Costs & Healthcare Delivery System

Costs & Healthcare Delivery System Research shows that the cost of healthcare in the U.S is on the rise. Statistics have concluded that based on the current trends, the healthcare system will require $17 trillion by the year 2030 to sustain its functions. For a long time, discussions have been held surrounding the runaway costs of healthcare. The hospitals and other stakeholders like policymakers, who are usually engaged in these discussions, often do so to look for ways through which the costs of healthcare may be reduced while still retaining efficient and quality healthcare. In this paper, there will be a discussion of what is meant when people refer to the costs of healthcare and how these costs affect different populations when it comes to accessing healthcare.

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Costs of Healthcare Foremost, it is important to note that when different parties use this term, they are usually referring to different things. For example, whereas the politicians are usually referring to the budgetary allocations that are made at the state or federal level, hospital administrators are usually referring to the costs of the resources that will be employed in the provision of healthcare services (Brownlee, Colucci, & Walsh, 2012). Further still, when business leaders to refer to costs of healthcare, they often mean the costs of medical insurance (Brownlee et al., 2012).

Generally speaking. However, the costs of healthcare refer to the direct and indirect costs that are associated with an episode of care for a particular period of health coverage (e.g., a year of a health plan benefit).

Parsing these costs for better analysis, an example of testing a urine sample may be used.

For a patient’s urine sample to be tested, certain equipment will be put to use by the doctors and lab technicians. This equipment will have to have been purchased by the hospital, which should also have employed qualified personnel, who will be able to expertly use the equipment (Smith & Keckley, 2017). Furthermore, the building in which the patient is being attended to, the furniture that is being used and other support staff like the receptionist will also have to be present to facilitate the process of care giving. Lastly, the medicine that will be prescribed to the patient will have been procured and paid for by a pharmaceutical company.

When it comes to the contribution to the costs of healthcare, research has also shown that the rising costs of healthcare are not necessarily indicative of higher costs of healthcare services but rather, increased use of high technology and specialty services (Smith & Keckley, 2017). The use of expensive technology and services like high tech imaging and robotic surgeries, therefore, is one of the most significant causes of increased healthcare costs.

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How Costs of Healthcare Affect Different Populations It is important to note at the commencement of this segment that a small proportion of the total American population is responsible for a large chunk of the amount that is spent on healthcare. An illustration of this is found in the 2015 statistics, which indicate that 97% of the spending on health was done by only 50% of the population (Sawyer & Sroczynski, 2017).

Furthermore, it should also be noted that only a small fraction of the population accounts for most of the out-of-pocket spending on healthcare. In 2015, 1% of the population accounted for nearly one fifth of all the out-of-pocket spending.

Whereas the discussion about spending on healthcare usually presents an average sum, spending varies among different members of the population. For example, the older population will generally require more frequent and more expensive healthcare services than the younger population (Sawyer & Sroczynski, 2017). This position is also true for people who are suffering from chronic illnesses when compared to those who are relatively healthy and who only have to deal with occasional and easily treatable ailments.

Further to the above, gender is also a factor that affects spending on healthcare. During childhood, there is little or no difference in the amount that is spent on the healthcare of boys and girls. However, during the ages within one’s 20s, 30s and 40s, women generally spend more on healthcare than men, presumably because of childbirth (Sawyer & Sroczynski, 2017). Also, the race is another factor that determines to spend in different populations. For instance, research shows that whites have a higher average health spending than any other ethnic group. In most age categories, the Asians and Hispanics have the lowest average spending.

Moreover, people who lack healthcare coverage all year round will generally spend less on healthcare than those who have medical covers (Sawyer & Sroczynski, 2017). Furthermore,

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people who have no insurance at all are more likely to opt out of medical care altogether. In addition to this, it may also be the case that people who are healthier will generally opt out of health insurance and by extension, out of spending on healthcare.

How Does this Affect Healthcare Delivery?

One of the straightforward ways in which the costs affect healthcare delivery is that due to the high costs of medical services, healthcare institutions may end up offering services, not based on the actual needs of the patients, but rather, based on whether or not the latter can afford particular services. Since healthcare delivery is about matching the requisite healthcare with the patient that needs it most, this situation may amount to a failure by healthcare institutions to discharge their mandates. In the end, the exorbitant costs of healthcare services make healthcare delivery ineffective and inaccurate. Furthermore, as it has been described above, only a small fragment of the population accounts for a large part of the spending that is done on healthcare.

This means that a large portion of the populations is either healthy or refrains from spending on healthcare because they cannot afford to. Both these situations warrant a closer look at the state of healthcare spending and whether or not it reflects appropriate healthcare provision.

Conclusion In summary, it is evident that the cost of healthcare refers to both direct and indirect ways in which monetary resources are spent in the provision of healthcare. At the onset of this paper, the various meanings that are ascribed to this term were discussed. However, the discussion also narrowed down on various factors that affect the costs of healthcare. Also, how the costs of healthcare affect different population groups were examined. It is apparent that the costs of healthcare directly affects the ability of different groups within the population to access the said

COSTS & HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEM healthcare as expounded above. Therefore, the issue of costs is of utmost importance, especially in the quest to increase access to healthcare and to make it more affordable.

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COSTS & HEALTHCARE DELIVERY SYSTEM References Brownlee, S., Colucci, J., & Walsh, T. (2012). What ‘health care costs’ really means. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/12/whathealth-care-costs-really-means/266522/ Sawyer, B., & Sroczynski, N. (2017). How do health expenditures vary across the population?

Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chartcollection/health-expenditures-vary-across-population/#item-start Smith, M., & Keckley, P. (2017, September 13). Total cost of care: Key considerations for hospitals and health systems. H&HN. Retrieved from https://www.hhnmag.com/articles/8528-total-cost-of-care-key-considerations-forhospitals-and-health-systems

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