SUBJECT: Current Economics in Healthcare
TOPIC: Healthcare Policies and Reforms
Healthcare policies and reforms are made at an ever-increasing pace and policy-makers are gradually looking to other countries for solutions to current problems.
Review this article:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223665/
Contrast the intended and unintended effects of policies and reforms on the health system in terms of access, appropriateness, costs, effectiveness, quality, patient experience and equity.
Directions to student: The final paragraph (three or four sentences) of your initial post should summarize the one or two key points that you are making in your initial response. You will be writing three or more discussion posts per week.
Your main post must be two to three substantive paragraphs 150-200 total words and include at least two APA-formatted citations/references. Please follow up with two subsequent replies to colleagues. Each reply should consist of a relevant paragraph containing 100 words or more.
USE THIS THIS TEXT AS A REFERENCE
Text: The Economics of Health Reconsidered, 4thEdition
Year:2016 Author: Rice, T. & Unruh, L.
Publisher:Health Administration Press
ISBN: 13: 978-1-56793-723-7
Healthcare Policies and Reforms
Healthcare policies and reforms ignite intended and unintended consequences which can affect the reform negatively or positively. For example, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program was intended to reduce the number of children who are not insured (Young & Young, 2001). The unintended consequence is that the number increased although the children targeted was high, which could have increased access to treatment. The result is associated with people viewing the program as a substitute that is costly compared to others. Some parents also believed they did not require insurance for their children due to the high cost of medical care. The unintended consequences may overshadow the intended results (Rice & Unruh, 2016). It is thus important to consider the unintended consequences of developing health policies or reforms.
Medicare policy reform failed to recognize the malnutrition as a complication. The intention was to hold hospitals responsible for the health of their patients. The reform resulted in unintended consequences since elderly patients were not well-taken care of. They ended up frail and malnourished since there was no clear policy on malnutrition thus showing the inappropriateness of the reform (Young & Young, 2001). The unintended result affected the health of patients adversely while the reform did not produce evident positive results since it reduces patient experiences and quality of care for elderly patients.
Reforms in the healthcare sector can result in intended and unintended results. The intended results are meant to boost the quality of care, enhance access to medical care and boost patient experience (Salas, 2015). However, unintended results reduce the quality of care and overshadow the intended results. It is thus important to weigh the positive and negative effects of both results since they will affect the quality of care and patient experience.
References
Rice, T. & Unruh, L. (2016). The Economics of Health Reconsidered, Fourth Edition. Health Administration Press
Salas, X. R. (2015). The ineffectiveness and unintended consequences of the public health war on obesity. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 106(2), E79.
Young, W. B., & Young, W. B. (2001). Unintended Consequences of Health Policy Programs and Policies: Workshop Summary. National Academy Press.
