Part 1
The American media has, for a long time, documented both the advantages and the disadvantages of the healthcare system of the US. Various researchers have also contributed to the discussion by evaluating the merits and demerits of the healthcare systems in other countries of the world. Some of the countries that researchers have compared the American healthcare system to are the Brazilian healthcare system and South African healthcare system. Brazil is one of the countries that has strived to beat all odds in the provision of healthcare and ended up emerging among the top countries in healthcare provision in South America. With one of the best healthcare systems and infrastructure in Africa, South Africa has faced numerous changes in its political landscape that have tampered with the provision of adequate healthcare for the communities living in the country.
One of the advantages that the American healthcare system has over both Brazil and South Africa, from a third-party payer's perspective, is the presence of Medicare. Medicare is a nationwide healthcare insurance plan that features the medical care funding for the individuals who are over 65 years old. In the US, Medicare offers is offered under the public healthcare system, which, therefore, increases the access of the elderly patients to healthcare, from an administrator's point of view. The third-party payers of healthcare, such as the insurance companies in the US, have an added advantage as they invest less money in the medical care for the aged as opposed to the medical insurers in both South Africa and Brazil (Weissman et al., 2018). In South Africa, however, 79% of the people who are 65 years old and above were covered by pension plans to provide some form of insurance for their medical purposes (Lloyd-Sherlock & Agrawal, 2014)., Weissman et al. (2018) reveal that the number of Americans aged 65 and above covered by Medicare in the last decade has increased. Medicare makes it more accessible to US citizens than South Africa's pension plans for the older adults. For the administrators and the third-party payers in the US, wider coverage by the Medicare program for adults aged 65 and above means that healthcare is getting even more affordable for the US citizens, and this has been one of the objectives of the previous and current governments. On the other hand, Brazil lacks a public system of insurance for the aged who are left to have their private insurance, which raises costs for the medical insurers, as Cuevas, Karpowicz, Mulas-Granados, and Soto (2017) report.
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The other advantage that the healthcare system in the US has over both Brazil and South Africa is the Medicaid program. Aside from Medicare, the Medicaid plan offers government-funded healthcare for US citizens who are on low incomes. Medicaid is available for all ages and applies to the public system health category in America (Finkelstein, Hendren & Luttmer, 2019). From the administrator's perspective, the presence of Medicaid increases the affordability of healthcare for the communities belonging to lower socioeconomic classes, which could be considered as a solution to the problem of lack of affordability of medical care in the US. From the perspective of the third-party payer, the Medicaid system in public health reduces the costs incurred by the insurers to help patients from low-income communities pay for their healthcare. According to Wiysonge et al. (2017), South Africa is currently considering investing into the development of microinsurance plans that cater to the coverage of the low-income communities. Nonetheless, the absence of coverage, presently, indicates that the country has not yet proven ready to cover the low-income communities in the public health system. The presence of Medicaid in the US, therefore, counts as a strength to the healthcare system in the country, especially after the country has continuously received critical acclaim that healthcare is unaffordable to the low-income communities. Massuda et al. (2018) explain that despite Brazil moving towards the achievement of a universal healthcare system, the country has still failed to provide insurance coverage that caters to low-income communities.
The other advantage of the American healthcare system is that it provides veterans with benefits. The government provides funds, which cover the healthcare needs military veterans. For the administrators, the coverage of the military veterans is an advantage as the coverage has increased the number of military veterans visiting the government-run hospitals and provided services for them free or at a subsidized cost. From the perspective of the third-party payers, the presence of the military veterans' insurance cover increases the number of individuals who are under medical insurance. The increase in the number of insured Americans becomes more of a perquisite with the payment of fewer insurance premiums to the military veterans visiting the American government-run healthcare institutions (Zelaya & Nugent, 2018). Conversely, South Africa has also developed an insurance program for military veterans, which allows them to seek medical care services in the government-run healthcare institutions for free (SA News, 2013). In October 2013, about 4800 medical cards were issued to the South African military veterans to enable them to access medical care free. Compared to the insurance plan for the veterans, South Africa is still lagging, which is an advantage that the US has over the South African healthcare system. Compared to the United States of America's military veteran insurance program, Brazil offers its insurance in the form of discounts that seek to subsidize the cost of medical care for the individuals (Kassraie, 2019). Thus, the US still offers better insurance options for its military veterans than both Brazil and South Africa.
The other advantage that the US healthcare system has over both South Africa and Brazil is the presence modern infrastructure. According to Markel (2017), the US treasury has developed initiatives to better the infrastructure of the US hospitals where it has been deemed outdated or even inadequate. The efforts have increased the number of patients that the facilities can handle at a go and thus bettering the provision of healthcare within the country. On the other hand, Anest et al. (2016) report that the healthcare infrastructure in South Africa has been faced with various challenges that reduce its efficiency to offer services to the country's citizens. However, South Africa is redefining the role of emergency medical services in Cape Town. Similarly, Brazil is currently experiencing the infrastructure problem, as evidenced by a comparative study involving Brazil, Algeria, and France hospitals, as Scherer et al. (2018) report.
