Healthcare Economics Flashcards
What is public insurance?
Government financed insurance that supports children, older adults, disabled people, and the poor.
EX: Medicare and Medicaid
What is private insurance?
Provided by companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield or Aetna
Why is there a worldwide healthcare system crisis?
- countries are running out of ways to finance
2. costs must be contained
What are the four categories of financing and organizing healthcare?
- Socialized medicine
- socialized insurance
- Mandatory health insurance
- Voluntary insurance: no guarantee of universality
What is socialized medicine?
When the state owns it and controls healthcare services
What is socialized insurance?
Medically necessary services covered
What is mandatory health insurance?
- organized around employers, work-based associations
2. government-sponsored programs cover those not part of the fund
What is the perspective of healthcare in the United States?
- pluralism and choice
- individual accountability
- Abivalence toward government
- Progress, innovation
- new technology
- volunteerism
- Paranoia about monopoly
- competition
What healthcare perspectives do other countries have?
- universality
- equity
- acceptance of the role of government
- Skepticism about markets and competition
- global budgets
- rationing
- technology assessment
What would the imbalance of supply and demand lead to?
rationing
What happens when costs in healthcare increase?
- consumers have come to expect that nay and all services should be available and paid for
- Employers believe they cannot afford to cover at previous levels
- Increased employee payment
What can rationing cause?
- the government setting limits: allocating according to a particular criteria
- ration by the ability to pay (limit care for those who cannot afford it)
- Freedom of the individual to choose amount and type of healthcare (rationing will limit this)
What are two cost-containment strategies?
- competition
2. price controls
What is competition and does it help with cost-containment?
- regulations permit competition between companies
- led to walk-in clinics and urgent care clinics
- little reduction in costs however
What is the purpose of the Affordable Care Act of 2010?
- improvement of the quality of care provided
- redesign of healthcare delivery systems
- Appropriate payment for services provided
- Modernization of the financial systems used to pay for services
- Elimination of fraud and abuse
What do price controls do?
- freeze on physician fees for short periods
- state limited reimbursement for physicians, hospitals for services to Medicaid clients
- group self-insurance
What did the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 do?
- changed Medicare payment method to prospective payment system using DRGs
- May result in withholding unnecessary tests
- Earlier discharge and a decline in admissions
- Rise in number and type of outpatient services
What can nurses do to help contain costs?
- all nurses must be concerned about cost (budgeting, allocate resources, control, monitor expenditures)
- Nursing budget can be half of the total expenses
- Nurses must compete for resources
- Many evidence-based nursing interventions promote cost containment (search for more efficient methods of care delivery)
What is Medicare for?
Available to people 65 years of age or older, younger people with disabilities, those with end-stage renal disease
What are the different types of Medicare?
- Part A: premium free
- Part B: voluntary
- Part C Medicare Advantage
- Part D: Prescription drug coverages