Health Care System Reforms Student’s Name Institution’s Name Date

Impact of Risks and Uncertainties to the Healthcare stakeholders The risks and uncertainties related with healthcare cost and spending increases results to: Reduced employers’ desire to provide fully medical insurance cover to all their employees Insurances companies limits their insurance to healthy people denying cover for individuals with chronic illness, disabled and elderly Employees get partial coverage and thus they have to use their earning to cater for a better part of their expenses Unemployed hardly have insurance or any money set aside for their healthcare. High government spending on medical care increases business taxation to fund the hospitals despite poor quality and unsafe services (Rodwin, 2003). The risks and uncertainties related with healthcare cost and spending increases employers desire to provide fully medical insurance cover to all their employees especially those in lower ranks and hence with lower earnings Insurance companies only insure those that have a low chance of being in any medical complication unless it happens by accident and not those who may constantly need that money due to their poor health or elderly age Unemployed are normally supported by the government where they receive a certain amount of monthly allowance. This include health and thus, any medical immergency does not guarantee extra funds or free medical survices due to unemployment state

Problems With the Current Healthcare System The current healthcare system in America has a number of problems that include: High long-term health-care cost especially for individuals suffering from chronic conditions High general healthcare cost but with minimal returns Diverse medical services delivery based on one socioeconomic status Poor Patient safety Low health care quality and wellness Economic devastation to the healthcare systems stakeholders This problems have resulted to increase in: Increase in the rate of readmission Unnecessary increase in the healthcare services cost Increase in new infection and injuries inpatient services Lower trust for public care services by the public Constant increase in the country’s healthcare expenditures (Answer to Healthcare, 2010) Americans uses much more per dollar spending and obtains very little in the return Although the country is very rich, it is the only country among other rich countries that does not offer universal healthcare insurance coverage to its citizens America also has a huge number of under-insured citizens The quality and safety of care is not standardized and it is believed that low cost matches lower quality and thus, public hospitals are highly disregarded

Proposed Solution The proposed solution include: Establishment of an universal health insurance for the entire population without any form of discrimination Standardizing the operations of all public and private health institutions to enhance quality of care and safety Strategized supervision of all healthcare facilities in the country to ensure safety and quality of services Increase in the level of medics accountability to enhance efficiency and great health treatment outcome Equal funding to all equal level hospitals in the country but provision of incentives based on the performance to encourage quality performance Universal health insurance have been used in a number of developed nations and have played a great role in ensuring good health in the nation such that the countries still use a lower percentage of their GDP on health as compared to the US that still use more in healthcare but acquire less. Standardized operations in both public and private hospitals is a technique employed in France to ensure equal and standard care for all despite of their social status Improvement in healthcare safety and quality by proper supervision, standardization of operations in all healthcare facilities, and funding based on merit will push healthcare facilities in enhancing their quality of care

Universal Health Insurance This will be a socialized health insurance arrangements that will provide health coverage to all American citizen It will be funded by the government and administered on territorial basis within the federal government guidelines. Based on the system Individual citizens will be offered preventive care as well as medical treatment that include dental surgery primary care and hospitals access and extra medical services but with exception of a few All citizen will be qualified for this despite of their living standard, personal income or medical history (Canadian Health Care, 2007). Provision of universal health insurance will ensure equality in the provision of medical care without discriminating based on one medical condition, age, financial status among others Government funding ensure that there is enough to ensure primary care and other important healthcare provision and that quality is maintained to achieve the best care for the citizens Territorial coordination ensure that all facilities in the surrounding have been funded and that right procedures were followed to ensure no corruption or profit earned from government provided money Basic care for all lowers cases of medical advancement and poor health among all and thus increasing their life expectance while reducing mortality rate

Private and Public Hospital Standardization This will involve setting policies and standards to be adhered to by all health organizations in the country This will include improving the operation standards of all public hospitals in the country Setting minimum standards for all healthcare facilities operating in the country Defining medical personnel that will be handling medical cases at different levels of advancement Defining the medical facilities to be required at different healthcare operation level to ensure equality Standardizing medical services cost even in private hospitals Normally, private hospitals are considered to be more equipped and well developed as compared to public hospitals. Private hospitals offer quality of care to retain their customers and for their profitability. Thus, they offer improved services at high cost. This implies that only those that can afford can acquire good services in the country. Standardization will pull the quality and operations of public hospitals up and pull the cost of quality operations in private hospitals down making it easy for all to acquire quality care.

