Healthcare Reform

Healthcare reform in United States

Introduction

The US political debates have focused on resolving conflicts over Healthcare Reforms. Budgetary limitations have spurred a debate over the financing issues of the Health Care Reforms. The debate on the financing issues of Health care Reforms has also gained attention in the United Kingdom. The recent changes in healthcare policies of the US can be considered as one of the primary factors, which have created concerns among the British healthcare professionals. At present, the British healthcare system (the National Health Service program) provides healthcare services to its senior citizens but the budgetary issues are causing limitations to the effectiveness of the program. After 50 years of the launch of this program, it faces similar changes as the US healthcare system is facing. The main issues in health care reforms are about quality, cost and the management of the implementing these reforms.

United States Health plan for change

The United States Health Plan, the local Medicaid managed care plan, has been a catalyst for health insurance expansions and quality improvement in United States's healthcare safety net. One early example was the creation of the Healthy Workers program. Healthy Workers provides health insurance for workers who provide In-Home Supportive Services to nursing home-eligible Medicaid beneficiaries. The United States Department of Public Health uses local government funds to provide 60% of the cost of these workers' insurance through the United States Health Plan, with the remaining 40% coming from federal matching funds as a part of the cost of providing Medicaid-sponsored In-Home Supportive Services. The provider group for this insurance is limited to the public providers in the United States Department of Public Health's Community Health Network, including those at United States General Hospitals. Therefore, the program provides health insurance to a previously uninsured group and brings millions of US dollars a year to support United States General Hospitals and its affiliated clinics. This strategy of expanding access to care in concert with strengthening the resources of the healthcare safety net informed the approach that is now being used in a subsequent citywide project, Healthy United States, which is described herein.

Healthcare Reform

Health reform - Current health reform is characterized by a business paradigm in which health is a market good, patients are customers, and market-like mechanisms, managerial principles, and strategies are used. Health reform includes: recent government statements regarding the goals and principles of health reform changes to ...