What is one of the biggest issues facing the United State? The first issue that come to my mind is health care. This issue affects millions of American every year even with the so called “Affordable Care Act”. Some factors that contribute to poor health care are cost, unnecessary tests, and increasing paper work. The US needs to reevaluate how our health care is being processed and offered.
Health care has risen in price tremendously since 1960 and 2016. In 1960 an average cost for a person per year was $151 and in 2016 it rose to $10,320 per year. ( Agresti, J. D. & Bukovec, S 2018) The numbers are astonishing, that is a huge difference and looks like the price will continue to rise. A main reason health care is so expensive is because providers get paid by exam or test they perform on a patient. I strongly believe a medical facility should get paid by providing hire quality care. I have worked in the medical field for over 11 years and in my experience medical facilities are forced to see as many patients as possible in the 8 hours they are open. What do I mean by forced? Well for example, a medical facility that treats the under served population which is normally Medicaid and Medicare patients do not get paid very well. The only way for a medical facility to remain open and continue caring for patients is by seeing a lot of patients. This is a very common practice for solo practitioners.
Our health care system has focused on making it very difficult for facilities to operate at its fullest potential. Now there is something called meaningful use, this is a program for providers to gather data of the care that they are providing and at the end of the year the report to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). ( L. 2017) One of the biggest issues that I have seen with this is that if a provider does not meet the set requirement they are penalized by reducing a certain percentage of each payment they receive for the following year. I find this to be unnecessary and it seems like CMS is just trying to find a way not to pay the providers. Another example of unnecessary changes was the implementation of ICD 10 codes. ICD 10 increased the coding from 14,000 to 68,000 making it more difficult to code because everything had to be relearned by providers and staff which held claims and held payments. (L. 2017)
17.7 % of the economy is being spent on healthcare. (8 facts that explain what’s wrong with American health care) Pharmaceutical companies are not helping with the rise in cost either. For the medication Nexium here in the US it cost $215 but in places like Switzerland, Spain, England and Netherlands it varies between $23-$60. (8 facts that explain what’s wrong with American health care) How can a medication that cost over $200 dollars be bought in a different county at very reduced price compared to the US.
The health care we are receiving is very one sided. It is not catered to its citizens and the people are the ones feeling the effects of a flawed system. We need to reorganize the healthcare system and make it more affordable. We need to let the doctors treat patients without worrying about coding or meeting a number to keep the doors open.
8 facts that explain what’s wrong with American health care. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2018, from http://www.pnhp.org/news/2014/september/8-facts-that-explain-what’s-wrong-with-american-health-care
Agresti, J. D. & Bukovec, S. (2018, September 21). Healthcare Facts. Just Facts. Retrieved September 21, 2018 from www.justfacts.com/healthcare.asp
L. (2017, January 10). The Top Healthcare Industry Challenges in 2017 – Healthcare in America. Retrieved September 21, 2018, from https://healthcareinamerica.us/the-top-healthcare-industry-challenges-in-2017-7b4799b8b540