Part 2
One of the largest nonprofit healthcare institutions in the united states of America Is Amnesty International. Amnesty International provides a wide array of services to the individuals in and out of the US, especially in the cases involving sexual harassment and abuse of human rights, and the conditions associated with such incidents among people (Amnesty International, 2020). Amnesty International also deals with cases of discrimination that bar people from accessing their basic needs, such as healthcare across the US. The organization extends its services to Americans by advocating for their sexual and reproductive rights in a bid to develop a healthy society for the people and the coming generations (Amnesty International, 2020). The organization also educates the Americans regarding their healthcare rights and how they can be fulfilled. Amnesty International serves the clientele who are most affected by the listed issues and extends their services to refugees and asylum seekers who are in the US from the other countries in the world (Amnesty International, 2020). As the primary provider of donations, Amnesty International works with the United Nations and welcomes donations from the other organizations and individuals across the United States of America and from the other countries.
One of the most expansive for-profit healthcare organizations in the United States of America is the Edinburg Regional Medical Center headquartered in Edinburg, Texas (South Texas Health System, 2020). The organization provides its patients with services related to urology, cardiology, dialysis, neurosurgery, general surgery, among others. Furthermore, Edinburg Regional Medical Center offers its patients level IV trauma services, which comprises of treatments to the patients who have been exposed to traumatic conditions. The hospital sets different costs for the various healthcare services offered to the patients (South Texas Health System, 2020). The hospital has a 102 beds capacity. Edinburg Regional Medical Center records 785 births and 49110 ER visits. The institution seeks to reduce the time taken per patient to cover the ER visit. The organization also incorporates the use of Electronic Health Records (EHR), which utilizes the evidence-based practice for primary caregivers (South Texas Health System, 2020). The leading provider of financial resources for Edinburg Regional Medical Center is the patients through the payments they make for the various healthcare services they receive.
One of the strengths of Amnesty International in the healthcare industry of the US is the availability of a funding source through donations. The strength cuts across the various stakeholders of the medical sector in the country. The patients benefit from the donation sources by having their services provided free, thus saving them costs. The reduction in the costs of running the insurance companies is also dependent on the availability of the donation source, which becomes a strength on the part of the third-party payers. For the providers and organization's administration, the availability of the many donation sources reduces the pressure of running Amnesty International. One of the weaknesses of the organization is public scrutiny, which discourages the various stakeholders from partaking in the healthcare operations. Public scrutiny may discourage patients from seeking services from Amnesty International if the organization is faced with bad publicity. Public scrutiny may also force the administrators to release information on budgets, which is sensitive to the company and counts as a weakness. On the side of the third party payers, negative publicity of Amnesty International discourages them from offering benefits to the patients.
One of the strengths of Edinburg Regional Medical Center as a for-profit organization is that the leaders of the business have more mandate than those in the for-profit organizations due to their ability to control the investment options of the hospitals. The strength of the institution weighs in on the patients in that they can customize their service provision at the institutions. Administrators can manage the institution better as the financial managers budget for the activities of the organization. The third-party payers leverage on the strength by forming a rapport with the leaders of the institution to serve the consumers better. The major weakness of Edinburg Regional Medical Center as a for-profit organization is the payment of taxes and operating costs from its profits. That reduces the amount of money that is available for the hospital profits to expand. For the patients, the costs of seeking medical services are inflated, which also negatively influences the third-party payers as well. Typically, the administrators are also affected as the pressure to make the institutions more profitable accumulates.
One of the solutions to the pitfalls in the not-for-profit institutions is the establishment of public relations to fix the publicity issues that affect Amnesty International (Powers, 2019). The solution will attract the various stakeholders in taking part in the healthcare provision activities in America. The other solution to the challenges faced is the investment in marketing and promotions to encourage communities to seek healthcare with the organizations. According to Powers (2019), such an undertaking will reduce the challenges of negative publicity associated with the organization.
One of the solutions that will fix the challenges encountered in the for-profit organizations is the accurate budgeting for the available resources to reduce a strain on the patients and third-party payers to keep the healthcare organizations afloat (Pham & Vu, 2019). The healthcare organizations under the for-profit category ought to make use of financial managers that take care of their budgeting needs. According to Pham and Vu (2019), the healthcare institutions such as Edinburg Regional Medical Center can take part in different investment activities in and out of the medical sector to make the additional cash that can be used in the taking care of patients with the various healthcare needs in the united states of America. That will reduce the pressure exerted on the patients and the third-party payers to take care of the medical bills while spending amounts that sufficiently take care of the hospital's medical care needs.
Based on the above analysis, I would rather be part of the for-profit healthcare organizations rather than the nonprofit institutions. Among the strengths of the former are that there are investment options that are available to raise the amount of money needed to cater to the operational costs, unlike the latter. Additionally, one of the solutions that have been given to address the significant weakness facing for-profit organizations is to invest in accurate budgeting to solve the financial woes affecting them. Therefore, the for-profit healthcare organizations offer individual flexibility in investing.
References
Amnesty International. (2020). Who We Are. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org/en/who-we-are/
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Cuevas, M. A., Karpowicz, M. I., Mulas-Granados, M. C., & Soto, M. (2017). Fiscal challenges of population aging in Brazil . International Monetary Fund.
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Kassraie, A. (2019, November 11). Discounts, Deals for Veterans Available All Year Long. Retrieved from https://www.aarp.org/home-family/voices/veterans/info-2019/military-families-discounts-deals.html
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