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Assignment focuses on the summons faced bu US in healthcare.

Home, - Challenges to US Healthcare

 

Introduction

Healthcare has been one of the most significant areas for any country around the world. It has been observed that over the past few decades the healthcare sector has transformed immensely considering the advancement in technology. The healthcare sector of the United States is one such example that can be provided assessing the varied changes brought in over the past couple of decades. Despite having prolific growth, the US healthcare system has been facing immense sort of challenges and issues which needs to be analyzed and sorted. Considering the significance of healthcare system in the United States and the various issues and challenges persisting, this specific report would critically analyze and evaluate all the challenges and provide an in-depth analysis about how to handle the challenges and recommend the key aspects that need to be considered.

Biggest Challenges

Presently, there are various sorts of issues persisting within the healthcare industry. But, the most significant and prevalent issue includes rising costs, the immense decline in profits and overall effectiveness. Moreover, the enhancing regulations and the immense pressure on the healthcare providers to enhance the safety and quality have also become quite tough to overcome. issues persisting are one of the most significant and greatest challenges of the US healthcare sector (Parekh & Barton, 2010). As the country’s population is increasing rapidly and feels the impacts of the baby boomer generation, there has been the immense demand of the healthcare services. The rigid cost of the healthcare services is yet to be solved. As observed over the past few years healthcare costs have constantly raised higher, and these enhanced costs of services do not essentially correspond to high quality.

Along with the rising costs of the healthcare services, there has also been a diminishment in the available workforce for the facilities of the nation. According to various reports published there has been a short supply of pharmacists, technicians, technicians and nurses in private practices and hospitals (Weisfeld, 2011). This specific challenge is also related to the immaculate pressure for an enhancement in the healthcare quality. Due to short-staffed facilities, it has been quite difficult to provide every patient with the utmost care they need. Additionally, the emergency departments have become overcrowded because of the lack of needed hands. All such aspects made it quite difficult for hospitals to manage all the costs properly and generate quality profit (Helble, 2011).

On the other hand, different nations have distinctive policies, programs and standards related to healthcare. The disparity influences the health of the patients and in the United States. One of the most significant examples that can be elaborated is the poorer healthcare policies and standards in nations like Mexico has made it immensely difficult for the US and other nations to address the pandemics engaging Mexico (Obama, 2016). It has become quite important for a country like the US to spend more on their protection due to the lower health care standards of the other nations.

Emerging Trends

The healthcare sector in the US has been a significant topic and is regularly discussed in politics. It has been observed that over the past few years the federal government has been constantly emphasizing on the healthcare system. There have been various changes and new trends that have come up as a prolific outcome of the attention that the sector has received in the past (Kongstvedt, 2012). As observed over the past decade the amount of money spent on the US healthcare sector is immense. There are various reasons for the drastic enhancement, and the most significant is the investment in new technologies and the enhanced demand for quality in healthcare too. Compared to the last decade the US government has spent about $1,878 trillion on the healthcare system and enhanced the level of the healthcare services (Sultz& Young, 2014). Health informatics and relevant technologies introduction have been the most key under emerging trends. The use of high graded technology and health informatics are considered as the face of change in the US healthcare sector. This has been the major reason for the immense costs incurred for the availing the healthcare services (Wamba, Anand & Carter, 2013). According to sources despite making huge advancements in the technology introduction in the healthcare system in the US, there has been a decline in the quality of providing healthcare services.

Impact of Influencers and Stake Holders

Influencers play a huge role in the success of public welfare schemes. Providing basic health care to the citizens is the responsibility of the central government, and for that purpose, the government launches healthcare related schemes. In the health care system, the stakeholders are the patients, healthcare staffs, nursing staffs, bureaucrats, government, and various other entities. The stakeholders are the public or private entities who are directly or indirectly involved in that process.

In the US healthcare system, most of the stakeholders are the governing bodies and the common people. Getting basic health care support is the right of every citizen, and that is why it is why it is considered as the responsibility of the governing agencies.  Influencers also play a big role, because they help the stakeholders to initiate the process. Different political parties, social workers are working as the influence of the health care system.

How Education, Workforce Availability, and Human Capital Issues Affect Healthcare

Education and healthcare are directly linked with each other and one is incomplete without the other one. If people are educated enough they will understand the requirement of hygiene and health care. On the other hand, getting good health care is not possible without proper education. Only an educated person will understand the need for healthcare and it will help them to understand the importance of good health for a healthy life as well.

Availability of the workforce is also indirectly related to the healthcare system.  Availability of the workforce means that there are more educated people, but they don’t have enough jobs. This simply implies the poor economic condition of the state and it also signifies that people don’t have enough money to provide their family members with the basic facilities like education and healthcare. Though, it also means that there are plenty of educated people present and if the government is capable enough then they can bring foreign investment and boost the economic activities in the country.

