Essay Sample on Rising Healthcare Costs: Factors Affecting Price Increase

Introduction

Many people are more prone to spending a significant amount of money on their healthcare services. The increased insurance premiums, copays, the high deductibles among other expenses are some of the common healthcare-associated costs as well as wellness in a given country. Since the initiation of services like Medicare and Medicaid, there has been an increase in their prices by the providers since the programs help those who have no access to health insurance.

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The main factors affecting the cost of healthcare includes; the ageing seniors, an increasing population prevalence or incidence of diseases and utilization of medical services. Besides, the service price, as well as the intensity, is also a factor increasing the healthcare cost after the increased costs of services. The ageing population, as well as the increase in population, are considered as the two main factors. Healthcare began to increase between the year 1960 and 1965, which was as a result of the expansion of health insurance (Bashshur, 2011). Since it was used to cover more people, there was an increase in the demand for healthcare services.

There are various reasons as to why health care costs continuing to rise. However, the leading causes resulting in the massive increase are the changes in the lifestyles and the government policy. First, countries rely on private health insurance, which is company-sponsored. Therefore governments have created programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are meant to assist those who cannot pay for insurance. The programs have always spurred health care services demand, which was used by the providers as a basis of raising the prices. The other case is the chronic illnesses, e.g. heart diseases, and diabetes, which are generally considered as the lifestyle diseases have increased the healthcare cost. Globally, almost have of the rich people have at least one of them and the diseases have always been expensive and also difficult to treat. Most of the patients are Medicare patients. Countries such as united states do a heroic job in saving lives. However, this is usually accompanied by a higher cost.

The high healthcare cost can be a significant barrier for the access of healthcare, especially to the insured people (mainly to those with higher deductibles) as well as to the uninsured. The cost can be burdensome specifically to those in a worse health condition. Some of the impacts of the high cost in access to healthcare include increased chances of the adults or the old getting delayed treatments or fail to get at all. The cost also is a deterrent to those in worse health in accessing proper treatment. There is always an increased percentage of people who die because of failing to access better treatment as a result of the increased cost.

Today's healthcare system is not just complex but also totally different from what used to be over 10 years ago (Bashshur, 2011). There are many changes and some of which represents the significant shifts which are involved in the movement from an indemnity plan, which is primarily based on what the patient wanted to a remarkably managed care system. The healthcare system in America has gone through drastic changes with the years, but also it is noted that it continues to evolve. Therefore from the past experiences, it can be evaluated that as the population continues to age, the healthcare costs continue to increase while the treatments become more costly and expensive. The highest number of people have no healthcare coverage.

Many physicians do not usually accept patients with Medicaid coverage. However, no study has been done about the enrollees of the Medicaid experience of the provider refusal of their coverage as well as its implication. "Medicaid enrollees, 6.73% reported their coverage being refused by a provider in 2012, a rate higher than that in Medicare and private insurance by 4.07 (p< .01) and 3.68 (p< .001) percentage points, respectively"( Patrick, & Erickson, 2014) The refusal of the coverage in Medicaid is normally associated with the needed care which is delayed using the emergency room as a normal healthcare source and in the perception of the current healthcare coverage worse than that of the past years.

I do not believe that there will be universal healthcare in the future. This is because there are so many things that are not included in the universal healthcare scope. It entails that there is no free coverage for all the possible health interventions without any considerations to the cost. Since no country can offer services freely on a sustainable basis. Besides, universal health care coverage is not just about health financing. It incorporates all the health system components which entail the health service delivery systems, the health facilities, health technologies and the communication networks, the information systems as well as the governance legislation.

Provision of quality healthcare is the degree to which the healthcare services provided to the patients and individuals improve the desired health outcomes. To achieve quality health services, the healthcare must be timely, effective, equitable, efficient and people-centred. It must hence deliver healthcare that poses minimal risks as well as harm to the service users, including avoiding the injuries which are preventable and also reducing the medical errors (Ethridge, 2016). To be effective, quality healthcare must be able to provide services based on scientific knowledge as well as the evidence-based guidelines. Besides, it must be timely, especially in the reduction of the delays in the provision and reception of healthcare.

As discussed above, costs can be a huge factor in determining the quality of care. To meet the economic challenges faced in the healthcare industry and also to continue in the provision of the low cost and too high-quality services. The private hospitals and healthcare organizations, in particular, have been trying to regulate the operational cost. It is important to note that cost should be used as a tool to promote the cost-effectiveness of the medical practice and also to ensure maximum utilization of the available resources available to the healthcare providers.

Quality and safety have always been of critical importance in the field of medicine. However, in conjunction with the future healthcare reforms as well as the associated initiatives, which is a shift in the paradigm will integrate the safety measurement and quality. This is related to the financial incentives in addition to the new focus on consumerism.

References

Bashshur, R. L. (2011). Telemedicine effects: cost, quality, and access. Journal of medical systems, 19(2), 81-91. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3215450/

Cremieux, P. Y., Ouellette, P., & Pilon, C. (2013). Health care spending as determinants of health outcomes. Health economics, 8(7), 627-639. https://www.thebalance.com/causes-of-rising-healthcare-costs-4064878

Ethridge, P., & LAMB, G. S. (2016). Professional Nursing Case Management Improves Quality, Access and Costs: A system with nurses as the primary healthcare providers produces dramatic reductions in LOS and in cost, while truly "humanizing" healthcare. Nursing Management, 20(3), 30-37. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4863949/

Edes, T., Kinosian, B., Vuckovic, N. H., Olivia Nichols, L., Mary Becker, M., & Hossain, M. (2014). Better access, quality, and cost for clinically complex veterans with homebased primary care. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 62(10), 1954-1961. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mfr/4919087.0007.102/--health-care-in-the-united-states-an-evolving-system?rgn=main;view=fulltext

Patrick, D. L., & Erickson, P. (2014). Health status and health policy: quality of life in health care evaluation and resource allocation. https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/complex-relationship-between-cost-and-quality-us-health-care/2014-02