What Insights Did I Find Helpful and Interesting?
The insights provided by DeNisco and Barker (2016) regarding the U.S health care delivery system were interesting to my understanding of the country’s health care sector because they provided a holistic overview of how the health care system works, including the main issues affecting it and how it compares to other countries. Particularly, I found the insights highlighted in chapter seven useful to my understanding of the recent political debates about the need to undertake health care reform in the country.
Such matters have dominated the U.S social, political, and economic space and culminated in the introduction of Obamacare. More importantly, I understood the need to have significant reforms in the country’s health care sector after the authors compared the U.S health care delivery system with others in the world (DeNisco & Barker, 2016). In their analysis, the U.S health care system was inferior to most countries in Europe that offered universal health care.
I found it ironic that America’s health care system was inferior to other health care delivery systems, such as that of Canada, and yet the U.S spent more on health care than most of its peers. Collectively, the insights contained in the chapter helped me to have a deeper understanding of the economics of health and have a more detailed comprehension of the nature of the U.S health care delivery system.
How did Reading Enhance my Understanding of Trends in the US Health Care System?
The insights provided by DeNisco and Barker (2016) helped to explain emerging trends in the U.S health care system. Particularly, the move towards increased health coverage emerges in this analysis because different sections of chapter seven showed that the U.S was among the few developed countries in the world that did not guarantee universal health coverage for its citizens (DeNisco & Barker, 2016). Most of the information explaining the intrigues of this situation appeared in the section for “trends and direction” and in the section for “insurance and health care reform” (DeNisco & Barker, 2016).
In these sections, I learned about the quest by policymakers and other stakeholders in the health sector to reduce the cost of health care and increase its coverage through the introduction of innovative health coverage programs. I also learned of the need to realign the role of private players, employers, and pharmaceutical companies to make this happen.
What Points did I Disagree with?
Throughout the chapter, the authors focused on explaining the role of health care financing and health care safety when addressing the issues affecting the U.S health sector (DeNisco & Barker, 2016). While most of such issues are undisputed, I found it interesting that the authors did not highlight the contextual nature of the health care issues mentioned. Particularly, they failed to do so when making a comparison between the US health care sector and the health systems of other countries. In this regard, I believe the authors ignored significant social, cultural, and political dynamics between the different countries analyzed that were important in explaining some of their differences.
What Parts did I Find Confusing?
When explaining the role of different players in the health sector, the authors identified nursing executives, nursing educators, health practitioners, and entrepreneurs as significant players in the U.S health sector (DeNisco & Barker, 2016). However, they mixed their responsibilities in the health care system. This was confusing because most of these professionals have different roles and responsibilities in the health care sector. Naturally, this would mean that their roles would rarely conflict or overlap because such an outcome would create redundancies in the execution of the country’s overall health strategy. To this extent of analysis, there is a need to differentiate the different roles of health care professionals in the chapter.
Reference
DeNisco, S., & Barker, A. (2016). Advanced Practice Nursing: Essential Knowledge for the Profession (3rd ed). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.