The Future Challenges of Health Care in the United States

The Future of Health Care in the United States

Identify and describe at least three of the most difficult issues facing health care in the United States today.

The challenges involved in the health care system are so complex and, to extent, overwhelming. Through all the challenges, the health of our nation has continued to improve by most measurable standards. There are many serious concerns involved in assessing long-term disease, illness, and injury patterns in the United States.

Although the total mortality rate continues to drop and life expectancy continues to increase, there are concerns involving specific illnesses, diseases, injuries, and population groups. Differential mortality and morbidity between important population comparisons raise red flag about our limited successes for certain populations, and the challenges that we face (Williams and Torrens, 2010).

Among the top concerns in differential morbidity and mortality are significant race differences. These data, when combined with data related to differential measurements of access to, and quality of, care suggest that limits exist in the availability and use of health services to many individuals and groups within our population, especially those who are most vulnerable. Access considerations for these groups within our population are broad based and include financial access, such as the availability of individual financial resources, insurance plans, and entitlement programs. Often these entitlement programs mentioned are not widely available, are underfunded, or are poorly coordinated in areas of local needs (Williams and Torrens, 2010).

Another area of concern for these groups within the population are patients education, clinical preventive services, and targeted interventions to alleviate the long-term adverse consequences associated with preventable health conditions such as hypertension and obesity are also in short supply for these populations. The lack of a broad-based and consistent financing and distribution system for patient education and preventive services is a particular national concern (Williams and Torrens, 2010).

The third area of concern for these groups within our population is the disease categories. Demonstrated differentials in clinical services provided to at-risk and disadvantaged populations are a concern. Clinical care may be provided differently and less aggressively to those populations, members of these population groups may be less receptive to clinical interventions, and patient compliance may suffer from less patient understanding and awareness as compared to better educated and higher income populations. The lack of adequate health insurance or other financial support for accessing services, combine structural defects in the health care system to facilitate a comprehensive approach to the delivery of care for many of these population groups, further complicates the challenge faced by our nation (Williams and Torrens, 2010).

Identify and describe three ways that technology impacts health care.

Technology is the driving force of health care. The development, testing and distribution of technology advances are fundamental to improving the nation's health. Our nation must encourage these efforts through tax reimbursement policy and other initiative to enhance the armament of clinical practitioners. The technological imperative that has driven health care for so many years must now be matched with critical assessment of the limits to which technologies we can afford (Williams and Torrens, 2010).

The development of various kinds of technologies continues to bring new development to health care with regards to treatments, testing, and prevention to name a few. Health care providers are able to stored patients records using electronic devices. The testing is important as it will determine if the equipment is right for what it was developed to do, if not to upgrade the old ones. Distribution of technologies should be done across the board. Emphasis should be place on the areas that are at higher risk and low income groups.

Describe how health care at the international level will impact the United States health care system.

Health care at the international level will impact the United States health care system in that health care at the international level vary dramatically in term of levels of funding, funding mechanisms, organization and delivery systems, and managerial approaches. Many Western European countries and some countries in other parts of the world follow a model for health service delivery that is at least analogous to that of the United States in terms of the prevalence of technology and the medical community (Williams and Torrens, 2010).

Another impact that the