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The Healthcare System

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Using various resources, address the following questions:

1. What basic service components are necessary in order for a healthcare system to be considered complete?

2. Why are these the necessary components?

3. Why is it important to understand the historical evolution of the healthcare system?

I need help getting started on these interesting questions. Please include the references so I can continue the research.

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Solution Summary

This solution identifies the basic service components that are necessary in order for a healthcare system to be considered complete and then provides a rationale for this conclusion. The importance of understanding the historical evolution of the healthcare system is also detailed. Supplemented with a highly informative article on the healthcare system.

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Please refer to response file attached for active links, which is also presented below.

RESPONSE:

1. What basic service components are necessary in order for a healthcare system to be considered complete?

Some of the basic components are as follows:

1. Method of payment for easy assess by all

In order for a healthcare system to be complete it must have certain components. However, this depended, in part, on the health care model employed. Several Healthcare systems models exist:
· Purely private enterprise healthcare systems are comparatively rare. Where they exist, it is usually for a comparatively well-off subpopulation in a poorer country with a poorer standard of healthcare-for instance, private clinics for a small, wealthy expatriate population in an otherwise poor country. But there are countries with a majority-private healthcare system with residual public service (see Medicare, Medicaid).

· The other major models are public insurance systems:

o Social security healthcare model, where workers and their families are insuranced by the State.
o Publicly funded healthcare model, where the residents of the country are insured by the State.
o Sickness insurance model, where the whole population or most of the population is a member of a sickness insurance company, which many regard as the ideal U.S. model, but which due to increasing costs is now less true than it was previously in the U.S.

In almost every country with a government health care system a parallel private system is allowed to operate, this is sometimes referred to as two-tier health care. The scale, extent, and funding of these private systems is very variable, however. The country with the least private involvement is Canada, where pride is widespread in their one-tier system of only government-provided healthcare.

In United States most people are insured through their employers. On the other hand, a health maintenance organization (HMO) is a prepaid health plan. As an HMO member, you pay a monthly premium. In exchange, the HMO provides maintenance care for you and your family, including doctors' visits, hospital stays, emergency care, surgery, lab tests, x-rays, and therapy. A health maintenance organization arranges for this care either directly in its own group practice and/or through doctors and other health care professionals under contract. Usually, your choices of therapy, diagnosis, doctors and hospitals are limited to those that have agreements with the HMO to provide care. However, exceptions are made in emergencies or when obviously medically necessary.

Because HMOs receive a fixed fee for your covered medical care, it is theoretically in their interest to make sure you get basic health care for simple problems before they become serious. Often, the HMO shifts the financial risk for your care to the doctors they contract with by paying a fixed monthly payment for each patient under the doctors care. HMO coverage typically includes preventive and early detection care, such as office visits, immunizations, well-baby checkups, mammograms, and physicals. The range of services covered vary in HMOs. Some services, such as outpatient mental health care, often are provided only on a limited basis, and more costly forms of care, diagnosis, or treatment may not be not covered. (http://www.mywiseowl.com/articles/Health_Maintenance_Organizations).

2. Delivery of quality services and care and services

The delivery of modern health care depends on an expanding group of highly trained professionals coming together as an interdisciplinary team. Individuals are called health professionals if thay participate in delivery of medical care in some way. Thus, it is a rather broad term (http://www.mywiseowl.com/articles/Healthcare_professional). Examples of medical professionals are: Medical doctors have specializations on the medicine page. Dentistry and psychology, while separate disciplines from medicine, are often considered medical fields in the wider definition of the term. Practitioners such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners and midwives also treat patients and prescribe medication in many legal jurisdictions.
Health profession means a profession in which a person exercises skill or judgment or provides a service related to:

(a) the preservation or improvement of the health of individuals, or

(b) the treatment or care of individuals who are injured, sick, disabled or infirm. ...

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