POLITICS / POLICIES IN HEALTHCARE

Politics and Policies in Healthcare

Politics and Policies in Healthcare

Introduction

United Sates is facing serious healthcare cost issues, more than 15% of the American population lack health insurance. The per capita expenditure over healthcare is twice as much as the expenditure of other counties. Over the past 30 year, healthcare expenditure is rising as much as 3% faster than the economy, there has been an ever increasing fraction of healthcare in the gross domestic product. Funds collected as taxes are used by the government to pay healthcare expenditures. Poor cost effectiveness of healthcare in the country results in diminishing the availability of public and private funds to be used in technology, education, infrastructure and various other valuable associations.

Discussion

Although the spending, on care of end-stage renal disease, (ESRD) represents a portion of overall healthcare expenditure in the United States. The country has one of the highest rates of incidence in ESRD, in the world, and so the overall expenditure per patient. The current incidence rate of ESRD care accounts for more than 400 per million. The average age of patients entering treatment for ESRD is 65 years, which is the largest growing subgroup of patients entering dialysis care. This increased incidence of ESRD attributes to the increased prevalence of kidney diseases because of diabetes. Over the past 30 years, there has been a drastic increase in the county of ESRD patients, in comparison with the prevalence if chronic kidney disease (CKD) or the risk of renal failure. The contributing factor in this regards is the progressive liberalization of the criteria for dialysis initiation or transplantation. The prevalence and incidence of ESRD does not constitute the overall cost the care. The elderly patients, who have considerable Co morbid conditions the chronic dialysis is far less cost-effective. Something has to be done to reduce the cost of the treatment or reaching economies of scales, disparate efforts made, either to reduce the cost of ESRD or to take preventive measures to reduce the number of patients.

However, the most effective strategy of limiting the need of ESRD and improving the overall health outcome is to reduce the rate of incidence. The current healthcare does not provide universal insurance coverage for early stage management of the disease and primary care. Healthcare insurance provide funds for transplantation and dialysis, which involves a huge amount of money. If the insurance policy provides ...