Healthcare Reforms

Image by Mark Sardella via Flickr

I attended the HSM Bootcamp. It was interesting to think about the amount of money that United States alone spends on HealthSector to give way to the unmet needs of millions of Americans that suffer from chronic diseases everyday. 16% of America's GDP alone contributes to healthcare spending. In terms of healthcare spending growth it is as high as 6%. This is higher than the growth of the economy.

WHY is healthcare a topic of hot discussion at the government?
- Healthcare is a topic of fierce discussion as it grows at a level higher than the overall economic growth of 4%. The healthcare growth is higher than the inflation of 1.5%. It is 6% growth of the sector that justifies such a great deal of attention.

What are the healthcare reforms?
- improve access to healthcare services - defined as healthcare insurance
There are 45 million Uninsured americans in United States alone
-improve the quality of health care services - through quality system, payment reinforcement and introducing Healthcare IT
HIT and Evidence Based Management are reforms that will help in the long run.
- reduce the cost of healthcare to make it more affordable to the growing population.

What is one of the largest public programs and how much is the spend on that?
CMS - Centre for Medicaid spends 466 million $ on Medicare. Medicare is a program for those who are 65 and above and cannot afford medical benefits.19% of health expenditures is spent on Medicare alone. 14% of proposed Federal Budget is spent on Medicare.

What do different types of services spend on Medicare?
- Hospital- Hospital alone spends 29%
- Physician and Clinical Services spend 21%
-Prescription Drugs spend 24%
- Home Health Care spend 39%

There is going to be an interesting debate on how the market reforms in healthcare will shape up the growth %age for the industry. We will have yet to see the effect of reforms on payers, providers, beneficiaries and state. The entire reform ultimately needs to get reached to the end beneficiary.