Assignment
Your Name (First M. Last)
School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)
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Should healthcare be operated as a business?
According to Yates, pediatricians deal with providing medical care to infants, children, and adolescents and mostly they deal with patients up 21 years old. There comes a great responsibility on pediatricians ethically as well as fiducially that they have to take care of the pediatric patients and their families as well who are going to bear all the expenses of treatment while providing appropriate medical care, Pediatricians must think about the available resources of the patients. In the present scenario, it has been seen that the pediatricians try to save patients when it comes to the cost and care. Many measures such as bulk ordering has been used many a time by using piggy-back that assists pediatricians when they order any equipment or vaccine. One of the most important things that has been seen is that pediatricians try to save money by using direct shipping from the manufacturers as it would help in saving the cost that would go to the supplier otherwise (Yates, et,al,2012). In today's world, as everyone is concerned with their benefits; likewise most of the pediatricians are concerned with vaccine cost margin that they are going to put in their pockets. Another problem that most of the pediatricians face is that vaccination seems expensive to most of the parents and they refuse to vaccinate their children when they are born. Vaccination starts before the baby and mother leave hospital and process of vaccination continue for many years. So the pediatricians have to make such policies that would make the parents understand, the importance of vaccine when parents first visit the hospital and pediatrician patients should be vaccinated so that not only patients but the whole community could be protected. We live in a community where at different stages different patients are being recommended with different vaccinations.
Best thing that the pediatricians could do for keeping a balance between cost and care is that they have to ignore their personal benefit for some time. For providing healthcare services to the patients, pediatricians should voluntarily promote making of certain health care insurance organizations, and for doing so, mostly pediatricians agree to follow the recommendations of the organizations that try to facilitate both patients and pediatricians. This bounds the pediatricians to give proper care to the community. Every new vaccine should be used for the patients by keeping in view its effectiveness. Cost becomes the real issue when it comes to the effectiveness of a medical product, as each product would have some specific uses and applications. When there is a clear indication of usefulness and medical benefit of a product, economic discrimination becomes inappropriate ethically. Pediatricians are not allowed to have any personal gain when they have to decide about the fiduciary care of their patients. So without being concerned about the cost of the care, every pediatrician should give best and appropriate care by keeping in consideration the interests of patients, families, and community.
According to Kessels, policy makers of healthcare field are mainly concerned with ways how payments in this field would be made and what new ways should be devised for making payments for the healthcare services. By taking a look at the issue of cost and care, many countries have shifted their attention for reforming the ways and making reforms in the system of healthcare payments so that they could limit costs and could incorporate positive changes in the clinical outcomes. While doing so, there is mainly one issue and that is, very limited knowledge about how the professional stakeholders trade, off the merits and cast effects on the healthcare payment system (Kessels,et,al,2015). For finding the best possible solution for this issue, physicians, policymakers, healthcare executives and researchers gathered at a conference.
Many proposals and suggestions were given for making positive reforms in the payment system of healthcare. In most of the countries, the policymakers are trying their best to strengthen long term sustainability of the care, given by medical professionals by making reforms in systems of payment. Things like pay for performance, shared savings, and bundled payments, are included in the new incentive structure that is looked upon for replacing the payment system.
According to Donnelly, one should always learn some lesson from the failures of others and should learn from their mistakes. In this article, the author is spotting a light on the failure of the health policy that was made in the period of Clinton and the new administration led by Obama, is trying to learn from the mistakes that Clinton and his administration made for making better healthcare plan for the general public (Donnelly,et,al,2012). Many flaws and mistakes have been observed in Clinton's health policy, but one of the most important things that made this policy to collapse was that Clinton’s administration was more focused on the fashioning of ideal policy and it underestimated an effective strategy for selling the products. When Obama entered the White House, he aimed to prove that he won't repeat history and would give a better health policy. For avoiding the costly defeat, outcomes of Clinton’s policy were mixed up with the best suggestions of the experts while making the new health policy for the general public.
According to Kennedy, most of the subgroups of people are at the risk of cost-related nonadherence and this fact cannot be denied that because of the cost of the treatment people are unable to afford a treatment. It has been seen that the healthcare cost from 1991 to 2009 has greatly increased. By taking a look at the hustle of the patients, this fact cannot be denied that authorities have given the permission to the many centers like Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that they have to decide cost for the treatment of patients in hospitals. Physicians and nurses would be accountable to these two centers for any issues (Kennedy,et,al,2016). Not the independent providers or a single entity should be made responsible for costs and outcomes. According to many experts, it has been claimed that when any service is provided, it becomes a business as the provider is also a human who has to eat and have to buy types of equipment for treatment. This thing is a matter of great concern that patients should even think about the service providers and must think about them that no service can come at zero expense. As claimed, healthcare is a basic right and service providers must be regarded as humans also who are sacrificing a lot for earning a living through their profession.
There are various conceptions about this question, whether healthcare should be operated as a business or not. It has been seen that people who are mostly linked with this profession believes that it should be accepted as a business. Many people are of the view that healing is art while medicine is a profession, but healthcare is purely a business. Changes that took place from top to bottom, for the last few years, in the field of healthcare have proved painful many times. It has been witnessed that not only the patients but also hospitals, medical groups and individual provider of healthcare are dealing with severe business issues. Kennedy has spotted a light on the issue that most of the people failed for taking medication because they cannot afford it. Patients are unable to follow the recommendations that have been prescribed by the doctors because of the prohibited costs of medicine. It has been seen that most of the people are uninsured and the ones who are insured struggles to pay for the healthcare services that they needed.
