High Cost of Health Care Essay

Concerns have been raised over the rising cost of medical care all over the world. In the United States alone, over $2 trillion is spent yearly which translates to approximately $9,000 spent on healthcare per individual each year (Mathur, Srivastava and Mehta 1). Despite this, it is not clear if the high cost infers improved patient care and health outcomes. Because of the high expenditure on health care, the industry has been considered a business venture because hospitals charge administrative fees coupled with the growth in demand for prescription drugs. The cost of health care should be reduced because medical insurance is not available for every citizen in the United states.

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The federal government should lower the cost of medication by scaling down the administrative costs of healthcare. This is because administrative fees take a large percentage of the money allocated for medication (Jiwani et al. 1). One of the causes of this is the number of physicians who have gone to private practice. To operate the private hospitals and clinics, workers such as billers, legal advisors, managers, and office workers are employed thus medical facilities have more non-healthcare personnel than healthcare providers. This means that the patients are going to foot bills for non-medical expenses which have inflated the cost of medication. To lower this, the government should cut down the non-medical personnel in hospitals and allow the use of technology to reduce these staff. This will decrease the medical cost incurred by individuals.

The medical system of the United States allows vast compensation to the hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers in ways that give them more rewards than offering efficient services. The medical providers are reimbursed for the visits, procedures or tests by the insurance firms thus has encouraged doctors to repeat tests and overtreat patients so that they can make more money (Clemens and Gottlieb 9). This has resulted in the rise of cost of medical care. The government and the insurance firms should not allow the medical providers to fleece individuals by setting a specific rate of reimbursement for every condition treated. The costs should be streamlined by having a flat rate of charges for an entire patient visit. Since there are so many excellent facilities that offer quality care, healthcare cost can be lowered by having a similar compensation package for medical practitioners so that they do not fleece patients by exposing them to unnecessary treatments.

Competition among healthcare facilities should be enhanced for the cost of healthcare to be reduced for individuals. For instance, the federal, state and local governments should encourage competition in medical care so that the supply of workforce is achieved which could increase competition for patients thus the cost of health care drops. Goudreau and Mary argue that the state has restricted non-physicians from offering Medicare as per their training, therefore, do not encourage competition (292). Some states in the United States do not allow advanced practice nurses to start practice without the supervision of a physician but to encourage competition among health care providers, these limitations should be abolished to expand the workforce. Furthermore, payments from Medicaid and Medicare should be made to non-physician providers for them to fully practice medicine as per their training.

Reduction of medical costs should be enhanced because there are many people in the United States that do not have a meaningful insurance. These people have faced difficulties because they do not have the funds to offset substantial medical bills. For instance, Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt argue that:

Before the inception of Obama care, there were approximately 40 million Americans did not have health insurance as the younger workers were likely to be employed but without insurance. This made it difficult for them to access medical care in many medical facilities because of the high cost of medication thus could not raise the money for paying health care bills (410).

The number has dropped, but it is expected to rise in the coming years. All these people are facing the high cost of medication and barriers to healthcare access. Erwin and Ross observe that because of the high medication costs, those with low income, racial and ethnic minorities, and the uninsured face challenges pertaining health care access (32). Furthermore, low income among the vulnerable communities exposed them to poor quality health care because surgical centers and surgeons are unavailable for the vulnerable (Erwin and Ross 32).

Finally, the cost of healthcare should be lowered because patients are referred to facilities that drive the cost of medication up. Physicians refer patients to facilities that they have vested interest in, which affect the quality of care and often leads to the high cost of treatment. For instance, a physician can refer a patient to purchase certain drugs in a designated chemist or go for an x-ray from specific facilities. The cost of treatment goes up as the patient is made to make trips to the facility where the treatment may be high. Doctors should obey the Stark law which forbids them from billing designated hospitals or making referrals to facilities covered by Medicaid or Medicare (Schachter, Mandell, Harshbarger and Grometstein 39). This is because the physician and the facility where the patient is referred have a connection and may result in overpayment of the service rendered.

It is true that medical costs should be lowered but universal healthcare systems in the United States are good, therefore, offer excellent patient care. The patients in these facilities are taken care of in the best way possible hence the amount of money paid for excellent patient care is high. Furthermore, if these facilities are pressurized to control or reduce the cost, it will result in cutbacks that may threaten the quality of care offered to the people. This is because reductions for hospitals that are hard-pressed may result in poor quality of care given by physicians. Moreover, hospitals need money to acquire new technology which will further cut down the administrative costs thus become beneficial to the patient in the long run. Patients should start rewarding quality care by compensating the physicians for the results obtained and avoid pegging the cost of medication on the number of hospital admissions or the procedures that one is exposed to.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the cost of health care should be reduced because a large population of minorities in the United States does not have access to medical insurance thus may end up spending a significant amount of their savings in paying medical bills. Also, the hospitals are charging an exorbitant amount of money in administrative costs. The reimbursement given to physicians are based on the number of visits and procedures performed which contributes to the high cost of medical care. There should be a flat rate for every condition treated which will enable individuals to pay for the services rendered. These ways will make health care affordable thus allowing individuals to access health care.

Works cited

Bardes, Barbara A., Mack C. Shelley, and Steffen W. Schmidt. American Government and Politics Today: Essentials 2015-2016 Edition. Nelson Education, 2015. Print.

Clemens, Jeffrey, and Joshua D. Gottlieb. "Do physicians' financial incentives affect medical treatment and patient health?" American Economic Review 104.4 (2014): 1320-49.

Erwin, Paul C., and Ross C. Brownson. Principles of Public Health Practice. Vol. 4, Cengage Learning, 2017. Print.

Goudreau, Kelly A., and Mary Smolenski, eds. Health Policy and Advanced Practice Nursing: Impact and Implications. Springer Publishing Company, 2013. Print.

Mathur, Pankaj, Shweta Srivastava, and Jawahar L. Mehta. "High Cost of Healthcare in the United States-A Manifestation of Corporate Greed." J Forensic Med 1.1 (2015): 1000103.

Schachter, Steven C., et al. Managing Relationships with Industry: A Physician's Compliance Manual. Academic Press, 2010. Print.

Jiwani, Aliya, et al. "Billing and insurance-related administrative costs in United States' health care: synthesis of micro-costing evidence." BMC health services research 14.1 (2014): 556.