Healthcare Cost and Abuse of Funds

Healthcare Cost and Abuse of Funds
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Healthcare Cost and Abuse of Funds
Part I
My topic of research is the healthcare cost and abuse of funds. In particular, I am interested in studying the above subject since, at some point in life, everyone requires proper medical attention. The most significant problem is that not all individuals manage to get high-quality healthcare services because some of them cannot afford them. Although there are numerous determinants of medical expenditures, patient care should be accessible, affordable, and convenient to all Americans. However, a high healthcare cost is the main problem that hinders many people from visiting hospitals when they become sick. Apparently, the primary part that the government and other stakeholders should consider when planning healthcare is the medical cost and how some money meant for the public are misused. For example, the United States of America (USA) has higher healthcare costs than other industrialized countries worldwide. In reality, medical expenses in the country are unsustainable. In 2016, the USA spent approximately 17.9% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which was $3.3 trillion on healthcare alone. The government healthcare program that deals with medical expenditures are Medicare, which was introduced by the Obama administration. Moreover, citizens pay their medical bills using their own money or from private health insurance companies. For this reason, by researching the topic of healthcare cost and the abuse of funds will help one to suggest several strategies that can be used to prevent misuse of money and lower medical expenses to ensure that services are accessible and affordable to all Americans. The primary hypothesis is: the abuse of funds significantly contributes to the increasing healthcare cost in the USA.
Part II
Dieleman, J. L., Baral, R., Birger, M., Bui, A. L., Bulchis, A., Chapin, A., … Murray, C. J. L. (2016). US spending on personal health care and public health, 1996-2013. JAMA, 316(24), 2627-2646.
Dieleman et al. (2016) affirm that the USA spending on healthcare has increased continually from 1996 to 2013. Currently, medical expenditures in the country amount to about 17% of the GDP. Despite the rise of healthcare costs, adequate researches have not been performed to indicate the reason for the increment by age or across time. The study was conducted by collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data from surveys, government budgets, insurance claims, and the official USA records. Some of the health problems where citizens spent more money were ischemic heart illness, neck and back pain, and diabetes. On that note, the article is vital in my research since it shows the trend of the increasing healthcare cost in the USA.
Kesselheim, A. S., Avorn, J., & Sarpatwari, A. (2016). The high cost of prescription drugs in the United States: Origins and prospects for reform. JAMA, 316(8), 858-871.
The pharmaceutical sector is under the healthcare industry. As such, the high prices of drugs in the USA is another significant factor that contributes to risi...