Verified Document

Health Care Reform Research Paper

Healthcare Economics When considering the ever-changing and highly competitive economic landscape of the modern world; governments, businesses and institutions must remain diligent in their care and compassion for their citizens and staff members. With the current exponential growth and advancement of technology and the computerization of business and learning, voters, workers and consumers have become much more connected to the organizations they patronize (Kurzweil). Accordingly, these important groups are faced with the continuous task of finding new ways to understand and subsequently accommodate the needs of their followers, while simultaneously securing lucrative business models and job environments. One of the most important needs presented in all demographics is reliable healthcare. Thus, with the inelasticity in the demand for healthcare, countries need to determine an applicable system, whereby citizens can have access to the medical services they will inevitably need. Collective access to healthcare represents the main problem in field of healthcare for many nations (including The United States). Nevertheless, it is important to remember that the fuel to run an effective healthcare system comes in the form of money. Historically, citizens have been responsible for funding their own medical needs or even bartering with doctors for their services. However, in the modern world of American healthcare, the concept of insurance has come center stage. Health insurance allows the individual to pay only a small portion of the total amount of medical services they receive, yet they are continually paying monthly sums throughout their working lives. However, by introducing a massive amount of powerful and highly influential middle men (i.e. health insurance companies...

And as a result of America's privatization strategy in the arena of healthcare, the government's ability to effectively regulate this essential field has been significantly diminished. Additionally, extensive lobbying on behalf of insurance companies in justification of their monthly fees to their clients also caused prices to rise to such an extent that healthcare is now seemingly unaffordable without insurance .
From a macroeconomic perspective, the government is responsible for designing and subsequently implementing systems like the one outlined above. This is often referred to as the creation and integration of "health policy." This term specifically refers a structural framework that allows businesses, municipalities and even private citizens the opportunity to access health services . Due to the aforementioned inelasticity in demand for healthcare, the government is forced to concern itself more with assuring that healthcare is made available to all demographics, while putting expenditures aside. Keeping this in mind, it could be argued that the United States government has shirked some of its democratic and regulative responsibilities in this area by universally privatizing the healthcare insurance industry (unlike its European counterparts that have nationalized healthcare) and allowing private firms to determine a great deal of their own health insurance protocols. Though while it is often argued that actual healthcare services are superior in the United States, the health and pharmaceutical industries make up a much more significant…

Sources used in this document:
Bibliography

Blumenschein, K. And M. Johannesson. "Economic Evaluation in Healthcare. A Brief History and Future Directions." Journal of Pharmacoeconomics 10.2 (1996): 114-122.

Cox, Malcolm, et al. "Health Care Economics, Financing, Organization and Delivery." Family Medicine January 2004: 20-30.

Hamburger, Tom and Kim Geiger. "Healthcare Insurers Get Upper Hand." The Los Angeles Times 24 August 2009.

Jeremiah Hurley. "An Overview of the Normative Economics of the Health Sector." Journal of Health Economics 1.1 (2000): 55-118.
Kurzweil, Ray. "The Law of Accelerating Returns." March 2001. 28 October 2011 <http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns>.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Health Care Reform
Words: 628 Length: 2 Document Type: Research Paper

Healthcare Reform List and briefly describe 3 of the recommendations for health care reform made by experts The Annals of Internal Medicine suggests one way to enable more uninsured Americans to afford health insurance is to explore the use of new "revenue sources, including but not limited to savings from capping the tax exclusion of employer-based health insurance, taxing tobacco, and redirecting existing health resources [which] should be mobilized to ensure coverage

Health Care Reform
Words: 801 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

Health Care Reform Recommendations Healthcare Reforms and ObamaCare The healthcare system in the United States is not a healthy system, but one fraught with problems which could cause a catastrophic failure. In order to prevent the collapse of the American healthcare system, for years experts have made recommendations in the hope that government officials would implement them. It was not until President Obama pushed through his healthcare bill, called the "Patient Protection

Health Care Reform
Words: 691 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

Healthcare Reform Initiatives in California The citizens of California are fortunate to have one of the best healthcare systems in the United States. This paper reviews the laws and initiatives that relate to the healthcare coverage and facilities that are available to Californians. This state has led the way in progressive laws that give consumers the tools to stay as healthy as possible. The Reform Initiatives in California First of all, California was

Health Care Reform
Words: 600 Length: 2 Document Type: Case Study

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

Health Care Reform
Words: 692 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Health Care Reform Healthcare reform Current national health care coverage component: Impact on young people (ages 18 to 26) Historically, young adults have a greater likelihood of being uninsured than their older counterparts. They are just starting out in their careers, and often must take jobs with minimal benefits to secure a position. Because they are young and healthy, they may feel that purchasing health insurance is not worth the cost, or simply

Health Care Reform Policies, Whatever Their Nature,
Words: 1940 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

Health Care Reform Policies, whatever their nature, constitute very significant aspects to the entities over which they are supposed to act upon. These principles, in their roles of guiding decision making and governing the outcomes of such processes are so vital, especially when properly adopted by the concerned parties. This aspect applies to both the private and the public sector, a case in point being the health care reform policy. Health

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now