Economic Issues Affecting Healthcare Sector

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Current and Future Economic Issues Impacting Healthcare Sector

Introduction
The United States healthcare industry is still in a critical economic condition despite the Obama Care policy that sought to reform the industry. The healthcare industry is grappling with the issue of consumers buying products based on little information using third-party payment occasioned by insurance. This has led to an increase in the cost of health care and it is apparent that in the next 10 years, the gap between the cost and quality of healthcare will have widened significantly if effective measures are not taken. It will thus be important for players in the healthcare industry to improve their performance through a clear evaluation of the key governance, …show more content…

Healthcare players are finding ways to mitigate the costs of the main operations, manage the care variations, and ensure standardization. The cost of prescription drugs is growing at a high rate with physician costs and hospital care cost following closely. Moreover, the costs of prescription drugs is fueled by the types of drugs, price fluctuations, and consumption as people continue to use more prescription drugs to manage their health conditions. The American population is expected to increase its healthcare consumption as companies spend more to advertise their brand name drugs leading to misuse of health care by the people. For instance, there is a growing number of people who are visiting the emergency room with problems that can be treated at a lower cost in urgent care …show more content…

This clouds other essential activities in life, such as saving for retirement as well as children education. Further, there have been adverse consequences from employers whereby wage cuts have been effected coupled with increased employees’ cost sharing in response to rising healthcare costs. An example of the effects is the growing cost of health insurance premiums which are overburdening the people. Moreover, as the costs increase, some middle class families will have no financial capability to maintain such status and lifestyle during retirement. These rising costs are also produced by prolonged hospital stays, overuse of medicine, inefficient processes, expensive diagnostics and biologics, and industry

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