Us Health Care Spending

The United States is certainly a world leader in many aspects of spending, particularly in the provision of basic services that enhance the quality of human life. The foundations of the country’s national spending are hinged on the economic realization that a vibrant socioeconomic and political capacity can only be enhanced with the appropriate public spending. In light of the magnitude of the spending that can sustain the US as a leading power in provision of excellent services to its citizenry, a close relationship and partnership has been facilitated between private and public health service programs. An integrated system has led to provision of health insurance system that facilitates healthcare provision across all healthcare institutions. It therefore follows that over 85 per cent of the population is targeted by such a health system which spends an average of 2 trillion US dollars on a government’s annual expenditure plan. This translates to an element of over 15 per cent of the federal government, with projected figures for the year 2011 expected to be hit the 18 percent mark (Chantrill, 2011). This makes the healthcare provision spending as one of the largest that a single nations has over its population. However, inherent challenges rank the US among a few Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries that lack comprehensive universal health coverage measures (Johnson, 2010).

The basic question of the healthcare spending plan is not on whether the spending is too much or not enough for the country, but on the balance of health priority issues factored in the spending. According to the Online Nurse Practitioner Programs (2010), a huge proportion of the money spent in healthcare spending in the US is used in administrative costs. It is argued that instead of the spending to concentrate on more important healthcare issues such as medication, research and treatment, disproportionate spending in administration of healthcare provision affects the efficiency of the industry. There are countries that perform better than the US with much less spending, even with weaker economies. One of the reasons that can be attributable to this observation is imbalance in healthcare professional careers that has attracted disparity in salary demands.

The nation must therefore redirect spending from indirect spending elements such as administration, to more direct spending such as research and development of public healthcare system. Perhaps the best improvement that can be introduced is control of the competitiveness of the healthcare industry through health coverage policy reforms (Johnson, 2010). According to the author, improving in technological aspects of the industry can perhaps introduce the much needed cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

The public healthcare needs are met by the public and private sectors in a partnership that facilitates insurance coverage of employees and the entire population. This public-private healthcare system has facilitated the spending that characterizes the US healthcare sector but loopholes have been identified in the system. Over 50 per cent of the spending is met by private insurance programs under employment while government spending caters for slightly over a quarter of the expenditure.

The future economic needs of the health care system will be determined by the preparedness of the government to cater for the uninsured population, since health insurance has evolved to fit in the provision of healthcare. Besides, reductions in indirect costs of healthcare provision will be the determinant of how effective the healthcare service industry will be. It will be necessary for healthcare reform to be enshrined in the legal framework that the country has, opening a challenge for the national politics in determining the course of reforms. Without the proper formulation of healthcare management policies, the healthcare expenditure can be projected to increase over the coming several years (Johnson, 2010). Creation of a competitive healthcare plan that captures requirements of economic and international forums regulations such as OECD, future difficulties are expected to be tougher. Employee and professional remuneration issues will require a different approach to handle the ever rising remuneration aspects.

Without promptly addressing these issues, there will be an imbalance in the manner in which economic performance projections will be affected by uncontrollable rises in major expenditure. Since economic performance is determined by the sustainability of the economy amid certain elements of expenditure, it will be important that adverse impact of public spending are avoided in condition economic growth.

To finance these interventions, it is only by a matter of policy dedication on an analysis of costs and benefits. Investing in professional sustainability of the entire program, the US government will be working towards elimination of unnecessary costs. Legal structure will bear little cost element to the economy when compared to current costs occasioned by unsupportive legal provision. Technological facilitation of the healthcare sector will also bear long term solution elements that reduce long term swelling of healthcare costs and spending.

References

Chantrill, C. (2011) “US Healthcare Spending,” Retrieved from: HYPERLINK “http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_health_care_spending_10.html” http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_health_care_spending_10.html

Johnson, T. (2010) “Healthcare Costs and US Competitiveness,” Retrieved from: HYPERLINK “http://www.cfr.org/health-science-and-technology/healthcare-costs-us-competitiveness/p13325” http://www.cfr.org/health-science-and-technology/healthcare-costs-us-competitiveness/p13325

Online Nurse Practitioner Programs (2010) “US Healthcare Spending,” Retrieved from: HYPERLINK “http://onlinenursepractitionerprograms.com/2010/u-s-healthcare-spending/” http://onlinenursepractitionerprograms.com/2010/u-s-healthcare-spending/