U.S. Healthcare Quality: A Look at the Last Two Decades - Research Paper

Introduction

The United States has experienced drastic growth in the quality of healthcare over the past few years. The past two decades saw healthcare in America extremely troublesome not only to the state and central government but also to the individual Americans who acquires their health insurance covers in the remote market places and from their employers. In 2009, the National Health Expenditure (NHE) in America increased by 4%, summing up to $2.5 trillion (Channick, np).Conferring to the organization of the Actuary on the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), the development within the national health expenditure is required to escalate cost containment to an average of 5.7% per year between 2011 to 2021. These expectations agitating since the population of America already consumes more than a sixth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health care. Additionally, the advance in health care costs considerably surpasses both real earnings and gross domestic product growth. Additional development of health care throughout the economy advances an unmanageable obligation on all health care financiers together with the state government and federal government. The health care clients gradually distribute the obligation, thus increasing the cost.

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Conferring to current information from the Urban Association Health Strategy center, several unified motives are substantial factors behind the continuing increase in health care costs in the economy. Among the reasons include the distribution and improvement of medical technology that has contributed to the growth of healthcare costs. The prevalence and spread of chronic disease is likely to consume a great share of health care costs due to the large amount resources required for its treatment. The market power and amalgamation of health care guarantors and benefactors have also immensely contributed to the high cost of medical care in America. Health insurance systems in developed countries differ in many aspects. In the past decades, a significant increase in medical expenditure was seen in diverse high-income nations.According to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) the standard per capita expenditure on health among OECD member countries grew by approximately 70% between 2000 and 2010 regardless of the effort to contain health care costs (Marchildon&Mossialos, np). In the countries, medical expenditure per capita increased by3.9% in the United Kingdom, 2.6% in Canada, 1.5% in France, and 1.2% in Germany between 2000 and 2010. While other nations experienced lower expenditure, others significantly devised unique strategies to reduce the compiling costs.

In March 2010, the Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection was ratified although it was not fully effected until 2014 to help contain the healthcare costs in America (Channick, np).The process of determining the actual methods to contain health care costs is still in its early development. The Patient Protection and the Affordable Care Act has significantly transformed healthcare in the United States. The Medicaid program is among the initiatives under the act that are ensuring low-income earners in the US afford the insurance programs. The majority of the Americans enrolled in the Medicaid program do not have access to any affordable cover. It is a low-cost strategy of providing health insurance covers to adults who cannot afford private insurance. Medicare program enacted by the government covers adults 65 years or older, young individuals with disabilities and those suffering from End-Stage Renal Disease. Although highly criticized, the programs will be able to contain the cost of healthcare as adults can access healthcare services and afford health insurance covers. In 2009 the cost of Medicaid and Medicare was 10 percent of the budget; the costs would increase to 20% by 2020. The Affordable care act and Patient Protection program is anticipated to save the country billions of money that could have been spent on healthcare.

Additional development costs in health care across the gross domestic product is critical specifically for communal cover programs such Medicaid, Medicare and the young adults cover health care program. A permitted program, for instance, Medicaid and Medicare, the central government to do anything under its obligation to stipulate the advances to those permitted towards obtaining those benefits to the incapacitated, especially for the elderly and the commendable poor that include the young people (Channick, np). The congress can decide either to moderate the benefits or the beneficiaries, it is also capable of borrowing to meet the demand, or it can find ways to raise a few choices. Normally in the recent past, the choices remained settled in benefit of borrowing, which results in an ever-growing liability of about $ 15 trillion, an amount that corresponds to the economy of the United States. Nevertheless, despite the adamant increase in medical expenditure, some counties like the U.S experiences low quality medical services as many individuals still suffer from diverse chronic diseases and conditions. Acknowledging the weakness and devising an efficient cost containment strategy is vital not only to reduce unnecessary expenditure but also to ensure high quality services to the consuers.

Conversely most financial fundamentalists, specifically of the Tea Party congressional freshmen, held the central government of the United States responsible for their amendments in a bid to balance the federal budget in exception of additional supply of income either by increasing taxes or increasing the maximum bill. The house of the representative persistence on evaluating the budget by depending on using nothing else but cutting down spending jeopardizes the federal power programs, especially health insurance programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, which apparently burdens the federal expenditure (Channick, np). Certainly, to grow the economy and create jobs, Keynesian theorists would advocate for spending instead of stringent economizing (Mossialos, 87). The current situation in the United States is that the national congress assigns less government income to the state and federal health care programs. The low repayment of public insurance program providers has forced the physicians to prefer the commercial insurance programs instead of the public insurance, which endangers the medical care of vulnerable populations such as the poor and the elderly that cannot afford the costly covers in the market (Channick, np).

