Increment in the cost of health is a growing issue in the United States and across the world. The US health care system faces significant challenges of quality and cost. The problem of rising health costs is affecting over 46 million Americans who pay medical services through insurance due to increasing premiums and million others who pay out-of-pocket. The US government has come up with medical reforms to ensure every American has access to medical insurance and quality care at an affordable price. Although the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been implemented in the US, the cost of medical services is still high due to high premiums. The quality of healthcare is also questionable due to low life expectancy. Americans do not receive the quality healthcare they deserve despite the high cost spent on medical services. There is an underutilization of preventive care leading to higher spending on complex diseases like cancer, chronic diseases, diabetes, and heart diseases. The paper will address the effects of cost and the issues associated with accessing quality care and the impact of technology in improving the quality of healthcare.
In the US, the cost of healthcare based on per capita spending approximated to be 50% to 200% higher than in any other developed country. Despite the high cost of health, research conducted by Burke & Ryan (2014) shows that the US is number 26 worldwide in life expectancy and shows poor reports on other indicators of quality health care. The cost of health in the US is rising every year due to high insurance premiums, copays, high deductibles, and other out-of-pocket. According to Dieleman et al. (2016), the spending on American healthcare rose almost to one trillion dollars between 1996 and 2015. The cost is expected to rise to nearly six trillion by 2017 if the government fails to take adequate measures. Most of the health care cost is spent on hospital care, physician services, the net cost of insurance, drug prescription, nursing care facilities, clinical services, and house health care.
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An increase in population is associated with the high cost of healthcare in the US. Other factors contributing to the high cost include an increase in the number of aged people that require care service and disease prevalence. Over the past years, the cost of medical utilization has been rising. According to Burke & Ryan (2014), service price and intensity like the cost of pharmaceutical drugs which has been increased by over 50 percent. Also, varied health conditions and types of care contribute to the rising cost of health services in the US. Since 1970, the cost of healthcare in the US has been rising. Since 1970, the population of America has grown significantly, with a population of aged people expanding. Research conducted by Dieleman et al. (2016) shows that cases of chronic disease have been rising, leading to an increase in the cost of healthcare. The research shows that out of 64.4 billion dollars increase, 44.4 billion dollars resulted from the cost of diabetes. The cost of ambulatory care has increased as the number of outpatients, and emergency services rise every day. Research shows that the annual cost of outpatients rose from $381.5 billion to $706.4 billion, while that of emergency rose by 6.4% (Dieleman et al., 2016). The cost of health insurance premiums has also been on the rise. The government needs to come up with better policies to reduce the cost of health care. Another way to solve the issue of increased cost in healthcare is to provide more information on lifestyle to reduce cases of chronic disease and diabetes. Most of these diseases increasing cost are preventable through offering adequate information and goof lifestyle.
Today, improvement in technology has affected the quality and cost of delivering health care services. The quality of healthcare has improved significantly since the adoption of health information technology (HIT). According to Agha (2014), innovation in HIT has led to an improvement in the quality of healthcare and the ease of delivering care services. The adoption of electronic medical records (EMR) and clinical decision support (CDS) has made it easy to keep health records in computerized databases hence providing timely reminders and the essential information to the clinicians. Ten years ago, doctors relied on manual record-keeping, which led to the loss of data. Also, many losses occurred due to medical errors. Today, advancements in technology have reduced many medical errors. Although improvement in technology results in quality health care services, it is believed to be the driver of increasing healthcare costs in the US. Since the adoption of HIT in US healthcare, the cost has risen due to the million dollars spent on IT applications. There is a need to control the cost of delivering healthcare and at the same time, maintain quality.
Defining the quality of healthcare is challenging due to different understandings of quality on patients and clinicians. In healthcare, quality is defined as "uniquely intangible, variable and inseparable characteristics” (Thimbleby, 2013). Patients relate the quality of care based on the satisfaction and outcome of treatments. The cost of quality of healthcare is measured by the price paid to the hospital and does not take into consideration the society, families, and other agencies. In the future, as technology advances, the quality of healthcare will improve, and the cost is expected to reduce. Technology has changed healthcare dramatically in all sectors like anesthesia, antibiotics, radiography, and magnetic resonance imaging scanners Thimbleby, 2013). Technology has driven the quality of healthcare more than any other factor, and it is expected in the future, more development will occur. Policymakers and the health care institutions should focus on ensuring technology trends and improvement concentrate on quality service for all patients at a reduced cost.
References
Agha, L. (2014). The effects of health information technology on the costs and quality of medical care. Journal of health economics , 34 , 19-30.
Burke, L. A., & Ryan, A. M. (2014). The complex relationship between cost and quality in US health care. AMA Journal of Ethics , 16 (2), 124-130.
Dieleman, J. L., Baral, R., Birger, M., Bui, A. L., Bulchis, A., Chapin, A., ... & Lavado, R. (2016). US spending on personal health care and public health, 1996-2013. Jama , 316 (24), 2627-2646.
Thimbleby, H. (2013). Technology and the future of healthcare. Journal of public health research , 2 (3).
