1) three types of healthcare workers that did not exist at the end of WWII (1945
ID: 405587 • Letter: 1
Question
1) three types of healthcare workers that did not exist at the end of WWII (1945)
2) Discuss what you think the reasons for the creation/growth of this type of worker is/was, what the financial, clinical, and political implications are on the healthcare industry.
3) Speculate if this type of healthcare worker will add to the total cost of care or will reduce the cost of care and why.
4) How the worker will impact the availability of care.
5)Provide specific examples that support your position, and also describe what you think the future for the type of worker you identify is going to be over the next 20 years.
Explanation / Answer
3)The major factors contributing to high and rapidly growing health care costs are reasonably
well understood even as there is still some debate about the magnitude and relative
importance of some of those factors. Some contribute to the high level of spending, others
drive growth, and some play a role in both.
In trying to explain what factors drive the unsustainable trajectory of health care spending,
it is certainly the case that there are both good and bad categories of spending. Many of the
resources used in health care are devoted to necessary care that can save lives, relieving
suffering and finding innovative ways to treat illnesses. Some degree of this spending,
however, adds little to the quality of care, has negligible impact on well-being or longevity,
and can result in more expensive though not necessarily more effective ways of treating
illness. The level and growth of spending are also inevitable outcomes of demographic or
economic forces that cannot really be classified as belonging to categories of either
effective or wasteful. Below we highlight some of the major factors influencing trends in
health care spending.
Technology
The most frequently cited cause of sustained growth of health care costs is the
development, diffusion and increased use of new technology broadly defined as
encompassing the use of any new procedures, drugs, or devices. The Congressional Budget
Office estimates that technology so defined accounts for anywhere between 38 percent to
more than 65 percent of health care cost growth.
Footnote: Estimates vary because of the difficulty in estimating the amount of growth attributable to new
technology and the various ways technology spending is defined by experts.
Some new technologies allow for treatments of diseases where there were none before.
Other advances are made to replace existing treatments. Some technology may provide
tremendous value while other forms are simply more expensive ways of producing similar
outcomes. Some new therapies may result in savings by reducing the length of hospital
stays or avoiding more serious consequences, but most new technology tends to increase
spending. Evaluating whether new technology contributes value as well as cost is difficult
because there is little empirical evidence that demonstrates how a new drug, device or
procedure affects health outcomes compared to the existing technology.
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