HEALTH CARE NEEDS

Risks Arising From Failure of Appropriate

Assessment of Health Care Needs



Risks Arising From Failure of Appropriate

Assessment of Health Care Needs

Introduction

The health care system has elicited much debate in recent times, particularly in the United States. Specifically, efforts to increase coverage have not addressed the inadequate reimbursement rates for physicians, which have sparked many contemptuous debates. The most controversial aspect of the health care bill seems to be the unprecedented mandate for all Americans to purchase health insurance. Within this mandate lies the “minimum essential coverage”, this coverage is either purchased by the government, employer or the individual (Davis 2007).

The health care is defined as a government system that provides for the basic health care needs of a specific population in a given political entity. In such a system, the primary care physician acts as a “gatekeeper” responsible for making decisions regarding primary care and referrals. In addition, all population should have guaranteed access to hospitalization and prescription medicine (Cornelius et al. 2001).

Description and Analysis

Politicians and the public alike have had sharply divided opinions of the Affordable Care Act since its enactment in 2010. Opponents of the health reform law have argued that low levels of public support reflect general opposition to an expanded role for government in the US healthcare system. Proponents have argued that declining levels of support for the law reflect increasing public displeasure with the protracted and divisive political debate, and they have claimed that individual policies within the law remain popular.

Understanding the public's views on the role of government in healthcare at a level deeper than the face value of the most recent poll can play a role in the future success of health reform. This is particularly true because of the highly charged political atmosphere and the divided government- with new congressional leadership after the 2010 elections- in which new regulations and programs are being implemented. There are other cases where high-life expectancies are achieved with low spending on health care. The scatter graph (below) shows the relation between per-capita health care expenditure and average life expectancy for 2000. Countries with higher spending generally have longer life expectancy rates, but there are also many countries that perform nearly as well with much lower spending (Berk et al. 2005).

A rich body of scholarship has analyzed US public opinion about health reform, especially since President Bill Clinton's failed initiative in the 1990s. In this study we took advantage of the unprecedented high level of polling that occurred around the recent health reform debate to examine contemporary opinion. By aggregating results across multiple similar polling questions and exploiting the variations in how questions were asked, we were able to probe the foundations of public opinion in a deeper way than any individual poll could do (Altman, 2010).

During the health reform debate, polling organizations using differently worded questions found differences in public support for the same policy. Indeed, research in survey methodology demonstrates that even small variations in the wording of questions can have effects on public ...