Consumerism in Healthcare
Health care consumerism within the United States is based on the idea of individual control over decisions involving their health care. This is a recent change from consumers relying on health care providers to make all of the decisions for them. The surge in consumerism has altered the health care system in how it is perceived, functions, and its economic standing. The health care consumer played a key role in passing of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Patients being viewed as consumers reshape the expectations and delivery of health care. It invokes a sense of liberty in decision-making, a value in options, personal responsibility, an access to relevant information for education, and a deserving of quality health care. Many hope this change will improve the quality and lower the prices of our nations’ health care. This change has been brought about by many factors: direct-to-consumer advertising, increased accessibility of health information, mobility of society, and our nation’s struggle to find better ways to operate a an effective and cost-efficient health care system.
Factors for Change
An article provided by Hone identified four major factors that he believes has shifted the power in health care to consumers. First, the direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs over the past decade influencing and empowering consumers to ask their physicians for particular brands. Patients used to accept and trust the recommendations of their health care providers usually without question. Second, the vast increase in health information readily available and often aimed at consumers for supporting their efforts on educating them on their health conditions an...
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Direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketing of pharmaceuticals has grown increasingly in the past decade. The American public views prescription drug advertising for a wide range of medical conditions, including high cholesterol, depression, allergies, and erectile dysfunction. The Federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the content of these advertisements. Critics also have taken the position that the advertisements garner unearned trust from the public, are misleading, and promote unnecessary use of prescription drugs for common problems associated with aging. Proponents counter that DTC ads help eliminate stigmas associated with certain medical conditions, give patients an active role in their health care management, and encourages the doctor/patient relationship. There have been calls for bans on DTC pharmaceutical advertising, but the practice is protected under a business’s right to free speech. Regulation changes, particularly requiring the FDA to pre-approve marketing campaigns before they are released to the public, may be one way to appease opponents, while protecting the rights of pharmaceutical manufacturers to advertise to the average American consumer.
In America today, many people are in need of medical help. In fact,the Federal Trade Commission estimates that 75% of the population complain of physical problems (Federal Trade Commission 9). They complain, for example, of fatigue, colds, headaches, and countless other "ailments." When these symptoms strike, 65% purchase over-the counter, or OTC, drugs. In order to take advantage of this demand, five billion dollars is spent by the pharmaceutical industry on marketing each year . This marketing, usually in the form of advert...
Direct-to-consumer prescription drug ads are dangerous and can have serious effects on the health of the general public. In the article “Pros & Cons Arguments: ‘Should prescription drugs be advertised directly to consumers?’”, the pros and cons of the advertising of prescription drugs are compared. The negative aspects of these ads outweigh that of the positives. DTC prescription drug ads misinform patients, promote over-usage, and pressure medical providers. The counter side argues that these ads inform patients, create a positive impact on patient compliance with medication, and cause patients to confront their doctors.
since the FDA allowed companies to advertise directly to consumers we saw an increase in
In America, it has become a battle to earn a high paying job to cope with the expenses of a typical American. It has become even more of a battle for some people to afford medical prescriptions to keep healthy. Health becomes a crucial issue when discussed among people. No matter what, at one point or another, everyone is going to stand as a victim of the pharmaceutical industry. The bottom line is Americans are paying excessive amounts of money for medical prescriptions. Health-Care spending in the U.S. rose a stunning 9.3% in 2002, which is the greatest increase for the past eleven years. (Steele 46) Many pharmaceutical companies are robbing their clients by charging extreme rates for their products.
The United States (U.S.) has a health care system that is much different than any other health care system in the world (Nies & McEwen, 2015). It is frequently recognized as one with most recent technological inventions, but at the same time is often criticized for being overly expensive (Nies & McEwen, 2015). In 2010, President Obama signed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) (U. S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.) This plan was implemented in an attempt to make preventative care more affordable and accessible for all uninsured Americans (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.). Under the law, the new Patient’s Bill of Rights gives consumers the power to be in charge of their health care choices. (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.).