Further, the cost-containment strategies, such as establishing effective and efficient virtual healthcare services such as telemedicine, substantially facilitate reduction of costs in the medical industry. The utilization of enabling technology like mobile apps, videos, sensors, text-based messaging, and social platforms ensure provision of quality healthcare services irrespective of the status or the location of patients (Russi et al., 201). While American Association of Medical Colleges projected a shortage of physicians by 2029, conforming to virtual care would greatly help fill the void left by primary care physicians. For instance, unlike America whose medical expenditure keeps rising, United Kingdom's adoption of telehealth has actively reduced its healthcare expenditure. With technological advancement, UK has actively exploited the opportunity to reduce its Medicare cost by utilizing technology to perform major issues such as eVisits or virtual visits, which increases patients' access to medical practitioners. It has also improved the medical services in UK through promoting efficiency and efficacy of hospitals with processes like filing, virtual diagnosis, assessment, and improving integration and interactions with patients (McWilliams, 2219). France also developed a National Health Authority in 2004 to advice the public health insurers and the ministry of health on changing medical trends and audits healthcare firms to ensure efficacy. Therefore, unlike America that still conforms to the traditional primary care physicians, the use of technologies like virtual care in UK and Germany actively helps in reducing healthcare expenditure.

Additionally, like other counties such as Germany, Canada and Japan, healthcare insurance cover in the United States is determined by the amount paid to a hospital or medical institution, though many countries are determinant to reduce cost when deemed necessary for example, in Japan, when expenditure of a specific area appears to be developing faster than the projected rate, the country lowers the fee for that area (Lasserre, 44). Incorporating population health management programs that assess the demographic conditions such as prevalence to chronic diseases like cancer and hypertension enables countries to shift costs and reduce expenditure utilized in wrong areas. Equally in France,Caissenationale de l'AssuranceMaladie des travailleurssalaries(CNMATS), which closely monitors the national medical expenditure, actively regulates the services and rapid advancement of particular areas within the industry. For instance, it often reduces the price of products and services to ensure levelized growth of the industry (Mossialos, 54). Nevertheless, in contrast, American healthcare payment rates are substantially rigid, which is also complicated by the rigid American legislative system that often require Congress authorization. Therefore, it makes the system very rigid for cost containment. Moreover, unlike the United States, other countries also lower their healthcare fees. For instance, Germany, France, and Japan observe global trends and universal or generic drug prescriptions that can prompt the desire for insurance funds (Mossialos, 76). Although the US has been able to cut down its cost under Obama care, the United Kingdom spends the least on healthcare when compared to other Western countries including America. Intensive care in the UK, which has been negated by the US government, is attained at comparatively lower cost.

Conclusion

Conclusively cost containment adamantly strive to regulate extensive expenditure, which might influence the profitability of an organization or industry. While healthcare industry in many countries like America, Japan, France, Canada, and Germany strive to provide quality Medicare, it must maintain low expenses in treating different chronic disorders. For instance, a condition like asthma necessitate medical admission annually like in America, the admissions rates for asthma is approximately 120.6 per 100,000.Medical statistics also entails that America conduct numerous Asthma testing compared to other OECD countries like Germany and Canada, which significantly increases its medical expenditure. Utilizing the cost containment strategies such as offering virtual care like telemedicine, shifting costs to employees and developing a high-deductible health plan. The cost containment strategies adamantly ensure control and management of healthcare increasing expenditure.

Works Cited

Channick A.S. Cost Care Containment No Longer An Option But A Mandate .The Problem: The Unsustainable Trajectory of Health Care Costs.

Goldman P. Dana &Mcglynn A Elizabeth. U.S. Health Care. Facts About Cost, Access and Quality.https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/corporate_pubs/2005/RAND_CP484.1.pdf

Kane J. Health Costs: How the U.S. Compares With Other Countries. October 22, 201210:30 AM.https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/health-costs-how-the-us-compares-with-other-countries

Lasserre, Philippe. Global strategic management. Macmillan International Higher Education, 2017.

McWilliams, J. Michael. "Cost containment and the tale of care coordination." New England Journal of Medicine 375.23 (2016): 2218-2220.

Mossialos, Elias, and Julian Le Grand, eds. Health care and cost con...