HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE.
1. Public general hospitals that offer general care and support at subsidized costs to everyone in the nation they have specialized care facilities and health care professionals that are specialized in their fields. Community hospitals are smaller in capacity and offer routine care and are usually locally funded. Private hospitals are closed to the public due to their high costs which are as a result of the high quality of services they offer (Rehr& Rosenberg, 1991).
2. The health care system was restructured and underwent considerable downsizing in several counties since governments in these states wanted to cut costs to reduce budget deficits of the time as the world was under economic recession.
3. The health maintenance organization act was enacted in 1973 by the ninety third Congress, and its principal purpose was to stimulate the interest of consumers and service providers in the HMO concept and also to make health care delivery accessible and available to customers.
4. Consumers have a myriad of choices for medical insurance such as MCOs, HMOs, PPOs and IPAs which offer insurance products to customers under different premiums which are usually paid annually. The products are administered by some payers which include trusts, employers, insurance companies and HMOs.
5. A health maintenance organization is a medical insurance group that provides physician services for a given annual fee. It arranges and provides medical care and also offers preventative care for a subsidized cost to safeguard the health of its members (Rehr& Rosenberg, 1991).
6. There are three types of utilization reviews which include prospective, concurrent and retrospective whose purpose is to evaluate the appropriateness of the services provided in the health care facitity.in some insurance companies the primary care provider is usually the gatekeeper for all the care that is to be offered to the member.
7. The types of long term health care services include; nursing homes which provide care to adults, residential homes for the aged, assisted care living facilities, home health care where rehabilitative care is provided in the comfort of one’s home and hospice care for those who are terminally ill.
8. Activities for daily living are long term care of services that are offered to support an individual over a prolonged period (“Children’s Health And Health Care”, 2007).
9. The senior lunch program is set into place for the elderly in the society who cannot be able to afford basic meals or do not have the strength or ability to cook for themselves to ensure they maintain proper nutrition. The elderly population, as well as those who are disabled, is eligible for the program.
10. Case management in health care creates the avenue for medical health care professionals to be able to have an informed background of the patient which is important in diagnosis and treatment of the patient. Having a clear history of the patient makes it possible for doctors to make subsequent medical decisions that will be effective for the patient.
11. Being a racial or ethnic minority in the United States prevents one from accessing some services and opportunities such as employment which are readily accessible to the White Americans (Rehr& Rosenberg, 1991).
12. Women are more prone to illnesses and have a lower mortality rate as compared to men. The discrepancy of numbers is sometimes associated with the different methods of coping with various situations and the difference in a level of resilience between the two given genders.
13. The major health concerns of children are related to nutrition. When deprived of certain nutrient they succumb quickly to certain illnesses due to low immunity. The access of proper nutrients and health care is determined by their care givers who are beyond their control (“Children’s Health And Health Care,” 2007).
14. The homeless population does not have unlimited access to health care as the rest of the public dies. Thus, they usually succumb to the illnesses they have as a result of not being able to access proper health care in time.
15. The escalating costs of health care are pegged to the rising levels of inflation in the economy which affects the costs of services, health facilities, equipment and infrastructure as a whole.
16. Regulatory policies help shape health care in America by providing a standard guideline of how services should be provided and also regulating the conduct of health care providers to ensure quality services are offered.
17. An increasingly elderly population affects increases the health care costs due to the level of dependency on the economy since they are retired and are not offering any form of input back to the economy.
18. Interest groups represent the needs of the larger population ensuring their needs are well represented in the policies (Rehr& Rosenberg, 1991).
19. Americans have rejected a national health care program over the years since they find it constricting regarding choice. Having a standard plan that is used by all limits individual independence to make a choice outside what is offered.
20. The United States should adopt a universal health care policy like other industrialized nations to ensure that everyone has access to health care.
References
Children’s Health And Health Care. (2007). Health Affairs, 26(2), 314-314. http://dx.doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.26.2.314
Rehr, H. & Rosenberg, G. (1991).Social-Health Care. Social Work In Health Care, 15(4), 95-120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/j010v15n04_05
