Trends in Healthcare Services
You are a member of a presidential commission appointed to consider a mandatory national health insurance plan and the question of how to fund the plan is being discussed.
Specifically, three separate options are being considered to generate an average of $4,000 per worker—a flat mandatory premium, a doubling of the current 7.65% payroll tax that comes out of people’s pay to cover social security and Medicare, and a 7% increase in income tax. Trends in Healthcare Services
Think about funding plans from the perspective of three workers:
- One who makes $25,000 per year
- One who makes the same in salary but also has $1,000 in investment income
- One who makes $85,000 per year, including $10,000 in investment income
Based on the above scenario, answer the following questions:
- Which of the three funding measures, considering the relative financial contributions it imposes on individuals such as these, would you support and why?
- How has the emergence of different types of health insurance plans—FFS, health maintenance organizations (HMOs), preferred provider organizations (PPOs), and capitation—affected the trends in healthcare services today?
- What economic and societal factors affect the demand and pricing of healthcare services in today’s health insurance market?
Evaluate how you have achieved course competencies and your plans to develop further in these areas. The course competencies for this course are as follows:
- Explore the historical evolution of the advance practice nurse.
- Differentiate the roles and scope of practice for nurses working in advanced clinical, education, administration, informatics, research, and health policy arenas. Trends in Healthcare Services
- Analyze attributes of the practice arena such as access and availability, degree of consumer choice, competition, and financing that impact advanced practice nurses and their ability to effectively collaborate with other health professionals.
- Integrate evidence from research and theory into discussions of practice competencies, health promotion and disease prevention strategies, quality improvement, and safety standards.
- Identify collaborative, organizational, communication, and leadership skills in working with other professionals in healthcare facilities and/or academic institutions.
- Synthesize knowledge from values theory, ethics, and legal/regulator y statutes in the development of a personal philosophy for a career as an advanced practice nurse. Trends in Healthcare Services
