Health Care in the USA Essay

Total Length: 757 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 3

Page 1 of 3

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?

The problems that doctors have to face in negotiating care for their patients lead to the profession becoming a less attractive option for a number of medical students. Given the rising costs of attending medical school, the number of students choosing to concentrate on family care is declining (Bodeinheimer 861). This existing shortage of doctors practicing primary care is further exacerbated by the challenges inherent in the industry, namely the fact that physicians have to adhere to an extensive list of requirements and negotiate with insurance companies to ensure providing care for their patients. While many students choose medicine because of a natural passion towards it, or because they want to help people, the financial benefits of the profession often contribute to a student's decision to become a doctor.
The reduction of resources from insurance companies and the increasing need for doctors to navigate an increasing number of rules and regulations in order to guarantee care their patients deserve present an additional challenge that doctors have to overcome. Prospective students are aware of these problems, and many may decide to pursue a different career, turning away from medicine. Additionally, there is a problem of medical students choosing to pursue a concentration in medicine other than primary care, inevitably resulting in a reduced number of high achieving students practicing it. Finally, the reduced number of primary care providers affects the quality of care the average patient receives from their doctor.

2. Hippocrates, who admonished physicians to "first, do no harm," also stated, "in abundance, there is lack." Interpret the latter in regard to American health care. (50-100 words)

Hippocrates' remark that abundance can lead to lack is very befitting the American health care system, as extending care to a larger population inevitably leads to reduction of care….....

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