Impact Of Consumerism On LongEssay -term Health Care System Reforms Essay - 1,509 words

Impact of consumerism on long-term health care system reforms Americans find the good quality of health care system as a very important part of everyday living. Still over 3/4 of Americans believe that the current status quo of the US health care system is in deep crisis. The US government understand the necessity of quality medical care and the role of consumerism on long-term health care system reforms in the USA and therefore constantly debates over the extra spending on health care for the fellow Americans (Mattingly, 129). Still, the extra inflow of finances does not guarantee an immediate improvement of the whole health care system of a large country like the USA. The need for consumerism to take control of the health care system in the USA is apparent and it motivates the government to launch long-term reforms based on that given notion for the necessity of consumerism (Peters, 320). I can also add that one has to take into consideration the US beliefs, attitudes, and values when searching for the health care system reforms based on consumerism for this country. Currently American citizen believe that the health care in the United States of America should be first of all easily available and accessible to all people in this country.


The second priority is given to quality of health care and the knowledge of the medical personnel in all hospitals or clinics (Stephenson, 25). The last but not least, according to the majority of Americans should be efficiency of the medical care system meaning that should there happen some accident or there is a need for immediate surgery, the US system is ready to promptly respond to all the market demands defined by consumerism (Peters, 322). These three building blocks of the US health care system as mentioned above reflect fully the consumerist view, and habits of the American patients and serve as a guide for reforming the US healthcare system in the long run. I should also like to draw your attention to the fact that the US confidence in the American health care system has declined for the past 3 years mainly because 3 of the aforementioned criteria for a desired system were not met in the American hospitals and clinics. At the same time, the American true belief that it is still possible to change the health care system in the long run mainly because of the consumerism is the engine that drives the US health care reforms forward (Mattingly, 130). Here I would also like to comment on the fact that the percentage of the US patients who believe that the current US medical system requires much change has grown from 40% in 1980s to 75% in 1990s to 84% in 2002.


The majority of the respondents believe that they still do not have a proper access to the US healthcare and also expressed their concerns about the high costs associated with the medical care in that country. The most important change based on consumerism, they believe should be about emergency healthcare in the USA (Stephenson, 29). One should also not forget that those US patients who expressed their opinions about the need for urgent changes and long term reforms in the USA health care system also expressed a high level of confidence in the quality of care on a regular basis. Also they stated that consumerism, indeed, should be the sole engine to drive the main reforms in the US health care system (Gnom, 329). The same American citizens who already received urgent or regular health care from the USA medical institutions claim that the quality of service and the medical personnel competence was extremely high. Out of those patients, over 76% percent find the role of the US government as a controller of the medical system and an arbiter of the consumer based long-term health care reforms in the USA extremely important and needed to assure the high quality development in the medical system. The majority of the middle to lower class Americans also find it necessary for the US government to continue with the Medicare and Medicaid and not rely 100% on consumerism for all strata of society. It is also preferred by that number of people that the US government should support home care for the unprivileged groups of people.


Still some of them (over 20%) stated that they would love to have a socialistic health care system similar to Canadian that provides medical services free of charge, while getting the financing through taxation of every person (Mattingly, 133). Speaking about the long-term reforms in th ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: health care, care system, u.s. government, medical care, reform

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