With healthcare consuming approximately $.3.4 trillion dollars annually, 18 percent of the national economy, the United States healthcare is the costliest in the world. Concerns have been raised about the cost-quality relationship of the U.S health care system, with numerous claim of the quality of U.S healthcare being ineffective and inadequate despite the huge health expenditure. Funding for hospitals in the U.S includes Medicare and Medicaid, local tax revenues, federal tax revenues, grants, insurance companies and out-of-pocket payments made by patients. Striking a balance when it comes to finances is crucial in attaining profitability for the hospitals while meeting their goals and missions (Almberg, 2016) .
In a mental health hospital, funding bears certain differences from the general medical services. The largest percentage of funding comes from public sources, amounting to 61 percent of the expenditures (Almberg, 2016) . Medicaid, a program supported by the federal government, is the largest financing source in mental health hospitals, with its eligibility rules favoring many U.S citizens. State Medicaid programs cover an array of mental heal services including acute, long-term and preventive care under the rehabilitative optional benefit. Similarly important to financing in a mental health hospital is Medicare, albeit to a lesser extent than Medicaid (Garfield, 2011) .
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Private insurance is also another source of financing in a mental health hospital. While a majority of Americans have private insurance cover, their mental health benefits have limits, therefore financing only about a quarter of the cost of mental healthcare (Garfield, 2011) . Charitable and philanthropic sources, despite historically funding mental health hospitals for long, only account for about four percent of the financing. They are mostly targeted at innovative programs. A crucial source of financing for a mental hospital is also out-of-pocket payments by patients. Out-of-pocket payments include co-payments for services rendered by insurance and for services not covered by insurance policies. Out-of-pocket payments also include all services provided to patients with no insurance cover and account for about 11 percent of financing for a mental hospital (Garfield, 2011) .
References
Almberg, M. (2016). Government funds nearly two-thirds of U.S. health care costs: American Journal of Public Health study . Retrieved April 28, 2018, from PNHP: http://www.pnhp.org/news/2016/january/government-funds-nearly-two-thirds-of-us-health-care-costs-american-journal-of-pub
Garfield, R. L. (2011). Mental Health Financing in the United States. Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.
