Increased Health Care Cost Sharing Works as Intended- It Burdens Patients Who Need Care the Most by Elise Gould

Article Review Week 3

By:

Professor:

HSM544

Introduction

The article I chose was: Increased health care cost sharing works as intended- It burdens patients who need care the most by Elise Gould. The reason I chose this article is because it addresses cost containments within the healthcare industry. The cost of healthcare in the U.S will and has always been an issue. By presenting a number of healthcare policies, in recent years, that share the same common goals of making households pay a substantially larger portion of the healthcare expenses by proposing costly deductibles, copays, and higher co-insurance rates. (Gould, 2013) Cost containment will assist in curbing pointless expenses. Reducing these types of expenses will help the patients and consumers improve profit to hopefully eliminating future damage.

The problem from the article is that uneconomical insurance policies fabricated the prices the consumer faced when looking for insurance. These were the policies that were provided by the public, an employer, or Medicare insurance. According to the article, by eliminating the distortion, it will allow the consumers to make a wise decision when picking and choosing the healthcare insurance plan that is best suited for their particular needs. This will help improve and stall healthcare cost growth.  (Gould, 2013) The objective is to make sure that patients are able to make an educated choice about the health insurance they deserve. The individuals that will have the choice of choosing the right plan for them will stay positive about everything, but those that can’t afford to shop around will believe that the proposed healthcare policies were a flawed strategy for healthcare cost containment.

Article Review Assessment

Whilst healthcare cost containment can be helpful to some, it can be flawed for many. This is because when trying to figure out what’s considered the best in the healthcare industry you cannot force the consumers to actually take the needed time to evaluate, assess, analyze, and determine the differences between healthcare cost.  The cost containment will serve no justice, if a part of the strategy is to get the patients to pay an inflated share of the cost. Where does this help if the patient is sick? In reality when it comes to this situation most consumers don’t have the knowledge to tell their doctor what decision to make about their diagnosis, let alone be able to tell them what equipment and procedures to use to determine that decision. Most times the doctor will chose the more expensive way to go about it. For example, choosing between a urine and blood test to determine pregnancy, one test will cost more than the other to perform. Consumers are unaware to what they are actually paying for services provided or service providers.