Healthcare in the 21st Century: Essay

One such barrier is the pattern of supply-driven care that has proven extremely costly on the average consumer and patient. Essentially, this method of healthcare has created a multi-billion dollar industry, where patients' needs are put to the side in order for healthcare organizations to make the largest profit margin possible through a system that resembles a production line more so than a hospital facility. Unfortunately, "producers control demand" (O'Toole, 2009, p 48). With so many major companies profiting from this style of healthcare, they will undoubtedly put up a fight for reform initiatives like the Triple Aim Initiative, which is hoping to rework the system in order to save consumers the burden of costs, without reducing the quality of the care they receive. Moreover, the physician-centric model of most of today's healthcare systems also proves a barrier to the aims of the Triple Aim Initiative. Essentially, under this model, physicians work against reform methods that would help reduce costs, because it would essentially be taking money out of their pockets as well. As such, many physicians tend to fight reform efforts, and thus they do not initiate elements of reform that might be beneficial to their patients within their own facilities. Even when reform is forced upon them, in many cases, the quality of care also falls with associated costs.

It is clear that the United States still has a lot of work to do. Unfortunately, "The United States is the only country that does not offer healthcare to all its citizens and the number of uninsured grows daily" (O'Toole, 2009, p 46). When compared to other industrialized countries, the United States has one of the worst healthcare systems to date. Take for example, the United kingdom. Under the Beveridge Healthcare Model, the government finances citizens' healthcare through tax subsidies. Thus, no citizens ever have to pay a doctor's bill; and yet the quality of the healthcare provided is still stellar. As such, England is just one example of a fellow industrialized nation that is reaching these aims much better than the case of the United States.

References

O'Toole. Eileen. (2009) Healthcare in the 21st century. The Nurse Practitioner, 34(7), 46-50.

World Health Organization. (2013).World Health Statistics 2013: Indicator Compendium. Web. http://www.who.int/gho/publications/world_health_statistics/WHS2013_IndicatorCompendium.pdf