What Is the Governments Role in US Health Care Summing Up. This months exchange of ideas regarding U. S. healthcare reform ranged far and wide. Some of us were interested primarily in the issue of cost escalation and how to contain it. Others addressed issues of quality. For still others, it was a matter of inequality of treatment. LP3GacEIxAE/hqdefault.jpg' alt='Robbins Review Pathology Question Book Pdf' title='Robbins Review Pathology Question Book Pdf' />If this is a microcosm of current concerns and suggested solutions, does it bode well for the formation of a consensus, political or otherwise, leading to progress But a number of respondents raised the question of whether the most feasible solution may lie primarily in the free market, with perhaps some help from government. Suggestions of causes of the current challenge of rapidly rising costs in relation to quality of outcomes, at least by the imperfect measure of life expectancy, included waste in the system Julie Maire, Edward Hare, and Jack Flanagan as well as fraud Kate Mc. Clelland, risk avoidance on the part of physicians, a litigious society, and inadequate protection from it for physicians Rowland Freeman, defensive medicine leading to unnecessary tests and treatments, an insurance system that is costly and inadequate for those who really need it Amar Sahay and David Albert Newman, the high cost of new technology, artificial restrictions on the supply of drugs Sergey Mirkiin and healthcare providers David Stahl and Michael Robbins, the size and complexity of the problem itself James Sullivan, government involvement Paul Jackson, and uninformed or unnecessarily needy consumers Hakan Hillerstrom. In addition to these issues, Elizabeth Benbrooks reminds us that healthcare comes freighted with a host of fundamental moral, ethical, and emotional issues that simply dont exist for other industries. Perhaps this is why Hakeem Yesufu asserted, I am an ardent free market capitalist who realizes capitalism has no place in healthcare provision. But Tery Tennant asks what is perhaps the ultimate philosophical question when did an individuals medical needs become an inalienable right that the government has to insureA number of responses suggested various free market mechanisms for addressing these issues. Where to start Paul Jackson suggests that The only thing the government should be involved with is controlling the drug, insurance, and medical industry advertising spending which would bring down costs. On the other hand, Wayne Baldwin argued that Containing costs will come at the expense of something technological advances, profit, access to certain services, and patient choice are likely candidates. One line of thinking would make both talent and drugs more competitive. Robbins Review Pathology Question Book Pdf' title='Robbins Review Pathology Question Book Pdf' />Sergey Merkin asks, Why not open the country to foreign medications In citing the need for more doctors and nurses, David Stahl comments that it could be a way to help open immigration in this country. Michael Robbins adds, Healthcare has been a closed guild. David Othmer cited the maze of regulations that keep, for example, nurses from using all their skills in providing basic healthcare. And Hakan Hillerstrom implied that consumer education and choice may be an important response to many of these challenges. In spite of the issues complexity, Richard Fallis offered the observation that Reform is coming because Wal Mart and GM want it. He thinks it could come in the form of a Two Percent Solution in which everyone would pay 2 percent of their income to be held by the Government for their healthcare, with competition maintained through private providers and the bills of those unable to contribute paid by the Government. Keith Butler believes that it could come in the form of a two tiered system of private treatment at personal expense layered on a service free to all with protections for healthcare givers and the elimination of third party insurance. Are these the free market answers weve been waiting for What do you think Original Article. Healthcare will grab more and more headlines in the U. S. in the coming months. Here is a collection of powerpoint lectures covering all chapters from Robbins patholic basis of disease the latest edition. Pes 2004 Pc Game here. Well organised powerpoint. Any service that is on track to consume 4. Business management already feels the effects of healthcare costs more acutely than most consumers. Several recent studies and proposals shed light on the problem and possible solutions. They leave us with questions, too. To put things in perspective, U. S. healthcare currently costs about 2 trillion per year. Of this, more than 6. It goes for administration. On a per capita basis, it is roughly 2. U. S., all of whom have some form of taxpayer financed, single payer system, the kind that used to be referred to by detractors as socialized medicine. Worse yet, the current system leaves more than 4. Americans without health insurance. Because many are not employed or have very low incomes, programs that provide incentives through employers and tax relief dont help them. Windows 8.1 X64 Preactivated. With this much room for possible improvement, the incentives should be sufficient to foster changes in behavior. A recent Mc. Kinsey study estimates that more than half of the 9. Its estimate does not include the costs of sorting out acceptable applicants or denying payments under existing policies, another substantial amount. And it does not include the costs that doctors and hospitals incur in denying applications for payment, often in the form of payments to consultants who specialize in this kind of responsibility shifting activity. By contrast, Mc. Kinsey estimates that it would cost only 7. Americas uninsured. If made available along with consumer education, others have suggested that all of this amount could be recouped eventually through the elimination of healthcare expenses incurred by those unable to pay now. Now comes Robert Frank, a Cornell economist, who has proposed ways of overcoming opposition to some kind of government and therefore taxpayer funded solution to the problem. He has put his finger on the two main obstacles to major change in the current system, insurance company opposition and higher taxes. He suggests that insurance companies, who have acted in good faith to respond to incentives provided by the market, could be subsidized for their losses while their managements shift their health insurance strategies, perhaps to provide only supplemental private coverage. A portion of the 2. He proposes that the other obstacle, higher taxes, could be overcome through an effort to educate the public about the long term economic benefits of such a move. How his proposal would fare in the face of previous failures is a real question. Given their magnitude, failure to solve these problems in the U. S. could have global economic impact. But are we addressing them with the creativity they deserveFor example, to combat opposition to a tax increase, could tax credits for later use when savings kick in be issued to individuals and businesses in the amounts by which their taxes are increased To provide universal insurance, could the government provide vouchers along with consumer oriented education to all uninsured to be used at their discretion for their own care In other words, could a consumer driven solution be combined with a single payer system What can the U. S. What is the governments role in U. S. healthcare What do you think To Read More Robert H. Frank, A Health Care Plan So Simple, Even Stephen Colbert Couldnt Simplify It, The New York Times, February 1. C3. He is the author of a book, The Economic Naturalist, to be published this spring. Mc. Kinsey Co., Accounting for the Cost of Health Care in the United States, January 2.