Artical summery

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Article Summary
Health remains a paramount issue to the individual and nation at large; quality, proper and affordable health care should be the goal of every government. The cost of healthcare has been a debate for a long time with providers and government arguing on the cost reduction strategies. This article gives the solution to the never ending debate on strategies to reduce cost and still achieving quality in the health sector. The article suggests that private insurance companies have the key since they have insight into the sector.
Studies by the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts studied the way to integrate quality health care and low cost and ensure Americans access good healthcare. The studies are scheduled to run for 5 years and the first two years have indicated a positive impact. The study proposes that health care providers get into agreements with the insurers on a budget-based contract. This is as opposed to the fee-for –service contracts that doctors have and feel that they are not satisfied. The contract proposes that a given sum of money is allocated to a doctor and his performance evaluated by the utilization of the funds. In the contracts the insurers do not dictate the tests and procedure patients go through. However, they will evaluate the outcome of the doctors’ practices after the fixed payment is done.
This system can be faulted by the fact that doctors; may be enticed to keep the costs low by denying patients some medical care; but, this is guarded against...