Healthcare Prices
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Introduction
The cost of health care varies from one nation to another, but generally, it is usually high, and that is why nearly all countries have adopted the strategy of insurance. In this paper, the US will be used to illustrate how costly it is to get healthcare services. In America, both market and non-market factors have an impact on the prices, and they also explain why health care services are higher compared to other countries. Research shows that the costs in the US are one-third higher than in other countries (Himmeistein, 2020). Other factors that make it expensive to get healthcare services are; administrative costs being higher, higher rates for the same services, increased use of healthcare, per-capita income being high, and the government not intervening. Despite the annual inflation rate in healthcare declining, nothing much has changed since it is still above the rate of economic growth, and people end up spending much of their income on healthcare.
This topic is of interest to me because there are many people who have lost their lives due to a lack of treatment for their diseases. For some of them, it is not that the illnesses they had were untreatable; it’s just that they did not have the finances needed to get treatment (Osawa et al., 2020). Some countries have devised various methods of ensuring that in case one has an emergency, lack of liquid cash will not prevent them from getting help. The most common strategy utilized is the use of health insurance.
Even in America, health insurance is normally provided by several public and private sources. The healthcare market is very different from other markers meant for consumer services. This is because, in this case, the clients who are the patients are not able to comparison shop for medical services and the service providers also fail to disclose the prices before (Osawa et al., 2020). The insurance programs that belong to the government also affect the American health care market pricing. The only time that the patients in America have access to information about pricing is after being treated and have received all the services they needed from the hospital. Research shows that the percentage of the number of visitors that had access to information is twenty-five percent. This has led to a problem that people commonly refer to as surprise medical bills. This implies that most of the time, the clients will receive large bills for service long after they get the help they need.
In the US, most people do not pay directly for medical bills since they have insurance. One of the responsibilities of the insurance companies is to negotiate the pricing of healthcare services on behalf of the people they have insured. It is easy for hospitals to disclose their fees to insurance companies and other institutional payers than directly to the patients. People who are not insured are supposed to pay directly, but there is a reduction of price-based competition due to their lack of access to pricing information. The citizens need to know that there are some associations such as AMA that support a fair valuation (Zhu et al., 2020). There are also sources that make it possible for consumers to compare the prices of different physicians. Some associations and politicians have tried to encourage hospitals to disclose their fees. AMA sponsors have done this by sponsoring a private group of physicians that determine how physician labor is determined (Zhu et al., 2020). Newt, a house speaker, also encouraged transparency in the prices of medical services. Disclosure of these prices will lead to cost reduction, and it will make the healthcare services to be affordable.
I have professional experience with this topic. Sometimes patients who are not employed come to the hospital, but they go back home without getting full treatment because the funds they have are not usually enough for them to be served fully. The employed people are usually lucky in a way because their employers normally insure them. However, the challenge might be when they need to see a specialist. In the US, for one to see the latter, they must be referred to them by their primary provider. After the letter has been written, it is normally forwarded to the insurance company so that it can cater to the expenses. When the clients are not patient enough, they might have to go back to their pockets in order to be served.
The articles that I have used to get this information are credible and relevant. First, they are among the most recent articles. The information in the articles is true, and they also have citations and links to any additional information that is therein. The content of the articles is very accurate, and it relates to the topic I have chosen.
To conclude, increased cost for health care services is a major problem that people are facing. When the prices are high, some people, such as those who are not employed, may not be able to access all the services that they need. This is because they cannot afford to pay for insurance. Hospitals also make it difficult for people to know the costs of health services. People get to know the charges of the services they receive after being treated.
References
Himmelstein, D. U., Campbell, T., & Woolhandler, S. (2020). Health care administrative costs in the United States and Canada, 2017. Annals of internal medicine, 172(2), 134-142.
Osawa, I., Goto, T., Yamamoto, Y., & Tsugawa, Y. (2020). Machine-learning-based prediction models for high-need high-cost patients using nationwide clinical and claims data. NPJ digital medicine, 3(1), 1-9.
Zhu, J. M., Hua, L. M., & Polsky, D. (2020). Private equity acquisitions of physician medical groups across specialties, 2013-2016. JAMA, 323(7), 663-665.