Health Care In The United States: An Evolving System Article Review Examples

Article Analysis –

In the article of Thomas Conklin (2002), he discussed how the United States health services delivery system has evolved through time. At first, he has directed his attention to the factors that are driving the change in the system. There are a lot of situational and economic factors that drives the change aside from the cultural values and beliefs of the people. It is noted that the national health care expenditure of the United States is very large, amounting to billions of dollars. It the statistics about the national health care expenditures, the United States has the most expensive health services delivery system in the world. From the year of 1960’s to the year 2000, the health services expenditures has grown a lot. In comparison to the other sectors of the economy, the health care services have rapidly grown in the years. This rising cost on health care expenditures has urged the authorities to change the system.
Thomas Conklin has given three possible ways to change the health delivery system. First is the use of preventive care to optimize health. I would agree to Conklin that this may be one of the most efficient ways of changing the system. Through the preventive care, there would be fewer people that will acquire diseases or the need to go to the hospital. This will lead to the reduction of the health care cost both for the people and the government, and prevent the additional burden to the families of the patients. The second way is to reduce the utilization of unnecessary services that are very expensive and its overutilization. In my opinion, people should really consider the use of other alternatives that are both efficient and less expensive. The third way is to make the health delivery system of high quality. I think this is the best way to change the system. Through this, people will easily be cured and attended to very efficiently and give proof to what they pay. Even though the services are rather expensive, if the system is of high quality, people will be very grateful about it and not complain about the cost and expenses.
There is a continuous evolution of the health delivery system, and the most notable one is the managed care. Through the change in the system, there is a lot of decrease in the hospital admissions while the ambulatory care is increasing. The out-patient services are increasing together with home care services. The change in the system has caused a lot of impact to the families of the patients. Patients with home care services can now return to their families and their home the same day of the surgery. There is also a lot of family support and social support to the patients facing different challenges on their health. In my opinion, it is rather difficult to evaluate the impact to the families. It is because some patients may be living alone and have no social support from others.
A lot of families and individuals have become conscious of their health’s, and managed care programs have the solution to this. The programs cover a prevention of illnesses and can easily detect possible future health concerns. Although there are a lot of benefits to this program, patients are having a hard time on changing their systems accustomed to. The choice of the patients on the physicians or the hospitals they want to get the program showed a lot of problems. When the new program being offered doesn’t have the desired physician of their choosing, there would be additional costs and burden to the management of the program.
The evolution of the United States health services delivery system does not stop on the managed care programs. There is a continuous evolution of the system through the progress of technology, economic factors, changes in the cost of the services, and the demographic trends in the country. One solution for the problems that arises in the system is the review of other health care systems of other countries. Change is inevitable because people tend to progress, the only thing that we can do is to find a way to make the system accessible and affordable to people.

Reference

Conklin, T. (2002). Health Care in the United States: An Evolving System. Retrieved February 3, 2015, from Michigan Family Review: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mfr/4919087.0007.102/--health-care-in-the-united-states-an-evolving-system?rgn=main;view=fulltext