In some countries, healthcare is provided by government-run national health services that are funded by general taxation and provide free medical treatment to all citizens regardless of their income. These systems are generally considered more efficient than private healthcare, which typically requires that patients purchase insurance or pay for treatment on a fee-for-service basis.
Health care is unique in a number of ways from other industries: the health care product is difficult to quantify and the outcomes of that care are often uncertain, large segments of the industry are controlled by nonprofit providers, and the financing and delivery of health care is regulated in many ways that do not apply to other industries. However, the fact that all of these factors distinguish health care from other sectors of the economy should not obscure the fact that the same economic forces that affect all industries apply to the health care sector. The most important of these are the forces that drive costs upward and the incentives for players to maximize their profits, and the resulting pressures for efficiency and quality improvements.
A key issue in health care is the definition of what constitutes high-quality care. This definition usually includes the idea that the care should be safe, effective and responsive to patient preferences and needs, and should involve the active participation of patients in planning and decision-making. It is also important that the quality of care be evaluated in terms of broad measures of population health and quality of life, and not merely by individual clinical outcomes.
While these issues may seem like no-brainers, the reality is that a large segment of our population does not have access to high-quality health care. In the United States, for example, health care spending per capita is far higher than that of other wealthy nations, yet we have a lower life expectancy and poorer measures of health in general. Many of these problems stem from the fact that millions of Americans are unable to afford adequate health insurance. In fact, one of the most common reasons that people do not seek medical attention is because they are concerned that they will be unable to afford the cost of treatment.
The current state of healthcare in the United States is a disgrace. The uninsured are twice as likely to go without needed care than the insured. This translates into preventable hospital admissions for conditions such as hypertension and diabetes that, left untreated, can lead to expensive and life-threatening complications. The poor and the elderly are particularly vulnerable, because they have a harder time coping with rising healthcare costs than others. As a result, they are often forgo care and remain chronically sick with disabling diseases that could have been prevented or managed with early and appropriate care. And for those who do have insurance, the growth in health care costs has outpaced increases in household incomes, causing many families to be just one illness or accident away from financial disaster.