Introduction
The health sector is a crucial sector of any country that enforces a viable health care policy that allows the citizens to have access to quality health care. France has some a good health care system. The medical cover is based an insurance-based but for some of the services are not covered by the insurance. A good example of costs that the cover cares for is the monies that the doctor is paid. These fees that the doctor has to be paid are well addressed by posting them in a viable place that is open and visible for every person in need to be at a position to see them and access them. This case is quite different for the expectant mothers because the government pays for the total bills that are spent by this special person that need special attention. The children too are not expected to pay any amount of money to their medical bills for the state covers all the hospital bills for these minors too.
The amount of money paid to the specialist doctors is much higher much higher in comparison to those paid to the doctors from French. When the amount of money to has already been determined then partial cost sharing approach by the patient and the rest paid by the policy cover depending on the kind of cover and the amount of money that the cover has to take care for. The type of medicine is also a big consideration when it comes to money reimbursement.
Context and Importance of the Problem
Only the French Citizens only are covered by the insurance, the outsiders are supposed to take care of their medical bills on their own. In the United States of America, the case is quite different. In the United States, the insurance covers both the outpatient services and the inpatient services too. Only workers with the okay from the government get the insurance cover.
In this case of France, the money that is remitted to the insurance companies is deducted directly from the salaries of the employed persons (Duncan & Swayne 2018). These monies that are contributed are the ones that take care of providing health care to the citizens of the France nationhood. The average contribution of the money contributed by the employee to employer is in the ratio of eight to thirteen percent respectively.
The finances are contributed and remitted to the insurance company by the employers on behalf of the employees themselves. These contributions play a big role to ensure the health of the citizens is taken care of. The earning of the France citizens is almost the same to those from the United States of America. Just like in France the same methods of contributing the finances are similar to the United States of America. According to statistics, the United States spend much more monies to the health sector compared to the sum of money that the French spend on their health care insurance.
The insurance in French covers mostly covers the population that is active while in the United States it covers everyone. For the French, the monies contributed are divided among the regions. Monies’ distributions are done by the ministry of finance together with the ministry of social affairs. In the United States those patients who are more than 65 yrs. of age receive free medicine from the health facilities
Critique of Policy Options
The healthcare system that is used in both the U.S and France faces some crises that need to be taken care of if the system is to offer the residents of these two countries efficient services. The two countries have continued to experience an increase in its population and hence that translates to the straining of the current health care structures. In addition to that, the presence of expensive equipment in the hospitals found in these countries means that the healthcare services are too expensive to make sure that healthcare equipment is efficiently maintained and operated. The current inflation that has been experienced in the U.S hospitals means that both Medicaid, as well as Medicare, will be faced with challenges and the country’s budget will face some deficit (Mukau, 2009). In France, there have been cases of inadequate equipment have attracted various protests across the country which endangers the country’s health services.
If the health expenses are not taken care of in the U.S and France, there is a possibility that most citizens will be turned away for lack of medical insurance to cater for their medical expenses. The healthcare systems of both France and U.S share a lot of significant principles and the issue of high cost of treatment is experienced in both countries. The main problem that is experienced in both countries is that the poor and unemployed people fail to get the medical services that they may require since they can’t be able to pay for those services. It is unfortunate that countries that pride themselves with quality and efficient medical services may find themselves turning patients away for lack of money or insurance to cater for their medical expenses.
ACA and its’ expansion to all 50 states’ health care systems.
According to WHO, it is an every citizen’s right to obtain curative, preventive, palliative, rehabilitative treatment options with out fearing financial risk.
By providing an affordable, accountable and quality health care initiative to all the marginalized income population
The U.S government needs to provide supportive mechanisms that will ensure that the resilient treatment with restructured progressive health care systems those who fail to raise enough funds for their medical treatment access the services equally. It seems that the cost of treatment in the U.S will continue rising which is bad news to the growing number of citizens who are old and sick and those that fail to get Medicaid and other medical insurance due to their age and possibility of illness. The government needs to allocate more funds to state and local governance to monitor health care services and ensure that the private hospitals work together with the public hospitals to offer medical services to the patients (Himmelstein, 2018). The partnership between both private and public medical institutions and the government intervention in the health care issues will make sure that the healthcare services are accessible and affordable to all. The citizens that are unemployed and those that are old and with deteriorating health conditions should be included in the medical insurance schemes to make sure that they are not let behind in receiving health benefits just like other citizens.
