Government Sponsored Health Care Programs



Government Sponsored Health Care Programs

Introduction

Government provides funds to health care institutions to initiate certain programs that contribute to the betterment of healthcare system. Its primary aim is to cover the cost of health care requirements and basic necessities. Government maintains a separate public fund for this regard in form of a non profit trust that must comply with the set standards and legislations implemented by designated members of the body. These authoritative bodies can be government itself or some agency of government. All the doctors, nurses, and other medical staff do not charge from patients directly for services offered in government health care setting, instead their payment is reimbursed by the government. The main difference between government sponsored programs and healthcare insurance companies is that these insurance company make profits by providing healthcare services and benefits to insurers. An example of a government health care program or setting in USA can be of Medicare, which was founded in 1965. Medicare offers health insurance to old aged people specifically the ones, that are above 65 age and are coping with disabilities (Corrigan. J. M. & Smith. B. M., 2002).

Major Issues pertaining to Government Sponsored Health Care Programs

Some of the major issues faced by government in arrangements and organizations of funded health care services are discussed below.

Healthcare Expenditures

As technology and science has been advancing day by day, so as it affects the healthcare services and medications. It has advanced the medical systems and treatments thus added into the total cost and expenditures associated to it. This has become a constant issue for both public and private healthcare settings. However these changes has ultimately improved the lives of patients and decreased sickness and death rates effectively.

The federal government and state is playing an active role in allocating more and more funds to government healthcare program and affecting private insurance institutions. As per report, the extreme expenditures in this field have become a burden to government and it has resulted into yearly deficits of more than $1 trillion. In addition, these higher costs are striking private industry heavily. According to USA healthcare plan, one dollar out of every five dollar spent would be contributed t health care settings in USA by 2020. It is the highest most contributed proportion amongst all industrialized nations in the world. According to statistics, public funds estimated to be 47% of total $2.34 trillion healthcare expenditure budget in 2008. This proportion has increased by 50% in 2011 (Landers. P., 2010).

In addition, it has been discovered that the programs of healthcare for elders, disable, and Poor people in Medicare and Medicaid has largely increased the overall costs of healthcare system. The costs have immensely increased on nursing in healthcare programs due to increasing number of elders and old aged people. The total expenditure on healthcare by government has been 8.4% to the GDP of USA in 2009 (Landers. P., 2010).

Various Types of Public Healthcare settings

It has been observed, that many developed countries provide a full ...