Challenges and Recommendation Facing the U.S. Healthcare Delivery System

Challenging Facing US Healthcare Delivery
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Challenging Facing US Healthcare Delivery
Despite the US being among the leading countries in biomedical research, the country is faced with myriad challenges in its healthcare delivery. Some of these challenges are a result of poor healthcare management, leadership, and transparency. Among the most notable challenges facing the US healthcare delivery system includes lack of transparency in the dissemination of healthcare services, avoidable healthcare errors, and unfortunate amenable healthcare mortalities, increased costs of pharmaceuticals, and shortage of healthcare workers, including physicians, fraud, and waste of pharmaceutical products (Hollister, 2008).
The physician shortage is a common and serious challenge facing the US healthcare system; with the US legislature attempting to cut down physician salaries, healthcare costs have escalated. Many physicians are poorly reimbursed, and as a result, most physicians have opted against receiving Medicaid patients. A fact that has led to increased costs of healthcare in the country (Hollister, 2008). To alleviate this challenge, college students undertaking medical courses, including primary care, should be provided with incentives to encourage them to pursue such courses. Secondly, there is a need for the legislature to increase physician wages and salaries instead of reducing them.
Another serious challenge is the lack of healthcare quality provided within the US healthcare system. This is evident from the medical errors experienced, the number of infant mortalities, life expectancy, and many other health indices. The US, just like any other industrialized country, spends a lot on the healthcare system. However, the returns on inputs are very minimal compared to other countries such as Taiwan, Singapore, and Germany, among others with the same expenditure. As noted by Perednia (2011), much of the expenditure on healthcare is spent on administrative and paperwork, something that rarely improves people's health. To enhance the quality of healthcare, several aspects need to be taken into consideration. This includes establishing the problem, developing measures to prevent the problem, and finally identifying approaches to measuring the established processes' success or failure. Such factors like improving physician incentives and eliminating medical errors should be looked into.
The US is a hub to many pharmaceutical industries. In its attempt to improve biotechnology within the country, the FDA provides a patent of twenty years for every company that produces a new drug into the market. The cost of establishing a new drug that can treat any illness has increased each year, that mo...