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HEALTH CARE SECTOR
HEALTH CARE SECTOR
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Institution
Date
Healthcare sector is one of the widely appreciated sections of the economy across the whole world. It covers both the public and private sector of the society and comprise of mainly provision of services and prescription of drugs at a cost. It is therefore important that a comparison of the commercial aspects of the private and public healthcare provision is critically assessed. The private sector commercial practices involve different pricing policy from the public enterprises’ case (Kongstvedt, 2003). Consider the case of midwifery services which is one of the most sensitive services that determines the safe delivery for the mother and the newborn. The cost of accessing this service in private healthcare facilities are relatively different from public healthcare centers’ charges. The pricing policy of the private sector is based on marginal cost pricing in which any additional unit is equated to the amount of resources utilized. On the other hand, the government pricing is based on the social benefit principle. The private sector operates on a perfectly competitive market structure where the forces of demand and supply regulate the supply of services and the pricing. Midwifery is a high demand service since there is no option for expectant mothers and this has always been reflected from the high rate of birth related deaths in sub-Saharan Africa where women still lack such facilities (Wunderlich, National Research Council (U.S.) & National Academies Press (U.S.), 2010). In the private sector the demand curve can be explained using the diagram below
From the economic cost of production perspective, the price is equal to marginal cost which also represents the supply curve. It can be observed from research that increasing the charges is likely to reduce the number of people seeking medical care from the private sector as reflected by the slump in demand. It is also common to experience movement a long the demand curve as exhibited by market characteristics
A shift in the demand or supply curve in this sector and with particular focus to this kind of service can be explained by exploring many factors that surround healthcare sector. The greatest of all in this service is the increase in price. In the private sector, the marginal cost is equivalent to price and is always represented by a straight line. In that respect, an increase in cost of delivery will likely lock out many people and compel them to resort to public healthcare facilities which are relatively cheaper and this is what is reflected by the fall in number of expectant mothers (Botman, Porter & International Monetary Fund, 2008) .Another factor that will lead to a shift a long the demand curve is the quality of the delivery services. For instance, in private hospitals, the bed spaces and the post delivery nursing and free commuting to the clients homes. In the case of a fall in quality, people tend to divert to other places to seek medical care.
The public sector is relatively cheaper since the pricing policy is based on the social welfare of the society. Public goods are different from the private goods in many ways. The public goods including services are non- rival and non-excludable. For instance it is, public hospitals are open to any citizen at a relatively cheaper cost (Morris, Devlin & Parkin, 2007). On the other hand, people don’t need to compete for the public goods since every individual is entitled to the governments care. It has however been found out that the monopoly enjoyed by the public healthcare forces people to accept any charge albeit the relatively lower charges compared to private hospitals. The non-excludability of public healthcare providers has always lead to straining of the facilities like the bed spaces and other Medicare facilities.
In summary midwifery services are cheaper in the public sector than the private sector. The cost differential in the two sectors is as a result of submarket structures that surround health care sector.
References
Botman, D., Porter, N., & International Monetary Fund. (2008). The macroeconomic impact of healthcare financing alternatives: Reform options for Hong Kong SAR. Washington, D.C: International Monetary Fund.
Kongstvedt, P. R. (2003). Essentials of managed health care. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Morris, S., Devlin, N., & Parkin, D. (2007). Economic analysis in health care. Chichester [u.a.: Wiley. Wunderlich, G. S., National Research Council (U.S.)., & National Academies Press (U.S.). (2010). Improving health care cost projections for the Medicare population: Summary of a workshop. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press.
Unsung Heroes, Raymond
Unsung Heroes, Raymond
Raymond was not a popular kid in my neighborhood. In fact, few people paid attention to Raymond. He was that weird young boy that rarely spoke unless it is necessary, and did not pick up a fight with other boys. He, however, grew to become stronger than most of us. He would not give up on his dreams, and nothing would deter him from achieving his goals. Raymond and I became close friends, and he later became my mentor. There was no computer software he did not understand, and understood all the logical operations of any electronics device. He is not a genius he just does not give up on anything that interests him. We played with him computer games, and at the time, he would teach me how to operate weird computer programs. He told me that one could do anything they want by faith and little attitude.
He knew my interests in school and knew that there were times I would struggle. There was one day that I told him of the challenges that I was facing at school. I was not expecting sympathy, but neither yelling. He could not understand why I was giving up on my dreams because of a challenge. According to him, challenges are the things that keep people going. He said that we would study together, and he would assist me with my work. Despite my struggles continuing, I would find a way to excel, and soon challenges did not matter. I learnt that being brave is what made the strong men that I read about from history books. Not many people know this, but Raymond is my mentor, and it his advises that make me strong.
