Evolving Issues in Health Care

Evolving Issues in Health Care

Currently, the market is adopting value-based purchasing on a condition that there is a fee-for-service reimbursement. The biggest challenge is how to get ready for the future while developing an adverse economic situation in the short term. Concerning the current rollout on affordable healthcare policy and state payers, commercial payers are still the strongholds of the market momentum. Yet, again they are all shifting to a value-based payment plan. This model or strategy is the most significant economic challenge in the healthcare system today (Patel et al. 2013). Many healthcare companies are developing systems and infrastructure to handle the value-based payment model. However, the biggest concern is whether the cost of producing these systems, training, and infrastructure will support the fee-for-service delivery reimbursement plan. If not, the healthcare system will collapse financially and get affected by their service delivery. When the value-based payment model is implemented, the healthcare systems have to face reality and consider the limits of their local economy. That is also another challenge.

Comparing healthcare spending per capita to other nations is complicated because each country has a different political system, economic system, and social attributes that affect its spending. Health spending directly relates to the country’s wealth. The United State spends about 6 percent of its total GDP on healthcare as compared to other countries which spend 5 percent (Ridic&Ridic, 2012). Currently, the united states consume 17 percent of its GDP on healthcare, followed by Switzerland that consumes 12 percent. The United Kingdom spends 11 percent on healthcare. The difference is that most of the other countries invest most in the private healthcare sector as compared to the United States. Canada has a healthcare system called Medicare. Canada serves as a good comparison and a contrast in the structure and healthcare systems. .

Reference:

Patel, V., Belkin, G. S., Chockalingam, A., Cooper, J., Saxena, S., &Unützer, J. (2013). Grand challenges: integrating mental health services into priority health care platforms. PloS Medicine, 10(5).

Ridic, G., Gleason, S., &Ridic, O. (2012). Comparisons of health care systems in the United States, Germany, and Canada. Material socio-medical, 24(2), 112.