Drug costs have gone from 26% of health care spending by private insurance companies in 1990 to 44% in 2006 (Kaiser Foundation, 2008). This issue has not been adequately addressed by health care reform. Instead, a deal appears to be made for $80 billion in concessions from the pharmaceutical industry in exchange for its support of health care reform (Kirkpatrick, 2009).
The underlying trend in each of these major issues in health care reform is controlling the rising cost. Malpractice reform seeks to control the cost of insurance to health care providers, so that they can pass those savings along to consumers. The public option provides a plan for affordable health care coverage for uninsured and underinsured Americans. This is deemed necessary because private insurers will not offer insurance to those it feels will demand too much in terms of health care costs going forward. Reducing the cost of health care will enable not only the public option to succeed but also will enable the insurance companies the ability to better compete with the public option. Coverage for preventative measures will reduce the health care costs associated with poor lifestyle choices and a lack of preventative care in the system at present.
However, the weakness in the health care reform is that is fails to address drug costs, which are among the fastest-growing costs in the health care system. This is a complex issue, and is only partly dealt with under the components of reform concerning malpractice and prevention. While health care reform addresses one cause of rising health care costs in hospitals -- malpractice risk -- it fails to address in a meaningful way the rapidly rising cost of prescription drugs.
Health care reform is a holistic approach to improving health...
At which point, the overall costs of care will be passed on to the tax payer in the form of higher taxes. This leads to a decrease in the overall quality of care and it will not slow the price increases, as the government seeks to restrict access to these services. Then, when the program becomes broken (such as: what is happening to Social Security) removing or reforming the
health care debate that has been going in the United States. It discusses the Obama Care Act and how it impacts the society. Functionalist perspectives and theories are utilized in analyzing the situation and what outcomes are expected. The major themes and concepts of the functionalist theory are discussed in detail. The Health Care reform proposed by the Obama Administration has long been the area of debate in America and
Others believed that cost control would become a matter for distant and impersonal government boards, with a direct effect on care, and that the reduced competition brought about by the federal government's entrance into the insurance market in any form would simply lead to rising healthcare costs without any real control or oversight. These two pictures of dire futures brought about by the healthcare bill seem to be mutually
A single payer healthcare system would go a long way towards leveling the playing field for all the shareholders. A single payer system is one in which a single entity or party, is one that covers ones healthcare needs by paying for their medical needs of the people, for example, a health insurance company in some countries or the government in other countries. However, in a country like the
Healthcare Debate The United States Healthcare Debate Healthcare is necessary for humanity's survival in the best conditions possible. Various countries across the world have different system, with most consisting of an institutionalized or socialist system. However, the United States stands almost unique in its privatized, corporate-oriented and often patient-neglecting healthcare system. Various leaders in our country's history have strived to change this, yet none have been as successful as President Obama, though
Healthcare Why access to healthcare has become an issue in the U.S. According to a 2010 Gallup Poll, Americans named access to services the "top issue" in health care ("Americans Name Healthcare Access Top U.S. Health Issue," 2010). Empirical research also reveals that access is the top problem in the American health care system at the moment, as "tens of millions of adults under age 65 -- both those with insurance and
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