Now days, because we rely so much on technology to find and diagnose medical problems in the human race, we wonder why access to it can be so difficult. Something that is so steadfast and capable of doing what the human eye cannot do should be easily available to the population. It’s not though; majority of reason being, the cost.
It is not only the people who do not have health insurance either. Our U.S. health care system is struggling to find a way to make medical costs efficient. For example, many hospitals and clinics exceed the amount of machines necessary to treat patients. This is inefficient for two reasons. One being that the place of practice has increased what they pay for their medical equipment, and two being patients are told to receive multiple scans (MRI, PET, etc.) which may be unnecessary because it most likely does not help the doctors diagnoses.
Over the last five years, medical technology spending has included about twenty percent of the rise in U.S. health care costs. Cutting on medical technology health care costs is easier said than done because of how accurate these machines really are. As stated earlier, they are capable of seeing what the human eye cannot; therefore people’s health has/will increase. Another question we would like to raise is, why is it that in the United States, an MRI, for example costs around one grand for the patient and in other countries, Japan for example the price only is around ninety dollars? Being the most developed country on the globe, we should be able to come up with ways to make our health care more cost efficient. Granted it would take time do so, we don’t expect a price change in the blink of an eye. But with the resources we have, we believe it is possible for the U.S. health care system to come up with ways to proficiently reduce the costs of medical technology both for the caregiver and caretaker with out compromising the innovation of our machines used. It seems as though innovation is the biggest reason for the increase in medical technology costs. Everyone is too scared to find ways to lower the costs because that would mean our technology would not be up to par, or so they think. Our country is not about to take steps backwards in the world of technology because of price cuts. This can be done; it’s just a matter of time and willingness.
Kelsey Katarow
"U.S Health Care's Technology Cost Crisis." (28. Feb. 2009): 28 Feb. 2009. http://www.strategy-business.com/enewsarticle/enews033104?pg=1.
Shi, L, & Singh, D (2008). Delivering Health Care in America: A Systems Approach.Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You raise some great points in your post. It seems that everyone thinks that the more technology you have, the better the health care is which isn't true. It is definitely something to think about
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, that with technology expenses being as high as they are, something in that area needs to be reformed if we are going to get a hold on these crippling health care expenditures. I remember working at a hospital in Madison, doing physician order entry on in patient units and looking at the insane costs of one bedside chest x-ray for example. And some people would get 2-3 a day if they were on a cardiac unit, and I hate to say it, but sometime just because nurses felt to overburdened to take the time to wheel the pt to the x-ray area off the unit, which would save the patient a ton of money on their daily x-rays. Something has to change.
ReplyDeleteI think one reason for the great disparity in health care costs for the same procedure in different countries relates to the different healthcare systems. People in other countries have money taken out of their pay check to go towards healthcare and this reduces the cost for everyone. In essence though, some people are paying for the medical services that others receive. I think some Americans have a hard time with this concept. Often, people don't want to pay for the healthcare of someone else or in some cases they can't even pay for healthcare for themselves.
ReplyDeleteYeah why do different countries spend different amounts on the same procedures? Great job pointing that out. Lowering costs for medical procedures is definitely a touchy subject, but we need people to address this issue and do something about it because obviously our healthcare system spending now is not being as effective as it should be. Good job Kelsey!
ReplyDeleteI agree, I think that there should be a focus on coming up with a way to reduce costs and not worry so much about "keeping up with the Jones'". I know that it is important to have the best technology but if everything is working fine and the quality of patients is not being compromised than there should be an increase in finding ways to reduce costs.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea about taking money out of everyone's paycheck to put toward healthcare. When a person receives a scan or procedure the hospital charges a certain amount and depending on what their insurance is the insurance company says that the patient only has to pay a lower amount. The insurance company usually covers most of that lower amount and the patient takes the rest out of pocket. When a person does not have insurance and uses Medicare or Medicaid the amount that the hospital can charge is even lower and that patient has to pay an even lower amount themselves. Because of this hospitals lose a lot of money and have to charge higher prices. So if money was taken out of everyone's paycheck then maybe costs could be reduced.
You make a good point regarding excessive charges for tests,procedures and medications. Perhaps part of the reason for these excesses is the fact that hospitals in the US spend a fortune on treating indigents that have no way to pay. Not for profit hospitals cannot even turn these people away. The cost of treating these ER walk ins is tremendous. This inflates the cost for everyone else in the system. Technology of any sort does not address this issue nor would an improved medical records system. I would guess that this is why universal health care is a popular concept. It would of coarse pass the cost now being absorbed by the private sector and spreading the cost among all of us that do pay taxes in the form of increased taxes or less money to support our families.
ReplyDeleteThis is a complex challenge. Having traveled around the world visiting hospital after hospital a government run health care is nothing to brag about and anything but efficient.
Perhaps this post is a bit off topic,however it further points out that the problems are far greater that record keeping or other assorted technologies.
Red