Health care expenditures is an increasing proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries as its share in GDP increased by an average of nearly 2 percent annually in last 40 years. Health care expenditures in the US increased 6.2 on average annually between 1991 and 2011. Health care spending consisted 17.9 percent of GDP in the US in 2011. There are many elements affecting increases in health care costs. The proportion of old people in the US population increases and aging population can raise health care expenditures. Because, compared to younger people, older people use more health care services as they are more likely to have non-communicable diseases. Non-communicable diseases are not caused by infection and they cannot spread among people such as, heart disease, asthma, diabetes, and cancer. Health care costs for non-communicable diseases is expensive and these diseases continue for a long period of time which shows that health care expenditures will rise due to aging of population. Increasing prices for medical treatments, consultations, and drugs is another element in increasing health care costs. Increasing prices of health care services and drugs were the main reason for increasing health care expenditures between 2009 and 2010. Poor productivity is another element of increasing health care costs. Because there is little or no intervening growth in productivity gains for health care, health care costs would increase over time; and because of inelastic demand health care expenditures would also increase (Baumol, 1988). Because it is difficult to measure value of health care service, it is very difficult to evaluate productivity gains in health care. Referrin... ... middle of paper ... ... and it is also the most humane policy. Health promotion gives people information about healthy lifestyles and diseases at a low cost but it has substantial outcomes. This information helps people to modify their behaviors, to search for assistance and diagnosis, and to have a healthy life. Health education and communications based on psychological and behavioral research in order to promote health and wellness must be supported. Personal self-care can prevent unnecessary doctor or hospital visits which amount billions of dollars a year. Personal self-care teaches people how to become a wise consumer of the health care services. People learn when to go to a doctor or a hospital for health conditions that deserve it and when to use personal self-care for those that can be treated at home. People should be educated in order to make better decisions for their health.
For decades, one of the many externalities that the government is trying to solve is the rising costs of healthcare. "Rising healthcare costs have hurt American competitiveness, forced too many families into bankruptcy to get their families the care they need, and driven up our nation's long-term deficit" ("Deficit-Reducing Healthcare Reform," 2014). The United States national government plays a major role in organizing, overseeing, financing, and more so than ever delivering health care (Jaffe, 2009). Though the government does not provide healthcare directly, it serves as a financing agent for publicly funded healthcare programs through the taxation of citizens. The total share of the national publicly funded health spending by various governments amounts to 4 percent of the nation's gross domestic product, GDP (Jaffe, 2009). By 2019, government spending on Medicare and Medicaid is expected to rise to 6 percent and 12 percent by 2050 (Jaffe, 2009). The percentages, documented from the Health Policy Brief (2009) by Jaffe, are from Medicare and Medicaid alone. The rapid rates are not due to increase of enrollment but growth in per capita costs for providing healthcare, especially via Medicare.
For the last five years of my life I have worked in the healthcare industry. One of the biggest issues plaguing our nation today has been the ever rising cost of health care. If we don't get costs under control, we risk losing the entire system, as well as potentially crippling our economy. For the sake of our future, we must find a way to lower the cost of health care in this nation.
For essay three I have chosen to discuss reducing the cost of health care for all Americans. Affordable health care has always been a major issue for many Americans, especially low income families and the poor. In fact according to Statistics Brain their statistics show that many thousands of Americans cannot afford and do not have health care.
...ions are ageing and increasingly, people are living with one or more chronic conditions for decades (World Health Organization, 2011). If the government can assist in regulating preventive health measure for citizens it will years down the line prove to be a cost effective measure. World Health Organization (2011) states that many chronic conditions were avoidable had the person ben able to receive the preventive education and care needed. Business owners may experience a slight inflation in cost to insure their employees but it does not amount to nearly half as much that will be saved by all citizens having access to preventive medical care.
Such rising health care costs penalize the citizens within our nation in multiple aspects. The first set of individuals that are affected are families and seniors because it affects the amount of money that goes into their pockets, which results in a difficult time balancing food, rent, and the basic necessities for living. Next, small businesses and fortune 500 employers are affected because such increased costs cause rising health care costs to become more expensive to add new employees to their payroll and more difficult to cover retiree fees when that time comes. Finally, the federal, state, and local governments are forced to increase Medicare and Medicaid costs, which results in cutting other priority funding such as public safety and education.
8. The demand and supply factors that contribute health care to rise in cost are the rising incomes, aging people, unhealthy lifestyles and the role of doctors.
Health promotion is a multifaceted movement with a core value on respect, empowerment, equity, inclusion and social justice (MacDougall 2002). Aims to achieve holistic health, while it is influenced by medical and social determinants. These determinants which aids to deter...
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.
Because of this, compared to any other industrialized country, healthcare spending of US is 40% more on a per capita basis.
The increasing spending on health is said to have a positive effect as it results in an increase on employment and income for workers in the health care and its related sectors. There is a concern regarding rapidly rising health care spending because it is considered to lower the rate of growth of gross domestic product (GDP) and overall employment, while raising inflation or the rate at which the prices of goods and services are consistently rising. More of the resources are being devoted to health care than to other goods which will impact the public and private sectors of the economy. (Monaco & Phelps, 1995)
Among all the countries of the world, the U.S. health care system is the most expensive. The country spends on health care more GDP per capita than other countries (Khazan, 2014). Over the past few decades, the costs in the United States on the health system are growing because of the introduction of state programs. There are many differences between the U.S. healthcare system that is preliminary based on private sector and insurance and other countries’ systems, which are organized around government funding.
The U.S. spends more than most other countries when it comes to healthcare, yet it does not outrank any of the countries in life expectancy, nor infant mortality. Miller states that one determinant of rising healthcare costs is “changing demographics” specifically,
The United States spends twice as much on health care than France through expenditures according to Ed Dolan who says that the French spend “11.2% on GDP, compared with 16% in the United States” (Dolan, 2011). Expenditures are increased by expansion of health insurance and increase in health insurance premiums (Shi & Singh, 2015). People in the United States make more profit than in France, but it is still imperative that the U.S tries to solidify its expenditures for the
Self-care is a necessary practice in everyone’s life. This practice allows people to relax and replenished themselves. The first time I heard of this term was in during one of my social work classes. As we began to discuss self-care it became clear, that without proper self-care people, not just social workers are doing themselves a disservice. Self-care encompasses more than general rest. Self-care deals with emotional wellbeing, good health and spiritual wellbeing. All of these areas are key to having good self-care. The reading provides a good description self-care, it stated that self-care is achieving an equilibrium across our personal school and work lives. Achieving equilibrium in my personal life will only increase my ability to support and help others.
The cost of US health care has been steadily increasing for many years causing many Americans to face difficult choices between health care and other priorities in their lives. Health economists are bringing to light the tradeoffs which must be considered in every healthcare decision (Getzen, 2013, p. 427). Therefore, efforts must be made to incite change which constrains the cost of health care without creating adverse health consequences. As the medical field becomes more business oriented, there will be more of a shift in focus toward the costs and benefits, which will make medicine more like the rest of the economy (Getzen, 2013, p. 439).