Healthcare - By: Anna Petrescu

Each and every individual is entitled to a right to better health services, no matter his/ her racial, religious, sex or political inclinations. This is due to the fact that, health, like security forms a crucial pillar of any given nation. Therefore, a well defined and financed health system plays a pivotal role in defining the future of the nation in terms of reliable labor force, security and eventual economic and political stability including social well being.
Take for instance, the nature of health system which is in use currently in the United States, four basic functional components have been consolidated in order to make the health sector to be functional, this components includes financing, insurance, delivery, and quality. However, of late, there have been issues emanating due to the way the whole health system operates, numerous questions have been raised overtime in relation to the quality of health services available to the civil populace (Lewis, 2004).
Over and again the social watchdogs has raised alarm over the quality of health services available to the public, it’s through such concerns that the society’s obligation to ensure access to basic level of health is reflected upon. Consider the fact that, almost seventy percent of all health providers in U.S. are private investors (Ouma, 2000). Hence, it is on that context that, the populace is raising concern on the way this system is operating. In principal, it is prevalent that, only the financial well up can afford the services of independent health providers who operate on business stature and their charges are not friendly to the low income earners. To change this trend, the governments have to finance and incorporate various administrative arms as to offer quality and affordable health to all without creating an environment where some individuals will feel alienated or locked out (Kwanza, 2006).
Therefore, the government ought to be more aggressive in reshaping the health care system, more so, market driven reforms should not be allowed to derail the efforts, market driven reforms would pave way for more private players who would eventually in one way or the other would dilute and endanger the already unstable quality of health services available to the bigger populace.
Hence, as cost of medication increases, hospital emergency departments continue to uphold a very critical role as the primary medical care sought by the populace, this has resulted in poor services due to the shortage of qualified doctors as well as lack adequate funds in the health centers being funded by the government, this has contributed to a significant number of the population to seek alternative medication in private quotas where likewise the price is high but the quality of the services is compromised, putting the life of the patient at risk. Thus, Hospital emergency departments have to be overhauled and be adequately funded in order to over quality services to the citizens, more decreasing the cost of seeking medication in other private owned hospitals.
Primary health care lies in the hands of the government, to train the health providers as well as funding the health institutions; however, there has been a considerable shift in the utilization of inpatient hospitalization. Basically, the ambulatory care services seems to be gaining popularity due to the low cost involved and is more flexible, hence the services provided can be easily accessed either from home or in the hospital. Thus the desire to have quality health services, with guaranteed delivery could be some of the many factors pushing many to adopt ambulatory health services. All in all, the implication have this trend has result in the influx of private health providers who have cashed on this exodus, pushing the cost of health in private sector, also creating an artificial shortage of nurses in the government funded hospitals, hence risking the life of the consumers as well as forcing the government to incur losses in terms of insurance and health covers, in order to control and maintain quality standards.
Providing acceptable health standard for all can be a daunting task, however, the government can utilize its financial muscle to build and establish accessible health system, where cost sharing may be put in place as the standard of giving each and every individual a chance to participate in health provision (Gakuya, 2000). However, providing data in relation to patient outcomes cannot guarantee the acceptable quality health care, therefore the instrumental measure that the government can offer to make this an a reality is to embark on the development of primary health care for all.
As in other given profession, sound training in medical fraternity is one of the key components, however, the notion that, only physicians can or should judge the medical care, this process is imbued in negligence as far as physicians are concerned, more some there training does not incorporate such intricate processes of material evaluation, hence this itself can be identified as one of the many negative issues facing this process.
To maintain quality health standards, the governments attempts to streamline the health system should be based on the ratio of those who can afford health services from commercial providers to those who cannot, for the underlying problem can be traced to the grassroots level, where the majority cannot afford the services of the commercial operators who target the financially stable, thus, the government should understand that politics as well self-serving lobbying groups do not cater for the welfare of the masses, hence federal support in the health sector should be independent, if any reasonable gains in terms of quality health services in government funded hospitals are to be realized (Cynthia, 1999).

About the Author

The author Anna Petrescu has academic writing experience of over 5 years. She holds a PHD in education from Cambridge. She has been assisting students in writing professional academic papers including thesis, dissertations, research papers and term papers. bestessayscenter.com

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