The Interaction of Major Components of the U.S. Health Care System, Term Paper Example

1. Access to Healthcare (physically and financially).

In 2004 the Institute of Medicine reported that United States of America was among few industrialized nations in the world, which cannot guarantee access to health care for its population (Institute of Medicine, 2004). Physically, there are available health care services, but access barriers to those services have been created through financial impositions. Importantly, analysts have advanced that America’s health care system is the most expensive among developed nations in the world (DeNavas-Walt, 2011).

Therefore, two internal factors affecting access to health care are financing and payment displacements. Without adequate health insurance people die, much more when they do not have any at all. Medicare and Medicaid offer limited coverage and many employer/employee subscriptions plans embody a series of pre-approved and pre-certification dilemmas in accessing quality health care in America. In situations when there is no coverage patients are asked to either pay out of pocket or co-payments are exhaustive.

Hence, financially access is difficult with associating payment inconveniences. The situation parallels one in which a hungry man is taken to a restaurant where there are a variety of food to satisfy the hunger, but there is no money to buy any of it; if there money it is inadequate towards providing a meal that will nourish the body.

One obvious external factor relates to the social determinants of health in the society. It can be likened to a misery go round of circumstances, which ultimately manifests as a social problem impinging on social and cultural values. The impression many immigrants get is that America is rich and it has the best health care in the world, which is true, but it is not accessible to the average American resident, citizen or immigrant. Health care values and culture projected by the political admiration inhibit accessibility.

The question is why do citizens who pay taxes, social security and health insurance subsided by employers have limited access to quality health care. It is so structured that a person cannot choose from the wide range of best specialist in the world one he/she feels most comfortable with. The choice must be made within the framework of a network of specialists the insurance has contracted. As such, when it comes to social values and culture the average American is locked into a system of health care access limitation.

2. Healthcare Expenditure

This brings us to the bone of contention regarding health care interventions in United States of America. Two internal factors which will be explored in more detail in this section are financing and payment; the external factor that will be embraced is resources. According to Joseph Antos, Meena Seshamani, and Jeanne Lambrew (2008), in 2006 the United States of America expended $2.1 trillion on health care, which was twice as much as it was ten years previously. Another trillion is expected to be added by the next decade (Antos et.al, 2008).

Interestingly, one wonders how in a market-based health care system as United States of America where a large portion of care is paid for by employers and individuals that there is such a high expenditure by government.. Analysts have further contended that healthcare expenditure is a burden because insurance premiums are escalating at the rate of 98% increases. Then present average family insurance for on employee is over $12,000m annual which account for on employee’s yearly income at the minimum wage (Antos et.al, 2008).

As such, there are serious financing and payment discrepancies regarding health care expenditure in America. Hence, the external resource management intervention is to lay off employees or cut back in wages, to fund mandatory over 25 employee insurance coverage regulations or hire part time employees to do full time jobs in cutting back health care expenditure.

3. Quality of Care.

Evidently, the same factors which limit accessibility and expenditure inevitably will affect quality of care to the same degree. Consequently, financing and payment remain the two, internal influences while social and cultural external forces. The institute of medicine defines quality of health care to encompass the degree in which services offered to clients improve desired health outcomes. Such care they further advocate must emerge from strong evidence based knowledge and be culturally appropriate for the client population (Pelletier & Beaudin, 2008).

Insurance coverage greatly influences quality of care from a financial perspective. With regards to payment, 60% of Americans cannot afford health care even with the Affordable Healthcare Act impositions as regulated by President Obama. If they are unemployed what are they going to pay for health care with? Emergency health care is relatively accessible since hospitals cannot turn anyone away without first ensuring that their condition is stabled (Pelletier & Beaudin, 2008).

Except for an accident no one wants to become so ill that he/she has to end up at the emergency because he/she cannot afford to pay for primary health care interventions. The truth is that this is the sad social and cultural realties of healthcare quality in twenty-first century America. Arguments have been, culturally, the social structure of the American society lends itself to poor quality healthcare in an ocean of advanced healthcare services. Quality of health care is unaffordable because doctors during their practice are still paying for education loans and might be doing so for half of their careers. The focus then is not on quality, but quantity to maximize income. Therefore, the priority culture of paying debts affects quality of life and quality of health care received from an aesthetic health care system.

References

Antos, J. Seshamani, M., Lambrew, J. (2008). Financing the U.S. Health System: Issues and Options for Change. The Leaders Project on the State of American Health Care. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

DeNavas-Walt, C. Proctor, B., & Smith, C. (2011). Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2010. U.S. Census Bureau: Current Population Reports, P60-239. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Institute of medicine (2004). Insuring America’s Health: Principles and Recommendations. Retreieved on 16th April, 2013 from http://www.iom.edu/Reports/2004/Insuring-Americas-Health-Principles-and-Recommendations.aspx

Pelletier, L & Beaudin, C. (2008) Essential Resources for the Healthcare Quality Professional (2nd Edition). Glenview, IL: National Association for Healthcare Quality.