GSBS6380 Health Economics And Finance

Question: With coinciding concerns about health care costs and the imperative to improve quality of care, health care providers and others face difficult decisions in the effort to achieve an appropriate balance. Such decisions often are addressed in the policy arena. How do policymakers evaluate which health care services should be financed through government programs? How do ethics-related questions and other considerations play into this evaluation process? Is it possible to contain costs and provide accessible, high-quality care to all, or is the tension between cost and care inherent in the U.S. health care delivery system? These questions are central to health care financing decisions in the United States. For this Discussion, you will focus on the policy decision-making process that determines what types of care are covered by public and private insurers and the ethical aspects of such financial decisions. Answer: Introduction: World Health Organization acknowledges that better healthcare is essential for human health and well-being. For a country to optimize the productivity of its citizens and increase gross domestic product, it should ensure that its citizens have access to good health care. This need and desire to respect human rights, The United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which many countries are entreaties asserts that everyone has the right to health (Assembly, 2018). In the United States of America, most of the medical expenses are born by private sector even though the government program covers elderly people via Medicare, low-income earners via Medicaid while military veterans are given state insurance via Veteran’s Administration. In this paper, I will discuss economic and ethical issues that have been raised in the United States of America concerning the financing health care policies by the government and guidelines on risks that can be covered by private medical insurers and the impacts of this on individual’s access to healthcare services Healthcare policies covered by the public and private sector are Medicare, Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act and the American Health Care Act which is a review of the Affordable Care Act. Medicaid is a free medical insurance program low-income earners, children, pregnant women, seniors and people living with disabilities. It is collaboratively financed by the federal government and states. According to Kaiser Health News, Medicaid faces the following challenges: as a consequent of the Supreme Court’s ruling that it is not mandatory for states to participate in Medicaid expansion (Rau, 2012). Medicaid allocation takes a good portion of state budgets thereby forcing states to lower payments to doctors in order to avoid deficits. Medicare is a federal health insurance program for people aged sixty-five, young people with disabilities and people with end-stage renal disease. It is funded through payroll taxes paid by employees, employers and people who are self-employed (Murray, 2000). Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010.Many Americans became eligible for Medicaid. The program was based on the humanitarian need for good health for everyone in the USA rather than costs involved to meet such costs. Significant declarations made in the Affordable Care Act are (i) Insurers were prohibited from declining to cover individuals with a long history of illness (ii) Insurers were to cover essential health services (iii) Insurers were to charge the same premiums for everyone American Health Care Act was made to repeal some declarations made in the affordable care act. Its major focus was reducing government expenditure on health, as a result, many are expected not to be covered secure medical covers due to higher costs. Central keys issues to this program are that the Medicaid program would have budget cuts, taxes imposed on rich to subsidize insurance covers for low-income earners would be abolished. It will not be mandatory for one to have health cover hence many are likely to uninsured particularly the poor. The aged people are going to be disadvantaged since they will have to pay high premiums to take medical cover. To sum up, cutting down expenditure on health is less advantageous. World Bank maintains that providing universal health care “provides secure and prosperous economic future.” Most of the issues addressed under Trumpcare make the poor and the aged people vulnerable since the policy takes into consideration financial issues ignoring humanitarian matters and which is totally unethical. The American government should aim at ensuring that everyone has an insurance medical cover rather than reversing the trend. Reference Assembly, U. G. (2018). Universal declaration of human rights. UN General Assembly. Murray, L. A. (2000). MCBS Highlights: Racial and Ethnic Differences Among Medicare Beneficiaries. Health care financing review, 21(4), 1. Rau, J. (2012). Medicare to penalize 2,217 hospitals for excess readmissions. Kaiser Health News, 13.)

GSBS6380 Health Economics And Finance

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