a-country-s-health-status-is-heavily-influenced-by-underlying-economic-writing-homework-help
Please do a paragraph about this post with this instruction .
post most have 4 or more sentences .
you also have to have a high quality post from a content perspective. This means it also needs to do more than agree with or praise a class mate. If you agree with a classmate, explain why, give an example, share what you learned in the readings
I believe a country’s health status is heavily influenced by underlying economic, physical, environmental and social determinants. Nearly all nations are working to improve their healthcare delivery systems. In the US nearly three quarters of Americans over 65years of age suffer from a chronic illness and half of them have more than one chronic illness. Chronic illness in the United States accounts for 75% of the $2.4 trillion of healthcare expenditure. It’s difficult to find too many people in the United States who are satisfied with the healthcare system. Complaints run the gamut from the cost, to the abbreviated time spent with their doctors. Even those who have good payment coverage, whether it’s through an employer, or through a government program such as Medicare or Medicaid, recognize that the system has made it much more difficult to get the care they need at a price they can afford.
The Affordable Care Act of 2010 addressed some of these issues, but there are still areas that need further reform, it is a constant process.
Here are some of the problems and frustrations that prompted a need for health care reform. However some adjustment still need to made to improve the system to make health care more affordable and accessible for all:
1. Quality of Care vs. Cost of Care
Most Americans would tell you that we have access to the best that medicine has to offer. And in the best-case scenario, that is true. Our doctors are among the finest in the world, the technology available is the latest and greatest, and the knowledge of diseases and possible treatments is excellent.
The problem is that the system has evolved to one where the balance between cost and access is at an all-time low. Prior to the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010, 47 million Americans had no health insurance or coverage. That means they couldn’t access this excellence.
Approximately 25 million were under-insured. In most cases, those people don’t even realize what they cannot access because of cost. Under the ACA, health insurance is required or individuals will pay penalties.
Further, the United States spends twice as much money per person as any of the others, and 101,000 Americans die each year just because they didn’t have insurance.
2. Time vs. Quality of Care
You’ve heard the adage that time equals money. That’s exactly how American healthcare providers must look at their own practices, if they want to stay in business.
Because the payment system is based on profitability or saving expense, doctors and other providers are forced to perform their duties in less time, see more patients in any given day, and look for other ways to save time so they can bill for more people and procedures in order to make the money they want or need to make.
Patients often complain that their doctors don’t listen to them because they are in too much of a hurry. The results are more mistakes, more misdiagnoses or missed diagnoses, even prescription errors
3. Patient Safety
The time constraints lead to further safety questions. Safety problems account for98,000 or more American deaths each year.
Surgeons in a hurry don’t follow guidelines for “time outs” that assure everyone that they are operating on the right patient, the right body part, or even remembering to pull all the instruments and objects out of a patient when they are finished.
Pharmacists, under pressure from their pharmacy owners to prepare and dispense (sell) more drugs faster, hire inexperienced “technicians” who get a brief training period before they are turned loose to fill prescriptions. More pharmacy mistakes are made.
Doctors, needing to maximize their patient loads, as mentioned above, make more mistakes during appointments. Further, they jot down drug names on a prescription pad in a hurry — leading to possible further mistakes. This was a recent occurrence, I and my friend went for and ultrasound and my result was printed for her but thank God she was smart enough to see my name on the scan and she quickly drew the attention of the technician who was so sorry and apologetic and was ready to do anything to please my friend.
4. Lack of Preventive Services
The lack of time also inhibits the former ability of doctors to help their patients stop smoking, or lose weight, or keep their blood pressure down (unless of course that can be done with a silver-bullet drug.)Chronic diseases and conditions account for seven of 10 deaths among Americans each year, according to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control.) Cardiovascular problems, diabetes, arthritis, and chronic cancers affect 25 million Americans and cost us trillions of dollars each year. Preventive medicine could cut those figures dramatically. Many preventive services are required to be covered at no cost in health plans under the Affordable Care Act of 2010, and all Americans are required to have health insurance or face a penalty.
The bottom line to these problems and others is that Americans are not getting the effective healthcare they need, at the time they need it, at a cost that is affordable.
Thus the call for healthcare reform, in all aspects of what a good, reliable, effective healthcare system should be. With the passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, only some of these issues were addressed. Future modifications and reforms will be needed to solve all of these problems and new ones that may arise.