Healthcare is of great importance in any society and there is an ongoing debate in the U.S about the reforms that have been done in the healthcare field that has worked as a fuel on the fire on the topic of increasing cost of medical facilities with poor quality of this medical assistance and facilities. This issue is spurring the interest of patients for medical traveling. According to Karuppan, one of the most important topics that grabbed the attention of healthcare providers and seekers is the medical traveling. Despite being a popular topic very little research has been done for understanding the hustle and concerns of the medical travelers. There is a question that comes to every individual's mind that is health care is the basic right of all humans, or it is a privilege that should be given only to the ones who could afford it? Nowadays the issue of healthcare cost is like hot button so the Affordable Care Act took the stance that healthcare is a basic human right and everyone should be provided with the health insurance.
There are always two sides or aspects of everything, and it is necessary to take into account both. First this thing should be taken into consideration that every human being deserves basic right of healthcare, but on the other hand, this thing should also be considered that doctors and nurses are the intelligent and hard-working professionals who provide their valuable services after long years of painstaking education and training (Karuppan,et,al,2011). It is justified that the medical staff should be rewarded for, but the conversion of the healthcare service in business is something that is causing a disturbance in the world.
It is quite understandable that fundamentally there is nothing wrong with the medical staff’s earning, it is also their right to get a reward for which they are putting all their efforts. It has been seen that not only doctors and nurses but the pharmacists are also the iconic figures of America who wants to earn from healthcare profession. Many practical implications have been provided by many researchers and analysts that how cost and care could go in harmony as it is the right of everyone human to get healthcare, but healthcare providers also need something in return. From a few last years, the private providers of healthcare and other businesses responded towards the actual need of the patient along with the intention of earning optimize percentage. It has generally been seen that when a certain medical care service is provided by an independent provider, it becomes quite costly. In the case of large and public healthcare providers mostly services are provided at low costs and these institutions are driven with the intention that they have to minimize patient's suffering and tensions as community needs comes at the top priority.
Statement:
First of all, it is important to know who is a medical traveler. A medical traveler is a person who flies to a foreign country for seeking medical help at the lowest rates than being provided by his local providers. It is rightly said that health is wealth, and no one can guaranty that he/she is going to be fit and fine all the time, so in any case when there would be a need for me to seek medical help of any foreign provider who would be giving me the same quality of treatment at significantly low cost than my local care providers I would surely try to get the foreign treatment. In the U.S there are three types of medical travelers such as uninsured or underinsured individuals, individuals who need any transplantation and individuals who need cosmetic surgery. Being a patient, I would first search which countries are providing treatment for the medical issues that I may have and then I would compare the expense how much I would be charged. After comparing the cost of treatment, I would be more interested in becoming a medical tourist who would like to fly to the outbound location if quality provided by my local providers would not significantly differ from the treatment that a foreigner medical provider would offer me. I have seen that medical tourism has become popular for the last few years and still medical traveling is getting immense popularity. There has been seen many insurance companies as well that are providing health coverage for traveling to various countries, thinking of medical service as a goodwill gesture and a kind act of welfare, many insurance companies and countries are focusing more on the topic of medical tourism.
I want to grab this opportunity of medical traveling if I would be getting the same kind of treatment without compromising the quality and effectiveness of the treatment at low cost than what is being offered in my country at comparatively expensive rates. I would be considering this thing that many other countries and insurance organizations are trying to help those who are in extreme need of a particular treatment, but because of their financial issues, they are unable to get that treatment done in their own country. For the sake of my health, I would love to take advantage of the opportunity that is coming into the limelight for the past few years. I am living in America and it is notorious for providing expensive medical care. Everyone nowadays is getting more attracted towards foreign medical services; likewise I would love to save myself from any debt as I may take any loan for getting an appropriate treatment in my country so for saving myself from psychological pressure and saving some money that I may save by traveling to any country I would prefer to be a medical traveler. Another major reason why I would choose to fly to another country would be for promoting medical traveling as people are not quite sure whether they should go for it or not, so for having experience and letting others know whether they should be the medical traveler or not, one must be the medical traveler so why not I.
References:
Yates, Jr, F. D. (2012). How Does the Doctor Decide between Cost and Care?. Ethics & Medicine, 28(1), 7.
Kessels, R., Van Herck, P., Dancet, E., Annemans, L., & Sermeus, W. (2015). How to reform western care payment systems according to physicians, policy makers, healthcare executives and researchers: a discrete choice experiment. BMC health services research, 15(1), 191.
Donnelly, K. P., & Rochefort, D. A. (2012). The lessons of “lesson drawing”: How the Obama administration attempted to learn from failure of the Clinton health plan. Journal of Policy History, 24(2), 184-223.
Kennedy, J., & Wood, E. G. (2016). Medication costs and adherence of treatment before and after the Affordable Care Act: 1999–2015. American journal of public health, 106(10), 1804-1807.
Karuppan, C. M., & Karuppan, M. (2011). Who are the medical travelers and what do they want?: a qualitative study. Health marketing quarterly, 28(2), 116-132.
