Financial Aspects of Health Care Delivery

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Financial Aspects of Health Care Delivery

Government Insurance & Inmate Care

It is often believed that the innovative space the United States' markets holds in pharmaceuticals and medical devices are second to none. Also, the country's 'miracles of modern medicine' have now become almost commonplace, and as a result-and at its best, health care in the United States is considered the best in the world (DOJ, n.d.). Despite being more expensive, the quality of health care in the U.S. does not appear to be notably superior to other industrialized countries.
However limited, there are several sources of coverage for health care in the United States. These include individual or private insurance, government insurance and employer-based insurance. Health care spending is a key component of the economy of industrialized countries' countries as it is a major source of employment, especially in rural areas (Commonwealth, 2012). Most insured Americans are covered primarily through employer paid/based health care benefits, inmate care and private insurance. Inmates; however, are covered by the government and at no cost. As they relate to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), taking care of inmates and private insurance are major contributors to the increasing healthcare costs in the United Sates.

To even start to unravel the impact of such proliferous costs, not to mention how they can be remedied, one has to look at why and how the States pay for inmates' health care-the same way it pays for its roads; hard earned tax-paying dollars (DOJ, n.d). The United States' health care spending exceeds incomparably to the spending in other countries. State corrections budgets have grown an average of 8% each year, which outdoes the overall state budgets by 3.7 percent. For example, in a three year period (1998-2001), corrections health care costs grew by 10% each year. This included 10% of all corrections expenses. To clarify the magnitude of this spending; in 2002, approximately 14% of the GDP ($1.6 trillion) was spent on health care services (Commonwealth, 2012). In the United States, the federal, state, and local governments pay almost 45 percent of the country's total expenditures on health care; 40 percent on private spending accounts and private insurance and the remaining 15% on consumer out-of pocket spending accounts (Commonwealth, 2012).

Such dramatic and recent surges in corrections health care costs are a leading factor that drives the increase in the prison systems. Also, because of the obesity epidemic and more readily accessible technology and greater rates of obesity. Despite being more expensive, the quality of health care in the U.S. does not appear to be notably superior to other industrialized countries. In addition, this elaborate and expensive health system creates an enormous financial strain and can pose a barrier to accessing care. For many U.S. households, health care has become increasingly unaffordable. In 2010 for example, four of 10 adults went without care because of costs and the number of either uninsured or "underinsured" (i.e., people with health coverage that does not adequately protect them from high medical expenses) increased to more than 80 million. If this continues, there is no doubt that unrevised and unchecked such costs will have more serious ramifications in the years to come (DOJ, n.d.).

Effects

To clarify, in the United States health care is publicly funded, and the country is the only industrialized country that ...