Health Policy Analysis

Health Policy Analysis

Introduction

It is a natural phenomenon that every individual in the world, regardless of their nationality or geographical positioning, desire to get the best quality of healthcare for themselves and their families (Quadagno, 2005; Malhotra, 2009). The healthcare delivery system in the United States has been under tremendous scrutiny over the course of history, mainly for its lack of proper delivery and inefficiency in providing the best quality of healthcare services to its citizens (Andersen et al., 2011). Moreover, considering the stark reality that the United States spends more money on healthcare that any other nation in the world, it is obvious that it has largely failed at fulfilling its promise of delivering the best healthcare services to its citizens (Malhotra, 2009). According to the National Scorecard on the Health systems Performance of the United States for the year 2008, US healthcare falls considerably short of the level that can be achieved by the nation (Andersen et al., 2011; Niles, 2011). In addition to this, the quality of the healthcare services provided by the healthcare institutions is also variable to a considerable degree while the opportunities to work towards the prevention of mortality, disease, hospitalization and disability are missed on a routine basis. It can not be denied that there is a pressing need to revive the US healthcare system (Andersen et al., 2011).

Discussion

The National Scorecard update for the year 2008 strongly suggests how the United States continues to perform at a suboptimal level when compared with the defined benchmarks and parameters for healthcar. For example, the exhibits are at a consensus when discussing the rising expenditure related to healthcare, citing how the United States is losing the battle when it comes to efficient delivery of high quality healthcare services to its citizens (Jonas et al., 2007). For example, when judged against 37 indicators that determine the efficiency of the healthcare system, the United States is able to manage a disappointing score of only 65 of 100. When compared with benchmarks and national averages for optimal performance, it is clear that the US healthcare system is underperforming (Niles, 2011; (Davidson, 2010)). In terms of judging the performance of the US healthcare system, the following exhibits covered by the National Scorecard are most essential:

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 2 of the National Scorecard on US Health performance plays an important role in the analysis of US healthcare. This is because the scorecard highlights the fours key aspects that determine the efficiency of the healthcare system - quality of healthcare, healthy lives, efficiency of the system, and access to healthcare services (The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, 2008). This makes Exhibit 2 an important part of the US healthcare policy. For example, according to Exhibit 2 of the National Scorecard on US Health performance for the year 2008, general mortality rate in the United States was 110 against a benchmark of 69 while infant mortality rate was 6.8 against the defined benchmark of ...