Strategized Supervision Supervision plays an essential role in enhancing the quality of care in a healthcare organization. Supervision will be made by the government officials to all hospitals on quarterly basis to ensure right operation standards are maintained Improvements will be prescribed by the supervisors and duration set to attain these improvements Supervision will check on individual qualification and their level of operation Quality of care provided by checking on the rate of readmission, death over minor illnesses, hospital infections and injuries in inpatient, and emergency department average waiting time Evaluation of the medical facilities available to establish the facility ability to maintain safety and quality to the patients Most healthcare facilities in the country give less attention to the quality of care and safety. Others do consider them but lack the ability to maintain the required standards to achieve them. Supervision will ensure that all medical facilities work to achieve the required level of quality and safety by employing qualified personnel, by purchasing relevant facilities for their services and by employing evidence based care methods to reduce infections, injuries, and delays in their operations

Increasing Accountability The US government should ensure that accountability is one of the main culture of healthcare organization Accountability should be enhanced in the entire healthcare system It should start from the regional level where cash disbursement is done to all healthcare organization for all citizens insurance Effective implementation of this money should be assured in every facility through budgeting and expenditure documentation Healthcare management in each institution should also demonstrate accountability in their form of governance Accountability should be propagated to the lower level of operation to ensure that medics are responsible for their actions and decisions regarding patients health (O’Haganm & Persaud, 2009). Accountability involves the processes and procedures in which individuals justify and take liability for their activities for instance for attaining different goals of an organization. In this case accountability will be applied into two levels which include taking responsibility of money provided by the government to be managed by individuals for the governance and management part, and also taking responsibility for the patients which is doctors and other medics responsibilities.

Equal Funding The operation of any healthcare organization depends highly on the amount of funds the organization can get Equal funding for organization in the same level of operation will assist in equalizing services provided in these organizations Government will develop strategies to use to determine the amount of money to be provided to healthcare organization of each category to ensure quality care This money will be disbursed at the same time Organization will be restricted on how to use these funds Strict monitoring will be enforced to ensure effective utilization of funds (Kawaguchi, 2012). The government will take the responsibility of funding all healthcare organization including private ones to ensure equal care and quality of care in all healthcare facilities at affordable cost or for free based on the level of care. This will equalize efforts and operations in healthcare organizations. Effective governance and management of these funds will results to effective operations in the healthcare system in the country

Impact of the Provided Reforms Provision of universal healthcare insurance cover will reduce the cost of healthcare to all despite of their financial ability, health condition, social status or ages. This will eliminate the current high healthcare cost to all Operations standardizations in both public and private healthcare will reduce careless treatment that results to advancement of medical condition increasing long-term healthcare cost Strategies supervision improves efficiency and care quality reducing of advance conditions as a result of poor treatment. This increases care quality, wellness and reduces cost of lengthy healthcare

Impact of the Proposed Reforms Increasing accountability ensures effective application of finances to ensure efficiency in the provision of healthcare Accountability also assist in lowering cases of malpractices among doctors and other medics and thus, lowering the chances for health conditions advancements General accountability ensures a high level of responsibility reducing cases of injuries, unsafe medical procedures and carelessness All this increases the quality of care, safety and wellness. It also reduces wastage, misappropriation of funds and enhance general efficiency in the use of healthcare resources This generally reduces the cost of care for both short term and long term treatment.

References Answerstohealthcare. (2007). Solving the American health care crisis. Retrieved from http://www.answerstohealthcare.com/articles/american-healthcare Canadian Health Care. (2007). Retrieved from <http://www.canadian-healthcare.org/> Kawaguchi, H. (2012). Unique mixtures of public and private funding in Japan- The ban on billing for mixed medical care service. Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance, Japan, Public Policy Review, 8(2), 145-170 O’Haganm, J., & Persaud, D. (2009). Creating a culture of accountability in health care. The Healthcare Manager, 28(2), 124-133. Rodwin, V. G. (2003). The Health Care System Under French National Health Insurance: Lessons for Health Reform in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 93(1), 31-37.