDP Growth, HealthCare costs rose 9.3% in 2002 PP 207-217 Strunk, B. and Gabel, J. (2002): Tracking health care costs- Growth accelerates again In 2001; Health affairs; Pp 45-67 Warren, E. (2005): Sick and Broke; New York; Melbourne Press Read More