Healthcare Challenges

During my entrance into the healthcare program, the industry was facing a number of challenges. At the time, there was a declaration that the United States Healthcare was broken. This was because of the number of Americans that did not have insurance that rate of increase of premiums was also alarming (Ronsenstock, 2007). Notably there have been no positive changes occurring in the sector. In fact, the condition has been deteriorating. Currently, there around 45 million Americans that do not have insurance. Premiums are on the increase and the hassles for physicians and patients abound.

In addition to the previously mentioned challenges, there is the issue of an aging population and concerns about the healthcare system sustainability. There has been undeniable increase in life expectancy. This has the meaning more populations will suffer from certain ailments that have a relation to aging. The consequence of this is that this will have an effect on the sustainability of healthcare and the society. Currently, cost of healthcare is not sustainable. In accordance, there is the need of using scarce resource available in the sector effectively to meet the rising demand.

Over the next five years, challenges in the health sector are likely to increase owing to the improving technology. Technology is bound to increase the efficiency of the treatments and tests within healthcare (Ronsenstock, 2007). This will increase the cost of healthcare will equate to savings. Physicians will become better at treating patients and consequently increase the life of individuals. This will lead to an increase in the number of people requiring healthcare. Baby boomers will also cause a rise in the cost of healthcare leading to an increase in the instability in the sector.

References

Ronsenstock, L. (2007). Changing the US Healthcare System: Key Issues in Health Services Policy and Management. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.