Cost Versus Quality of Healthcare in the United States

Cost Versus Quality of Healthcare in the United States
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Cost Versus Quality of Healthcare in the United States
The cost of health care in the U.S. is generally high. Though the rate of spending on health care has attenuated recently, the per capita expenditure on health care in the U.S. is still 50-200 times more than in any other country in the developed world (Burke & Ryan, 2014). However, despite the high spending on health care, life expectancy in the country is not the highest in the world. Moreover, the other indicators of quality also rank poorly. Studies have revealed that spending does not usually correlate with patient outcomes. To bridge the gap between spending and patient outcomes, there should be a collaboration between private insurers and public agencies as well as the establishment of tailor-made entities for payment and decision-making. Payer transparency, as well as reference pricing, must be expanded in order to reduce costs. The medical fraternity also needs to monitor overutilization of services and reduce regional variation (Burke & Ryan, 2014).
Various public and private agencies are involved in the promotion of health and healthcare research in the U.S. The National Institutes for Health (NIH), which is established under the Department of Health and Human Services (USHHS), is tasked with supporting and conducting medical research. The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), established under NIH, offers training and funding for nursing research. Also, under the USHHS is the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), which plays a critical role in handling the issues related to the quality and the cost of health care in the U.S. The agency is charged with the development of tools, knowledge, and data required to improve the performance of the health system. Moreover, the agency collaborates with other bodies to ensure that the evidence acquired is understood and utilized to provide better and more cost-efficient healthcare (Kronick, 2016). The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is a private agency that develops innovative strategies and tests best practices with the aim of improving healthcare. This is achieved by designing methods aimed at reducing costs for citizens with chronic conditions and assessment of methodologies meant to achieve cost optimization (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2018).
The various U.S. administrations have sought to address the cost and quality challenges in healthcare. The Affordable Care Act was meant to contain costs of healthcare without compromising the quality. By increasing insurance coverage, the Act improved accessibility to healthcare at the right time and under the right settings (Blumenthal & Collins, 2014). Underutilization of preventive care has been found to be a major cause of the advancement of diseases despite the high expenditure. Therefore, efforts have been put in place to increase value in the preventive care system. Interventions aimed at specific populations have also led to improvement in quality and containment of costs. Various care organizations that offer high-quality and low-cost care, such as CareMore and Permanette are also emerging, proving that cheap and quali...