Health Sector: Through the Department of Health

¶ … Health Sector:

Through the Department of Health and other health agencies, the government plays an important role in the development of the health sector. This is through the intensification of health systems and the production of human, financial and other necessary resources. Consequently, the government's involvement in strengthening health systems enables them to achieve their basic goals like improving health care, responding to people's needs, lessening health care inequalities, and protecting equity in financing of health care.

In the past several decades, the role of the government in the health sector has changed drastically because of remarkable changes and challenges that have occurred. The changing role has also been necessitated by the inability of health agencies to properly meet the health care needs of the population. Moreover, the affordability of health care services has forced the government to intervene with the aim of improving the efficiency and equity of these services.

The role of the government in this sector is likely to change in the future because of the increased costs of health care and the need for policy reforms. Since there have been many proposals on controlling health care costs that haven't not produced a long-term effect, the government will change its role in attempts to sustainably reduce costs. Economic recession is one of the major factors that have provided an opportunity for policy reforms in this sector and the need for controlling health costs (Kimbuende et. al, 2010).

The government is also likely to be more involved in the health sector because of the need to increase accessibility and affordability of health care services to the population especially the uninsured. The accessibility, efficiency, quality and costs of health care services have been a central theme of the government's efforts toward national health reform. With the need for an ineffective health insurance policy that caters for all groups including the underinsured and uninsured, the government will be more involved in this sector.

The increased government involvement will create more investment opportunities in this sector, particularly if these efforts significantly lessen health care costs. While many people benefit from investments in these sectors, investment opportunities have reduced in the recent past. This is largely because of the recent increase in costs, economic downturn and the increasing federal deficit. Through its increase involvement, the government will be able to lessen these impacts, which will in turn create more opportunities for investments.

In the recent past, the health sector has grown tremendously because of various drastic changes to become an important aspect of the economy. With an expected future growth, this sector will continue to have a huge impact on the economy and increased government expenditure. Notably, one of the key areas with the potential for growth in this sector is health care insurance because of the need to increase accessibility and affordability of health care. Health care insurance is likely to grow as more health insurance agencies and companies create better and affordable insurance policies. For investors, hospitals and physician group practice management are key investment areas because they account for over 52% of national health expenditures. These two areas continue to dominate the health care market and have increased tremendously in the recent past while providing ideal investment opportunities.