Human capital is also an important factor, which reflects the power of a state. If the country has enough human capital then it can boost its economic activities easily by moving fund towards service sector through service sector only is unable to boost the economic activities of n economy, the industry is also very important. In order to boost economic activities, the government needs to focus on developing human capital in the country. Human capital signifies the educated workforce of the country. Though if the government is not unable to provide basic amenities to its people like education and health care, then the human capital will become a burden for the government and it will also increase the liability of the government as well. That is why it can be said that the human capital and the healthcare are directly linked with each other, and one can’t be achieved without the other one.

Factors Limiting Growth of Health Care

Health care is a costly project, and every year the government of USA spends billions of dollars in order to ensure basic health care to its people. Though there are multiple factors which are affecting the basic growth of healthcare and pushing people towards unhealthy life.

The first and the foremost hindrance of the healthcare facility is poverty. Poverty and healthcare are directly linked. There is no doubt that the USA has established itself as the economic superpower in front of the global audience, but the economy is being consolidated by a group of organizations and the economic power lies in the hand of a few organizations inside the country. That is why the economic power is not being distributed properly and poverty is becoming more prominent into the society. Because of poverty, people are unable to get access to basic amenities like education and healthcare, and that is the reason the government needs to focus on the decentralization of power.

Corruption is another hindrance which is prohibiting the government to achieve its healthcare-related goals. Because of corrupt government staffs, many of the healthcare policies are witnessing failure, and people are not getting the basic amenities. The conflict between self-interest and the interest of the people is very common among top bureaucrats, and for that reason, the corruption is taking place.

International conflicts and geopolitics have a huge role in the poor performance of healthcare schemes. Because of the rising geopolitics, the government must allocate a huge amount of fund in order to maintain its economic ties, and for that reason, it is unable to allocate proper fund for the growth and development of the nation. The public welfare schemes often considered as the unproductive scheme, and that is why the rising geopolitics is a hindrance for the success of these schemes.

Factors Impacting Healthcare

Different social factors are influencing healthcare schemes on a day to day basis. Social factors like poverty, drug addiction, human trafficking, racism, are affecting the public welfare schemes.

One the most prominent side effect of poverty is increasing crime rate into the society and drug addiction. Because poverty people need to find other sources of earning, and during this time the crime rate into society gets increased. Poverty is the primary cause of depression which gives birth to other social problems like drug addiction, human trafficking, and sex trade. These factors increase the scope of STD and other critical health issues which cause a burden on the existing government

Lack of education is also a by-product of poverty, and this is also an important factor which is affecting the healthcare schemes. Uneducated people are not aware of their basic needs, and they consider health care as an unnecessary expense. That is why, most of the population don’t get enough health care especially the women, and for that reason, the new-born infants are also becoming malnourished which is also creating a huge burden on the government. Malnourished infants increase the burden on the government, and the government needs to introduce more healthcare schemes in order to provide basic health care to its people.

Role of the professionals

In the healthcare related schemes, the professionals play the role of the driving factors. In the healthcare industry, the medical staffs and the bureaucrats play a huge role, and ethics need to be introduced at every level of the work. As the US government emphasize the centralization of power and bureaucratic system of governance, that is why the government structure is very rigid and it is known for its slow speed as well. The centralization of power also causes another problem, which is also known as a conflict between self-interest and the conflict between the interactions of the common people. Because of the huge power distribution gap, the bureaucrats often face this conflict which is increasing the scope of corruption and promoting unethical behaviour among top bureaucrats. This is making the speed of the welfare schemes more sluggish and the government needs to introduce ethical behaviour and a basic sense of ethics in order to eliminate the scope of corruption and unethical behaviour.

Recommendations

Critically analyzing and evaluating the distinctive challenges persisting within the healthcare sector in the US it is essential on the part of the government as well as the private hospitals and clinics to consider the ways all issues and challenges can be overcome. Thus, the following recommendations can be elaborated to deal with different challenges.

•        It is the significant role of the government to choose in between two significant duties i.e. universal healthcare coverage or protect the public financial resources. Based on the choice the government can enable in saving adequate finances.

•        With the increasing demand in quality of healthcare services, the government of US must emphasise in reducing the fees and prices. This role must also be considered by healthcare providers as it would help in providing healthcare support to people who are poor and cannot afford high expenditure on healthcare services

•        The hospitals and hospitalists must also embrace the transparency and encourage the metrics attribution for making quick improvements and foster the goal alignment. It is essential to advocate the widespread transparency for the various costs of products, tests, manpower and supplies. This needs to be done openly and freely with the patients for engaging the in-value discussions.

•        Lastly and most importantly emphasis must be provided to increase the quality of healthcare along with cost because the cost of healthcare services has skyrocketed over the past few years. This needs to be checked despite emphasis being given on emerging trends like technology and health informatics.

Conclusion        

By critically evaluating the key factors related to the US healthcare sector, it can be stated that it is quite essential to overcome the challenges. The various challenges have become a major drawback for the US healthcare sector which has already made negative impacts. For overcoming the issues and challenges, the government along with the hospitalists must work together by which the efficiency and effectiveness can be matched. As stated that the US healthcare system has been plagued with huge costs, the decline in quality and incomplete coverage reforms needs to be implemented o overcome the failures and shape the US healthcare sector future.

 

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