Health Care Issues in the United States

Introduction to Health Service Administration- HSA 500

In today’s society, we experience numerous health issues as U.S. citizens. It is quoted that the United States is one of the unhealthiest country in the world.

Explain how health is affected by behaviors, economics, and social structure.

Health and illness are not just typical events. Health behavior covers a wide range of diverse kinds of activities that are observed at the individual level of analysis.

Health behavior, explicitly, consists of those behaviors that people engage in while in good health. These behaviors occur to maintain good health and prevent diseases.

Illness behavior occurs when people notice the symptoms of illness in themselves and others.

Sick-role behavior occurs when people have consulted a healthcare professional, received a diagnosis, and begun a course of treatment.

Impaired-role behavior occurs when an acute episode of illness turns to a chronic course, and the person has to adjust to a more permanent condition.

But health behavior goes beyond the behavior of individual consumers, and includes the interpersonal, social and cultural levels of analysis.

The behaviors of significant others, family members, friends, employers, and co-workers is also relevant to what the individual does to maintain health and treat disease.

The behavior of healthcare providers is also relevant, both with respect to their interactions with patients and their interactions with each other, both within and between professions.

And so are the organizations in which healthcare transactions occur. Hospitals and clinics, professional societies, regulatory agencies, and insurance carriers all play an active role in determining what healthcare services are provided, to whom, for how long, how treatment will be evaluated, and who will pay the bill.

As its very name suggests, the Institute is especially interested in studying various stakeholders in the healthcare system relate to each other, and how the behavior of each stakeholder is affected by the presence and activities of the others.

Social- It affects it enormously, trouble is it is being deliberately structured to keep those at the lower end of the social scale firmly in their place.