Introduction
Quality, access, and cost are considered some of the main pillars of the healthcare system in the United States. In addition to these indicators, the equality of all citizens in the care they receive and the population’s overall health are also commonly emphasized. However, these two indicators are more or less derived from and thoroughly influenced by the main ones. The tracking of quality, affordability, and accessibility is essential to the healthcare industry and its principles of functioning in a democratic society.
Access
Access involves a combination of several factors whose control ensures that the industry performs at an appropriate level. It can be subdivided into access and use of services and access to coverage (Overview of the American Healthcare System, n.d.). Everyone has the right to full access granted by the state, regardless of ethnicity, gender, religion, or economic status. The very notion of access implies people’s ability to obtain needed services (Kline, 2022). Despite the inability of health insurance per se to provide access, it is a facilitator of entry into the health care system and provides a link between accessibility and cost.
Quality
The quality of the services provided is determined by how their outcomes meet the current level of medical progress, statutory standards, and patient satisfaction. This indicator is likewise related to price and access and has many key categories by which its level can be determined (Shi & Singh, 2022). The levels of effectiveness, timeliness, equity, and safety are such categories, and quality can be considered satisfactory if an overall decent outcome is achieved for each of them (Shi & Singh, 2022). The link with affordability is provided by equity and affordability of health insurance coverage and cost – by the affordability indicator.
Cost
In addition to meeting the client’s needs, the cost must match the level of health insurance coverage. However, without such, state or public assistance should support the availability of health care services to all in need and help pay for these services. The average cost of healthcare for the population is close to twenty percent of annual earnings (Overview of the American Healthcare System, n.d.).
Therefore, with the rising cost of health care services, the availability of care is falling, violating the industry’s principles. In addition, the key cost characteristics include not only monetary values but also the direct consequences of the service quality: the productivity of patients and medical staff, time, and logistical efforts (Kline, 2022). Thus, the duality of the cost of services for the patient also implies deprivation of part of health if the level of quality or accessibility does not meet the standards.
Conclusion
While it is impossible to deny the large number of costs required of the state to maintain the health care system, the increase in the cost to the population, which does not always correspond to the increase in personal earnings, is unacceptable. To ensure high-quality care, affordable prices, and broadly equitable availability of services, governmental attention to increasing funding for the industry would be necessary. Only by paying more attention to the allocation of money and monitoring the processes that take place is it possible to maintain and improve the level of medical care that every citizen deserves.
References
Kline, N. (2022). Health and immigration systems as an ethnographic field: Methodological lessons from examining immigration enforcement and health in the US. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 300(1), 114498. Web.
Overview of the American healthcare system. (n.d.). Boston University Medical Campus. Web.
Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2022). Delivering health care in America: A systems approach (8th ed.). Jones & Bartlett.