Due to the shortcomings that have been realized in the cost and financing the medical care in America, there exists a need to check on the issue of cost before implementing the various new approaches. The current approach is likely to fail unless the government implements cost-effective measures to protect the poor from being denied access to quality healthcare. Some of the policies that are proposed and implemented in the U.S healthcare needs to focus on solving health problems and should ensure that all citizens access health services.
Policy Recommendations
The healthcare services in the United States aims at improving access to health care services and expand the universal coverage and thus reduce the spending of the of the citizens on the medical care. The medical cover seeks at lowering the medical cost involved in medical services to increase the provision of health care services and thus an advanced insurance cover should be facilitated to reduce the cost of medical services. The medical programs and health care insurance covers should be implemented to monitor the high cost of health services in the United States since it is higher than the rest of the countries.
The administrative cost that and spending of funds on similar medical services should be abolished through the formulation of legislation to ensure the overall cost of medical care is reduced. The government strategies should also ensure that the quality of health care services is improved to meet the desired levels that would mean that they are efficient to offer preventive and care for the patients. The imposition of confidentiality laws in France helps to increase the quality of health services offered by physicians and thus the government authorities of the United States should also ensure that effective laws that govern the conduct of the doctors are implemented to give the quality of services.
The mandatory contributions levied from the salaries of all citizens in France help to raise the money for the medical insurance and thus United States government should impose such measures in the United States to ensure that the funds are available to ensure the quality of the medical services. The contributions levied from the private companies should also be effectively managed to enhance to ensure that the universal health care goal is managed for all citizens (Dickman, Himmelstein, & Woolhandler, 2017). The provision of uniform services ensures that all citizens enjoy the improved medical services and thus the effective legislation should be implemented to ensure that all civilians are covered by the Medicare insurance and the health programs that target the civilian populations.
The government of the United States should allocate funds that are supposed to cater for the population that cannot afford the medical cover to ensure that every person can access the high-quality medical services like the French populations. The wages paid to doctors in the USA are higher than that of France, and thus the government should reduce the level of wages and use the funds to ensure universal Healthcare provision for all citizen (Rodwin, 2003). France hires foreign doctors who are paid using the public funds to enhance the quality of services, and thus the American government should also adopt the strategy to ensure that quality services are guaranteed to all citizens.
All citizens in America should be encouraged to take medical covers since millions of citizens lack the Insurance cover and think that it is economic to pay for the medical covers using their pockets. Partial insurance covers should also be encouraged to ensure that they adopt the French system where all citizens are covered. The medical covers should be uniform to ensure that the quality of medical services in America is uniform for all citizens. The people who are at a higher risk of being unwell for example the elderly and people with disability should be given special care that is covered by the medical insurance and catering for the special needs.
Citations
- Dickman, S. L., Himmelstein, D. U., & Woolhandler, S. (2017). Inequality and the health-care system in the USA. The Lancet, 389(10077), 1431-1441.
- Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations. John Wiley & Sons
- Himmelstein, D. U., Woolhandler, S., Almberg, M., & Fauke, C. (2018). The US Health Care Crisis Continues A Data Snapshot. International Journal of Health Services, 48(1), 28-41.
- Mukau, L. (2009). American health care in crisis: Fundamentals of health care reform. American Journal of Clinical Medicine, 6(4), 32-46.
- Rodwin, V. G. (2003). The health care system under French national health insurance: lessons for health reform in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 93(1), 31-37.
- Obama, B., United States Health Care Reform Progress to Date and Next Steps JAMA.2016Aug2;316(5):525–532.Publishedonline2016Jul11.doi: [10.1001/jama.2016.9797.
- S M Williams-Crowe and T V Aultman, State health agencies and the legislative policy process. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1403499/?page=1
