Introduction
The health sector has faced one problem after another. However, this sector has proven resilient in solving most of the challenges that it faces on its own. Currently, there are very many challenges that the sector faces. This paper discusses two challenges that affect health care in relation to health economics. These are the issue of health insurance and the conflict between agricultural and health policies in the country.
Health Insurance
One of the key challenges that the health sector faces is that of health insurance. Health insurance has proven to be challenging over the years, although it is one way of ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of health care. One of the recent trends that have been seen among people who have health insurance is that they purchase health products that they know nothing about.
According to Cameron (7), this not only affects the health of the person, but it also increases their insurance policy. This statement insinuates the fact that the health insurance policy has increased the level of drug abuse in the country to some extent. In the same breath, some of the states are already debating taxation of health insurance policies.
The health insurance policy is normally paid as part of employees’ compensation, thus it is never taxed. Taxation of this money will ensure that people do not abuse it. People will, therefore, refrain from buying unnecessary and arguably dangerous health products.
Collision of the agricultural and health policies
Another challenge that is affecting the health care sector is collision of agricultural and health policies of the country. In as much as healthy foods are not taxed heavily, they are used for other things in addition to human consumption. The collision occurs due to persuasion to use healthy foods such as soy and vegetables as animal feed. Agricultural policies in the country advocate for this trend.
This has seen to it that these products are only grown as food for animals. The products feed cattle and sheep that are then sold at much higher prices. Most people in the country are, therefore, not able to get these healthy foods since they are sold in bulk. This has affected the health of Americans.
A majority of the American youth struggle with obesity and other health disorders that are caused by poor diet. The high risk of health disorders due to poor diet has, however, increased the GDP of the country. Doctors are now asking for more tests on patients such that patients have to pay more for health services. People are also asked to join gyms to maintain their weight and ensure that their health is good.
All these add to the country’s GDP. There are policies that have been put in place to help curb this problem. These include vegan shops that have been set up in different parts of the country to allow people purchase vegan products at affordable prices (Sareen para. 3). Taxation of meat products has also ensured that few people take meat, thereby leading to overall improvement in health.
In conclusion, the two challenges discussed are just but a few of the challenges that the health care sector faces. The government has shown interest in actively controlling the health care sector. This has made the government come up with the solutions discussed. It is, however, not clear if the given solutions are long or short-term in nature.
Works Cited
Cameron, Colin. “Current Issues in U.S. Health Economics: Summary for Health Economics Course (ECN 132).” Department of Health Economics, U.C. Davis. 2013. Web.
Sareen, Anjali. “Interest in Vegan Diets on Te Rise: Google Trends Notes Public’s Increased Curiosity in Veganism.” Huffpost Healthy Living, 04 Mar. 2013. Web.