As life expectancy is increasing, the number of individuals who need long-term care is also significantly rising. From my perspective, one of the most complex long-term care decisions is finding a proper service provider. Choosing the right service provider, which will account for the high quality and affordability of the service, is one of the growing concerns of Americans who need long-term care (Harris-Kojetin et al., 2016). This decision is tough to make for middle-class individuals. Impoverished citizens are protected by Medicaid or Medicare, while affluent individuals can afford high-cost providers (Osterman, 2017). However, the middle class, who constitute the vast majority of the US population, are left unprotected, and finding an appropriate service provider is a primary challenge for them.
In deciding which provider to choose, individuals often consult with their professionals or family members who do not offer credible options due to their limited awareness or prejudices. Therefore, frequently such decisions entail substantial stress and family conflicts. Health care administrators can assist families and patients in making such challenging long-term care decisions by several measures. First, health care policy-makers can regulate long-term care providers to decrease the fees or implement specific discounts or other opportunities to alleviate the financial burden for service users. Second, health care administrators can launch online programs or free of charge consultations that would inform users about the service providers that best meet their health and financial needs. Such a system would significantly alleviate the challenges that users encounter while identifying long-term care providers.
Biblical worldview emphasizes the importance of taking care of other people even without obtaining some personal value in return. This worldview should influence health care providers and administrators in their attempts to provide long-term care for patients. Biblical teachings remind us that nursing and caring are “calling” to take care of the sick (Matthew 25:31-46 as cited in Newbanks et al., 2021). Hence, while providing long-term care for patients, healthcare providers should focus not only on the financial benefit of their service but also on how their service would align with the Biblical teachings on the importance of caring for the sick.
References
Harris-Kojetin, L. D., Sengupta, M., & Park-Lee, E. (2016). Long-term care providers and services users in the United States: Data from the national study of long-term care Providers, 2013-2014. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.
Newbanks, S., Eckerd, N., Rieg, L., Stephen, T., & Le, B (2021). Caring from a Christian worldview: The Agape model. In, K. L. Mauk & M. E. Hobus (Eds.). Nursing as ministry (pp. 37–56). Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Osterman, P. (2017). Who will care for us?: Long-term care and the long-term workforce. Russell Sage Foundation.