National Health Care Spending Essay

National health care spending in the United States is out of control. I will identify national health care expenditure, and my opinion on the spending â€Å"is it too much or not enough†. This paper will explain the about public health and the needs to paid for various payers with total percentages. With that we will discuss the economic challenges and how the government will address the matter. Is our country going to be able to change our medical crisis? What needs to be done? And can it be done? The current dollar level or national health care expenditures: In 2011 US health care spending reached 2.7 trillion dollars. Health care spending is still growing. The GDP (gross domestic product) remains stable at 17.9 percent from 2009 through 2011. The America health care has become a major legislative and policy issues. These increase in the cost of health care is causing major stress on Federal, State, and in household budget across the nation. My opinion on the spending level on health care,† is it too much or not enough†. I feel the spending in the US on health care is too much, because the over abuse by doctors, hospitals, etc†¦ do. I feel that doctors and hospital will exhaust the insurance companies. I feel today we lost the quality of care and the services at medical offices, even in the hospitals. Our health care spending is high and keeps growing. Due to the economy and more and more people are out of work. Those people are all applying for government benefits such as; Medicaid, TANF and extension of unemployment benefits. These are just a few crises or country going through. Poverty is increasing and a large number of people have no medical insurance. Now there are some States cutting health benefits to children who are very needy. Congress and the White House still are arguing about no time and no money, and it doesn’t have to be this way. We have to protect our fellow Americans and come to a compromise with our spending. What to cut, what to increase. Our country has to make some adjustments to help offset the increases of our spending, not just in health care, but in our defense  and home land security. I feel that our sacrifices should be shared, and it cannot involve scaling back programs for lower or middle class income families and individual. Our country has many needs, but we also have many resources and we have to use them wisely. Remember the U.S. is still the richest country in the world. Now it is time to work together to get through our crisis. How are the public’s health needs paid for. Hospital spending has increase 4.3 percent in 2011 compared to 2010 which was 4.3 percent growth. In 2011 the growth was slower, which was influenced by a slowdown in price growth and a low growth in hospital services. (â€Å"CMS†,2011) Physician and clinical services; these services increased 4.3 percent in 2011 which was an increase from 2010 with a growth of 3.1 percent. Spending by private health insurance and Medicare they are the two largest payers of clinical services and physicians in 2011. (â€Å"CMS†, 2011). Physical Therapy, Optometry, Podiatry, and Chiropractic medicine increase 4.9 percent in 2011, it is slightly faster from 2010 at 4.6 percent. (â€Å"CMS,2011) Dental services increased in 2011 with a 3.0 percent slightly higher than in 2010 with a growth of 2.7 percent. Out-of-pocket spending increased 4.1 percent in 2011, but in 2010 the growth percentage was 0, 7 percent. (â€Å"CMS†, 2011) Health Residential, and Personal Care Services; the growth for health, residential and personal care services are lower in 2011, it is 4.o percent, but in 2010 it was 4.5 percent. This includes expenditure for medical services, which are delivered by providers in non-traditional settings such as; schools, community centers, workplaces, ambulance provider, and residential mental health and substance abuse facilities. (â€Å"CMS†, 2011). Home health care; home health care agencies were slow in 2011 with a growth of 4.5 percent. In 2010 had a growth of 5.8 percent, Medicaid and Medicare spending was 80 percent in home health care. (â€Å"CMS†,2011) Nursing Care Facilities and Continuing Care Retirement Communities; spending in this category increased in 2011 to 4.4 percent from the growth was due from Medicare spending for skilled nursing faci lities, which increase 16.5percent in 2011. (â€Å"CMS†,2011) What is the major future economic and major â€Å"challenge† for the health care system? Everyone has the own problems with The U.S. health care system. One of their concerns is how many people go without health care,  because of no choice in the matter.. Second will be costs, this is a big concern. Cost keeps going up, cost are shooting up faster than anything else in this economy. There are major challenges that our nation has to face. Is U.S. health care gives to little or too much care. The uninsured get little care, they skip doctors visit, and depend on the hospital ER for medical care. This process causes a burden on the ER, because people that need to use the ER for real emergencies don’t get to be seem right away or they have to wait for a bed. Over treatment is a challenge also, doctors and hospital get paid more for doing more even if the treatment is necessary or not. We all experience or heard discussion about doctors and hospital run all kinds of tests and no one will explain what’s going on, this is because the hospital wants to exhaust you r insurance. Medicare is at fault, they paid health care providers on a â€Å"fee-for-service†. Which accounts how fairly their patients are? Other medical providers are equally important; they take the time to understand their patients and their symptoms. Most health care professional want the best for their patients, and no one means to over treat. As a doctor we are susceptible to a economic incentives. Insuring healthy people and not sick people, health plans make more money. Members of a health plan that are young and healthy are going to make more money, than the chronically ill. They can rake in premiums and don’t have to pay a lot of costly medical care. Insures in this country has an incentive to insure healthy people and deny the sick. Just a few do aggressively. Keeping cost down insurers has a few tricks they use, such as; denying coverage for pre-existing condition, increasing up expensive premiums. Hamilton (2008) Do you know what medical treatments work the best? Studies that suggest† 15 percent of what doctors do is actually evidence based, but they rely on personal experiences, or their colleagues or what they picked up from misleading medical literature, and drug representatives that are at their clinics.† (Hamilton,2008) The Federal Government is the only one that can fill the informational vacuum, because it is necessary to establish a base of medical evidence are expensive. The FDA is already overwhelmed with ensuring new drugs, and safe and effective devices. The last challenge is people demand more care than they want to pay for. People who are insured insist on expensive but marginal test and treatments, because they don’t have to pay for it. They feel because they pay high premiums they have the  best and they should not be denied any type of treatment. â€Å"Direct-to-consumer† has exploded patient’s demands prescriptions for new expensive drugs, even if there is no difference between old and new. Everyone has a part in these challenges that we face as a nation, doctors and hospitals are just two. However the scale of problems has called for a national medical reform. The health care system and other industrialized nations, which the government will take responsibility for funding. I don’t know what will be the right solution, but I have more knowledge on our National Health Care spending in America. We need to find a way to improve the quality of health care, while driving down the prices of insurance, medical procedures, treatment and prescriptions. We also need to resolve the issues with the uninsured in this country. References Hamilton, D. (2008, April). Five Major Challenges for a $2 Trillion Industry. CBS News. Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-3364005/fivemajorchallenges-for-a-2trillion-industry CMS.(2011). Retrieved from http://www.cms.gov/research-statistic-data-and-system â€Å"