Health care reforms have been one of the divisive issues in the country
Health Care Reforms
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Professor
Course
Date
Health care reforms have been one of the divisive issues in the country. There has been numerous national debates and stalemates on the best ways to cure this ailing, yet so important, sector of the economy. Health care reforms have been characterized with political bickering between Congress and the White House. However, this notwithstanding, some reforms have been implemented that have hugely affected either directly or indirectly the public.
One of the major reforms in the health care sector has been the Affordable Health Care Act. This act becomes law after being approved by Congress and signed by the president. (Greenwald, 2010). The law seeks to strengthen Medicare, which supports older citizens who approximately 50 million of them, live with disabilities. The older citizens heavily depend on Medicare. The law seeks to make health care affordable to the citizens by cutting costs of health care by nearly $4,200 per person. In addition, the law recommends some services that are meant to prevent diseases be free to the senior citizens. Services like screening for diabetes, cancer and blood pressure will be free to the senior citizens; thus, improving tremendously health care services to the older citizens.
The health care law also seeks to lower the current high costs of prescription drugs to the older citizens. Older citizens cannot afford the prescribed drugs and as a result, they go without prescription. The Affordable Health Care Reform will as a result, offer discounts to these citizens especially, those with the highest costs of prescribed drugs. Moreover, this law will help in fighting some insurance companies who fraud taxpayers billions of dollars. The Affordable Health Care Reform aims to achieve this by establishing harsh penalties to those caught doing fraudulent deals in the health sector. According to Andersen, Rice & Kominski (2011), this reform offers strict screening procedures to the insurance firms in a bid to prevent fraud in the sector.
The law will hugely affect the lives of the citizens in all the states by improving the quality of health care and better coordination of health care in the country. The Affordable Health Care law establishes an innovation center for Medicare which functions, to develop a new health care structure that can be affordable and provides better health care to the citizens. This Medicaid Center has so far established16 health care models that are affordable for the Medicare beneficiaries throughout the country.
The Affordable health Care Law has some disadvantages too. According to the National Monitor, the implementation of this law will lead to a shortage of health care specialists by the year 2025. The rapidly aging population will increase the number of visitations to the health centers significantly straining the physicians and the health system. According to Greenwald (2010), this law will cause increases in drug costs because pharmaceutical companies will be incur extra costs in order to cover the gap of ‘donut hole’ patients. The drug costs will increase if these companies pass these costs to the consumers.
Another major change in the health care sector has been the Health Insurance Reform. These reforms have been designed to make health insurance more affordable to all the citizens. This act which was passed on health insurance, offers innovative policies to the citizens by offering health care insurance through the internet. This reform also provides citizens with a chance to purchase health care insurance that is offered in other states apart from the state a person is living in. This enables citizens to access affordable health care offered in other states as opposed to the previous situation where one could only access the health care plans of the state a person is living in.
However, the Health Insurance Reform will be difficult to successfully implement as it will require cooperation and coordination between states which at times, may be difficult to achieve. In addition, the health insurance reform may cause division between the private insurance companies and the government. So far many insurance companies have openly rejected this reform. According to Patel & Rushefsky (2006), these reforms have caused huge divisions in the public and across the political divide with the high class in society preferring their private insurance covers as opposed to government provided health insurance.
There have been reforms to provide proper medical care for children especially children from low-income families. Currently it is approximated that 6 million children do not have access to medical care according to Andersen, Rice & Kominski (2007). These reforms to provide care to children has ensured that children are enrolled in health care programs just like the adult citizens. The mental health reforms have ensured that those suffering from mental illness be taken care of the same way with other illnesses. These reforms have ensured that insurance providers offer mental health care in addition to other health care. These reforms have ensured that the emphasis is laid on mental illnesses the same way other illnesses are regarded because of the current huge number of people with mental problems approximated at around a million people nationwide.
Reforms on pediatric health have improved pediatric health of the citizens since the reforms became law. These reforms have increased funding in the sector to help improve pediatric treatment to children in addition to help in training pediatric specialists (Patel & Rushefsky, 2006). The Pediatrics Health Reform will increase health care to children with special needs as well as help eradicating chronic illnesses among children. These reforms will improve the number of pediatric specialists in the country.According to Greenwald(2010), Pediactric Health Reforms and the Mental Health Reforms have no major disadvantages unlike the Affordable Health Care and the Health Insurance Reforms.
References
Andersen, R, Rice, T. & Kominski, G. (2011) Changing the US Health Care System: Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Greenwald, H. (2010.). Health Care in the United States: Organization, Management and Policy. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Patel, K. & Rushefsky, M. (2006). Health Care Politics and Policy in America. New York, NY:
M.E. Sharpe, Inc.