Open vs. Closed Healthcare Compare and Contrast

Open vs. Closed Healthcare

Compare and contrast the U.S. healthcare system with that of another developed country. What aspects of open and closed systems are exhibited by the United States and by your selected country?

The country that will be used for comparison is Great Britain, which operates its healthcare through the National Health Service (NHS, 2013). Most, but not all, of the healthcare in the country emanates and/or is regulated by the government. This stands in contrast with the United States which is basically the opposite in that there are a lot of taxpayer dollars spent on needs-based and age-based healthcare through programs like Medicare and Medicaid but most healthcare not directly tied to one or both of those services in the United States is ran by the private sector even if the government heavily regulates it as it operates. The United States spends roughly half its budget on retiree benefits including healthcare but the private sector is a main genesis point for health care investing and innovations whereas the NHS is often a major source of the same in Great Britain (CBPP, 2013).

The United States healthcare system is open in that just about anyone willing to meet the regulatory and licensing requirements can enter the industry in the form of being a health professional, a vendor or a sales representative while the ability to enter the Great Britain/NHS market is much more constricted and the route to getting into the NHS nexus is much more circuitous. In fact, the United States healthcare system basically forces people to use private sector sources unless there is a needs-based or age-based need for healthcare involved while going through the government in Great Britain is the norm.

2. Review the assigned article for this week, "Healthcare Payment Reform: Implications for Nurses." - An emerging political issue is to change the way healthcare providers are compensated to control healthcare spending. Nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers and can make the greatest impact on the healthcare system. Compare and contrast two advantages vs. The disadvantages of the policy to disentangle nursing costs from the patient room charges and/or organization charges. How can this policy affect your policy priority? Is there evidence?

A plus to separating nursing costs from the rest of the cost structure is that a lot of nursing is simply about comfort and spot-checking things that are already being checked by people higher up the chain in some form or another. Another plus is to be able to parse out exactly where the money is being spent and what is discretionary on part of the healthcare provider and what is part and parcel of the treatment or surgery in particular.

A reason to NOT do this is that nurses are the backbone of care and cannot be separated from the cost equation nor the measurement of quality of care vs. The overall cost, thus parsing out the nurse cost separately may be informative but to suggest it can be removed from the cost/reimbursement calculus is silly. Similarly, it's a bad idea because nurses do things that doctors are either overqualified to do or do not have time to do and that is the role that nurses and similar professionals fill.