N502 Module 1 Discussion 2018
With so many different stakeholders in the health care
system, many with powerful political lobbies, it is understandable that the
government has been unable, until the Patient Protection and Affordable Care
Act of 2010, to effectively address the problems of cost, access, and quality.
Despite this recent legislature, employers and the public have deep concerns
about the ever-increasing costs of health care. Physicians, hospitals and other
providers continue to voice displeasure with managed health plans’ requirements
and restrictions, while employers and the insured are railing against potential
huge premium increases. Should government continue to take an aggressive role
in reshaping the health care system or should the economy be allowed to
continue exerting market-driven reforms? Please take a stance of either
pro-government or pro-free enterprise factions and explain how the public will
fare in each situation. How are the problems of cost, access, and quality
likely to be addressed in each circumstance?
OR
The practice of medicine, long valued for individual
entrepreneurship and physician control, has undergone dramatic change.
Physicians now face vexing oversight of case and utilization management and
loss of control over the allocation of health care dollars. Managed care
organizations control health costs by arbitrarily refusing reimbursement for
certain medical procedures and reducing payments for others. Since medicine is
now a less attractive career option, will fewer high performing individuals
choose to become physicians? What are the implications for the quality of care?