Health Care Economics
There is no doubt that balancing healthcare cost with healthcare quality became one of the most topical problems discussed in society. People generally consider cost of healthcare services to be unbearably high and the quality of services- relatively low. On the whole, healthcare institutions are characterized by high costs of running business. Unfortunately, providing medical services is not cheap for hospitals. Hence, its is logical for medical providers of all kinds to establish a special system of fees allowing them to cover all the expenses and make a living. As a result, patients have to pay significant amounts of money for services and/or insurance.
Besides, it is challenging for healthcare institutions to maintain a high quality of services under the condition of rising costs, increased patient volume and nature of particular long- term costs (Raible, 2011). Experts advise different ways of managing the situation and finding solutions allowing to achieve balance of healthcare cost and quality. There were elaborated concrete priorities, aims and goals addressing the issue which were presented as a National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care (National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care, 2011). It is often considered that the necessary balance can be established if “cost and quality data on health care providers” would be “available to consumers via the Internet” and new laws would enable “consumers to have incentive to shop wisely for health care, i. e. a high deductible” (Lass, 2008, p.1). On the whole, it is crucial to elaborate a complex of effective measures which should be introduced by the government in order to change the situation and guarantee a high quality of healthcare services at a relatively low cost. It is highly important to make healthcare services affordable and, at the same time, satisfactory and safe.
References
Lass, S. (2008). “Health Care Cost and Quality.” Web. 9 Sept. 2012. Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://showcase.netins.net/web/stanlass/healthcare.html" http://showcase.netins.net/web/stanlass/healthcare.html
National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care. (2011). “Report to Congress: National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care.” Web. 9 Sept. 2012. Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/reports/quality03212011a.html" http://www.healthcare.gov/law/resources/reports/quality03212011a.html
Raible, E. (2008). “Solutions for health care challenges must balance quality care, access, finances.” Web. 9 Sept. 2012. Retrieved from HYPERLINK "http://www.healio.com/cardiology/news/print/cardiology-today/{AF5AE0F9- 2304-4194-8AE5-6D307AC86135}/Solutions-for-health-care-challenges-must-b alance-quality-care-access-finances" http://www.healio.com/cardiology/news/print/cardiology-today/%7BAF5AE0F9 -2304-4194-8AE5-6D307AC86135%7D/Solutions-for-health-care-challenges-mus t-balance-quality-care-access-finances
HEALTH CARE ECONOMICS PAGE …