Healthcare professionals want only to provide the best care and comfort for their patients. In today’s world, advances in healthcare and medicine have made their task of doing so much easier, allowing previously lethal diseases to be diagnosed and treated with proficiency and speed. A majority of people in the United States have health insurance and enjoy the luxury of convenient, easy to access health care services, with annual checkups, preventative care, and their own personal doctor ready to diagnose and provide treatment for even the most trivial of symptoms. Many of these people could not imagine living a day without the assurance that, when needed, medical care would not be available to themselves and their loved ones. However, millions of American citizens currently live under these unimaginable conditions, going day to day without the security of frequent checkups, prescription medicine, or preventative medicines that could prevent future complications in their health. Now with the rising unemployment rates due to the current global recession, even more Americans are becoming uninsured, and the flaws in the United States’ current healthcare system are being exposed. In order to amend these flaws, some are looking to make small changes to fix the current healthcare system, while others look to make sweeping changes and remodel the system completely, favoring a more socialized, universal type of healthcare system. Although it is certain that change is needed, universal healthcare is not the miracle cure that will solve the systems current ailments. Universal healthcare should not be allowed to take form in America as it is a menace to the capitalist principle of a free market, threatens to put a stranglehold on for-...
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Healthcare is a complicated thing, but there are lots of things that need to be addressed. There is controversy about whether healthcare is a right, responsibility, or a privilege. This essay is going to explain examples of each. The word right can be defined simply as “something to which one has a just claim” (merriam-webster.com). According to the online legal dictionary, the word privilege is defined as “a special benefit, exemption from a duty, or immunity from penalty, given to a particular person, a group or a class of people”. Google dictionary describes responsibility as “The state or fact of being accountable or to blame for something”, or “The state or fact of having a duty to deal with something.”
Healthcare is considered of one of the most complex business models in the American Industry because it is one of the only industries where the consumer actually does not technically pay for the service he or she receives (Kudyba, 2010, p. 2). When consumers go to nail salons or hair salons, he or she pays the beautician for the specific service he or she asks for. In the healthcare industry it is totally different and most consumers do not understand the complexity of this business model. The consumer actually pays insurance companies and the insurance companies pay the provider/hospital based on negotiation arrangements from the data exchanges they receive (Kudyba, 2010, p. 2).
There are three issues when it comes to the health care cost rising. The first is the rising cost in prescription drugs. The second area of rising cost is the increased technologies when it comes to the medical industry. The third problem is the aging population. Prescription drugs are the area of the fastest growing health care expense, and it is projected to grow at 20 to 30 percent each year over the next several years. There are many newer, more expensive drugs on the market, and the use of these prescriptions is exploding. In addition, with so much television advertising, many consumers ask their doctors for expensive, brand name drugs when there may actually be a generic drug that works just as well.
The role that the government plays to ensure that these challenges are mitigated and that health care is available to all American citizens is also discussed. Among these problems, poor quality of care is perhaps the most visible and troubling, resulting in nearly 100,000 preventable deaths each year (Institute of Medicine, 1999) and reduced quality of life for millions of Americans due to non-fatal yet serious adverse events such as wrong-limb amputation, hospital-acquired infection, and medication errors (Institute of Medicine, 2006; Leape, 1997). Health care must be fully accountable for quality, and the patient experience is simply the patient's perception of quality. Society should question and debate how healthcare organizations should show improvement for consumers. This can help organizations create reliable health coverage costs and evaluate medical performance for families and individuals in the future.
Health insurance is available from several sources. Private health insurance is provided by private companies. Subscribers pay health insurance companies a monthly fee for health insurance. In return, the company agrees to pay the doctor and hospital costs if the subscriber gets sick. There are different levels of coverage that a subscriber can purchase, but the cost of a health insurance policy is also set by the amount of risk the subscriber is willing to take. The more expense the subscriber is willing to pay, as either deductible or co-payment, the less the insurance company will charge for the insurance. Some Americans purchase their own health insurance, but most employers pay for the health insurance of its workers. Often this insurance
...ue to numerous medical errors. With the amount of medical errors that currently do occur which is a current health care issue it cost the health care billions of dollar each year to fix the mistakes that were made.
Health care has always been an interesting topic all over the world. Voltaire once said, “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” It may seem like health care that nothing gets accomplished in different health care systems, but ultimately many trying to cures diseases and improve health care systems.