Introduction
The hospital is one of the key institutions in the national health care structure. For a long time, hospitals had been built and run through charities. The period between 1930- 1960 however saw this trend changing. This was after the inception of Blue Cross, Medicare and Medicaid plans. This saw almost all hospital care covered by some type of health insurance. Over the past few years, the rate of hospital costs has been increasing faster than the existing rate of inflation. (Welch & Kleiner, 1995) This has been despite the fact that the income of most people has not been increased to match the rising cost of assessing health care. This has called for the government to intervene to ensure that health care is available to all.
Main body
Today, many health care institutions in America are run by charity organizations. Though these hospitals are not geared toward making profits, the current economic meltdown has seen many of them collapse since they do not have an alternate source of capital. The government has lessened the burden for these not-for-profit hospitals by providing tax-exempts for them. This has in turn encouraged the growth of more hospitals and the provision of health care in general. (Geveden, 2009)
Depending on the nature of the illness, hospital care can be provided in a hospital setting or outside the hospital. The primary care for a patient that is based in a non-hospital environment is referred to as out patient care. However, some ailments are acute and call for hospital based specialty programmes. This in turn is referred to as in patient care. Both the in-patient and out patient care require the specialty of a qualified physician. (Nauert, 2000)
As the world embraces new technology, life expectancy among American’s has also increased. This growing number of aged people has also influenced the provision of health care in a big way. As it is, chronic diseases affect many aged people. This has called for long- term care for this section of the population. Since, the illnesses facing these people do not end with time; there has been a call to shift from cure to providing care to this important section of our society. (Kilpatrick, & Holsclaw, 1996)
Over the last one century, there has been a fundamental change on the way health care is provided especially to the aged. The media has been reporting incidences where patients are barred from assessing health care due to lack of Medicare compensation. Though doctors do this regrettably, there is no much choice for them since the government does not support Medicare for the aged population. This calls for the government to come up with a policy that will possibly cover this section of the society. However, this does not mean that all old people need financed Medicare. On the contrary, baby boomers are ready to spend their money to assess quality health care. The big issue and one that needs to be addressed with urgency is that it is becoming hard to get primary care physicians for many aged people. Many aged people are becoming more conscious of their health and there is need to ensure that they get personalized health care. (Setness, 2002)
Conclusion
It is clear that the government has been on the forefront in providing quality and affordable health care to all American’s. However, the ever-increasing cost of health care has made it impossible for the government to cover every part of the cost. This has made many people to be locked out of the system. The government should come up with modalities to cover the extra cost or build more facilities to provide this care. This should be more applicable to the aged who are finding it hard to assess personalized health care.
References List
Geveden, B. C. (2009). ‘Not-for-profit hospitals in transition’. The RMA Journal, 92(1), 48-53. Web.
Kilpatrick, A.O., & Holsclaw, P.W. (1996). ‘Health care in the new millennium: Implications for executives and managers’. Public Administration Quarterly 20 (3), 365. Web.
Nauert, R.C. (2000). ‘The new millennium: Health care evolution in the 21st century’. Journal of Health Care Finance, 26 (3), 1. Web.
Setness, P. A. (2002). ‘The looming crisis in geriatric care: As baby boomers age, healthcare policy fallout seems inevitable’. Postgraduate Medicine, 111(6), 17. Web.
Welch, J. R., Kleiner, B. H. (1995). ‘New developments in hospital management’. Health Manpower Management, 21 (5), 32. Web.