NATIONAL HEALTHCARE ISSUE 1

The national healthcare issue which I will address in this discussion is the rising cost of health care. Health care cost has continued to rise and it has become a major problem to healthcare organizations through their service provision. According to the studies which have been conducted, the health care cost in America has increased with almost a trillion dollar from 1996. The main purpose of this discussion is to discuss how the rising cost of health care has affected by work setting and how the issue can be managed.

The cost of healthcare can increase through the process of increased concerns in health in order to live a life which is healthy for the American citizen as well as a more active lifestyle. Various research has indicated that the cost of the healthcare as well spending rise in rates which exceed inflation. The rising cost has been predicted to increase in the future. According to healthcare providers, there are some factors which drive the rising healthcare cost. For instance, in my work setting at a healthcare organization, some of the major factors which cause high cost of medical services include an aging population which has benefited from the medical technology that gives a chance to individuals to live a longer life. Population growth, as well as disease prevalence, are also associated with the increased cost of pharmaceutical drugs. These factors affect the ways health care services are delivered to the patient in an organization because some factors may include the varied type of care as well as health care conditions which are expensive (Pittman & Scully-Russ, 2016).

As a result of increased healthcare cost, various changes have been implemented because the rising cost of healthcare is a big concern through the process of proving care coverage for American citizens. One of the changes which have been implemented is the development of better health policies which are able to provide insurance cover for the American low-income employees. At the same time, research is being conducted in to look for funding, grants as well as contributors in order to assist them to come up with various programs and implement processes that can reduce the cost of care in a health organization (Marshall, 2010).

Through the process of implementation of the Affordable Care Act, there are bold measures which the health systems should be able to take in order to reorganize the process of care delivery. In order to accomplish this, the organization has realized that it should implement major changes in how the healthcare workforce is organized. Managing chronic illnesses is a way in which the rising of health can be dealt with. The chronic diseases rate in America is much higher than many other nations and it also represents a big driver of health care costs. The effects of obesity, diabetes, as well as heart problems, continue to affect the cost health care system. Through the process of expansion of the affordable treatment programs as well as improving the medication adherence, the healthcare organization in America play its role in the reduction health care cost.

Research has indicated that most of the families in America face hard financial times in order to access healthcare services. Through the pharmacies, retail clinics as well as in patients’ homes, a health care organization can be able to provide low-cost and high-quality health care. For instance, Minute Clinics provide a lower cost of health care as compared to emergency rooms in a hospital. Through research as well as my work setting, other major contributors of the rising health care cost in America is largely characterized by new types of technologies as well as prescription of drugs to patients (Gerardi et al., 2018).

References

Gerardi, T., Farmer, P., & Hoffman, B. (2018). Moving closer to the 2020 BSN-prepared workforce goal. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 118(2), 43-45.

Marshall, E. S. (2010). Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader. Springer Publishing Company.

Pittman, P., & Scully-Russ, E. (2016). Workforce planning and development in times of delivery system transformation. Human resources for health, 14(1), 56.