Generic drugs and managed care in current health care policy

¶ … health care issues that can be the basis for determining appropriate policy priorities.

Review current literature and fully discuss hot topics, current reforms and two issues that should be imperative to health care policies.

The health care industry is fraught with issues that will continue to impact policies on a federal, sate and local level throughout the coming years. Disease management, health care reform and the threat of terrorism are all critical issues.

The Impact of Current Health Care Issues

The following memorandum outlines and discusses several challenges that are currently facing the health care industry. There are many flaws in the current health care system in this country and eventually legislation and policy reforms will need to be implemented in order to return health care to a "healthy" state.

The issues facing health care policy makers are numerous but some are more critical than others and need more immediate attention. The following list is not all-inclusive but identifies 5 issues that can be considered life-threatening topics that will have a significant negative effect on the population and health care itself, if ignored. Next, two of these issues are discussed in more depth because of the nature of their significance.

Key Issues

HIV disclosure. The issue surrounds privacy and how much personal information needs to be disclosed to others by an HIV patient and their physician.

Managed Care is another pressing issue that determines the limitations of care that can be provided by physicians to their patients based on the mandates of their health care plan.

Resource Allocation is theoretically a debate about who should get what kind of care and what the ramifications are to others.

Generic Drugs have been on the political platform and offer patients the ability to purchase lower-cost generic drugs.

Prescription Drug Plans for Seniors has long been a debated issue over providing coverage for our aging population.

Issue Discussion

Health care is changing dramatically; faster than the issues can be addressed but legislation and policy reform are being considered to implement changes that would provide beneficial results.

Managed Care

There's a trade off connected to managed care initiatives and often that's the benefits themselves. Managed Care has been touted as an attempt to lessen the financial burdens of health care costs but at whose expense.

There are several choices that fall under the category:

HMO - patients have a primary care doctor. Patients pay pre-set monthly fees in addition to co-payments. HMOs provide preventative care and make referrals to a specialist only when deemed necessary. This is a cost savings measure because there are low out-of-pocket costs. The incentive here is for doctors to have healthy patients.

PPO - patients visit one provider. Low deductible. Costs are reduced because the provider agrees to a set fee. Patients can see doctors out of their network but at a higher cost. PPOs can also be very restrictive.

Flexible Spending Accounts - a medical savings account that is tax exempt. Monies are used to pay for services that are paid out-of-pocket before the deductible is reached. Patients control the cost of what they spend. In essence, this can cause health care costs to rise because patients may seek the lowest cost alternative and not the best.

There are a lot of issues regarding health insurance. Many patients can't afford insurance and thousands of dollars are lost each year by doctors and hospitals that provide services they are never reimbursed for. The managed care choices listed above do not provide the complete solution to a very complicated issue but they are cost containment measures have been proven effective in lower health care costs.

Access to prescription medications and appropriate health care will undoubtedly reduce health care costs. Policies and reform must be initiated and reinforced if the state of health care is to change. Lower costs will make quality care affordable for more people and addressing the key issues is the first step to achieving that goal.

Information Sources

Health Care Woes Boost Generics Bill. http://www.washingtonpost.com.August 2002

Issues in Healthcare. http://www.geocities.com. http://www.managedcare.com

Weekly Check on Health Care Costs and Coverage. http://www.washingtonpost.com.November 2002