Healthcare Providers
Healthcare Providers
The United States health care system has come a long way within the past century. There have been tremendous achievements and developments in the fields of science and technology. However, there is more dissatisfaction with our health care system today than ever before, due in part to the rising cost of financing health care. Compared with five other issues, the U.S. healthcare system is viewed the most negatively at 34 percent satisfaction. The other four public issues that were polled were the Constitutional System at 77 percent, overall quality of life at 77 percent, the present government at 54 percent, the economy at 54 percent, and the environment at 51 percent. The American population even has a better view of the Canadian healthcare system over their own (The Permanente Journal, n.d.) More than 40 million Americans lack health care insurance and there are millions more who are underinsured. Of all the industrialized nations, the United States is the only one that does not provide basic access to health care to its citizens, even though more money is spent in the U.S. on healthcare than in any other country (APA, 2006).
Ostensibly, the public’s opinion of the U.S. health care system started taking on a negative connotation after the advent of managed care, which was introduced in the 1960’s. Managed care is defined as “an organized effort by health insurance plans and providers to use financial incentives and organizational arrangements to alter provider and patient behavior so that health care services are delivered and utilized in a more efficient and lower-cost manner” (Williams & Torrens, 2002, p. 125). Over the last forty years managed care organizations such as Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO), Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO), and Point of Service plans (POS) have attempted to control the cost by introducing efficiencies of management, utilization analysis and aggressive negotiation of insurance...
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