Healthcare Spending Paper

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Forecasting Future Economic Needs

The future economic needs of the United States healthcare system can be forecasted upon events and numbers recorded in past years. The healthcare system centers itself around the goal of decreasing healthcare costs while offering a substantial amount of care in a more efficient way (Schoen, Guterman, Zezza, & Abrams, 2013). This economic need is of importance especially when considering the United States is spending two times more per capita on healthcare and providing treatment to patients. On top of spending more on health care than receiving, the United States is also using about 50% more of the GDP before it even leaves the country than comparable nations (Schoen, Guterman, Zezza, & Abrams, 2013).

It is very important that the economic needs pertaining to stabilizing and lowering healthcare costs be addressed. Properly addressing the need to balance spending and profits within healthcare can potentially save the United States from the immense amount of debt, as well as free up billions of dollars that can be used for other economic needs (Schoen, Guterman, Zezza, & Abrams, 2013). If the anticipated economic issue continues to develop without being properly addressed, the nation’s healthcare could be sent into a downward spiral.

Financing an entire nation and the healthcare policies that flow throughout the country can be challenging. An issue can be talked about over and over but nothing will ever change if there are no steps being taken. In order to minimize the projected economic needs, strategies must be created. One step that has been taken to decrease the sky-high cost of health care is the Obama Care plan. This plan provided a way for Americans from any financial standpoint have the ability to obtain health insurance. Another way to move past the economic dilemma is to break down each department and minimize the extra spending that builds up to raise overall costs. Eliminating extra testing and duplicate scans will save thousands of dollars which will in turn, lower healthcare costs while still providing exceptional care.

Conclusion

Health care spending has been in the spotlight for many years when it comes to national economic understanding. The United States spends outrageous amounts of money each year to bettering the health care system and ensuring citizens are able to receive the care they need. It is argued that the amount of money spent is too high and there need to be reductions. The question there lies: to what area would spending be cut to fit a budget? Understanding who is financing the care and what that looks like in the daily lives of patients, physicians, and third party payers will paint a complete picture of how financing and services are filtered around the system. It is important to anticipate economic issues in the future and work towards mending the problems before they become a setback in the national system. Health care economics acts as a vast array of information housed into one category, but the attention to details must not be lost. Every bit of information right down to the cost of a single bandage, all the way to the amount spent yearly on staff wages in a hospital must be carefully considered when budgeting.

Reference

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