The Healthcare Situation in the USA - Special Academic Support

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Health Care in the USA

The system of health care in the United States of America (USA) is among the best in the world, offering good quality at an affordable cost and embracing global technological advancements. However, the healthcare situation raises many concerns, especially regarding long-term care, mental illnesses, a shift from inpatient hospitalization, and the general inadequacy in education related to the American medical scene. The flawed healthcare system barely empowers citizens to access proper mental care or plan for their long-term care; it has also made many Americans opt to use ambulatory services rather than hospitalization.

Impediments to Planning for Long-term Care

The Health and Human Services Department in the US reports that over 70 percent of Americans will need long-term care in their life, owing partly to the increased American longevity (Olson, 2017). Most American families fail to plan for the long-term maintenance of their members despite it being necessary to avoid inadequacy in financing its relatively high costs (Sultz & Young, 2017). Several factors hinder advance planning, including inadequate awareness, the high cost of long-term care, and a flawed system. Ignorance has made most individuals and their families not save money for their long-term care, for they overlook the challenges they may face in accessing special treatment later.

The American system of facilitating long-term care is also insufficient; it is quite ineffective. According to Puurveen et al. (2018), individuals find it hard to foot long-term care costs because they are expensive and take much time. According to Sultz & Young (2017), Medicare and Medicaid partially cater to the expenses, leaving a greater portion to individuals and their families, who often do not have enough resources. As a result, once their finances are strained, and they have little left, they depend on the American public sector for further aid. The system is inefficient because despite using peoples finances in the form of taxes, it is still expensive, of sub-standard quality, and with limited access; thus, inadequate. Effective Measures to Raise Awareness

The American government should educate Americans on the essence of insurance for long-term care; that would help the elderly and their families finance long-term care using money they gradually deposit. Secondly, it should also facilitate education on the importance of personal savings, which will come in handy for people as they age and can no longer care for themselves fully (Long, 2021). Essentially, such financial literacy will help keep the American people empowered to fund their long-term care plans. Furthermore, the American long-term care system should subsidize the age in place retirement plans, which will offer the elderly recreation and the necessary nursing they need. Although quite controversial, qualified longevity annuity contracts (QLACs) could help Americans finance their long-term care (Long, 2021). They provide guaranteed insurance when one reaches eighty years of age, using the savings once made to fund the QLAC. It is usually very expensive; therefore, if the government finances some part of the fees, it could be affordable for all, which would help most American families.

If adequately taken care of, the social aspect of long-term care could also help more Americans be aware of the need for adequate planning. Most Americans opt for home care for their elderly rather than public nursing homes due to financial constraints (Sultz & Young (2017). As a result, the family members are majorly responsible for caring for their elderly (Puurveen et al., 2018). The government should empower families to make the aging population feel belonging and communal love. The US government should ensure the elderly are connected amongst themselves and within their specific families. In addition, the relevant authorities should offer incentives to the family members who provide long-term care.

Factors that Caused a Shift from Hospitalization to Ambulatory Services

There has been a change in the US from inpatient hospitalization to ambulatory care services. Several factors lead to that shift, which generally affects healthcare centers, consumers, and the health delivery framework as a whole. The first factor is cost; ambulatory care services are less costly than inpatient medical care (McConville et al., 2018). They can be operational in any location that is less expensive than a hospital would. Their services are equally cost-effective since the health care specialists may engage their patients by delivering more elaborate services effectively. Hospitals, too, have established remote ambulatory medical care to compete with other healthcare facilities (Sultz & Young, 2017). The addition of mobile medical care services is less expensive than hospitals making capital investments in hospital infrastructure.

Ambulatory services are also popular with patients since they are more convenient regarding time and access to specialized medical services. According to McConville et al. (2018), emergency services users increased by nearly ten percent after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation. In addition, treatment is more manageable with ambulatory care; they handle chronic illnesses more efficiently with a team of mobile physicians in coordination. The support the patients receive from the ambulatory physicians helps them recuperate faster, for the ambulatory specialists are essentially referrals (Sultz & Young, 2017). Furthermore, ambulatory services have embraced technological developments in medicine, therefore, allowing them to deliver health care mandates more progressively.

Factors that Hinder Access to Mental Illness Treatment

The US barely caters to all mental healthcare needs of its citizens, for most of those who need those services cannot access them. Several factors impede access to mental illness treatment in the US. For instance, mental healthcare in the US is quite costly; the US health system poses several financial barriers. Mental illness treatment is even more expensive when the specialists prescribe regular therapy for their patients or specialized treatment, resulting in inconsistent treatment (Sultz & Young, 2017). In addition to the expensive mental disease treatment, most American insurance firms do not cover psychological disorders, and the US government equally allocates minimal resources to mental healthcare. Generally, due to these factors, mental illness treatment in the US is not well considered.

Another challenge to accessing mental illness treatment is the inadequacy of mental healthcare professionals. There are very few mental health specialists in the US, making it difficult to cater to most Americans diagnosed with mental illness. Patients with mental challenges living in most rural areas of the US can hardly reach mental healthcare because of the acute shortage of psychiatric health specialties within those regions (Greenwood-Ericksen & Kocher, 2019). Moreover, in urban areas, the situation is not any better; owing to few mental health professionals, the patients have to wait for a long time, usually, several months, before the psychiatrists can serve them. Community-organized mental health care initiatives are rare in the US, making the situation worse, with those affected hardly treated.

The other impediment to mental illness care access is insufficient education and awareness of mental illnesses. Unlike physical ailments or injuries which can be felt or seen, mental illnesses are difficult to identify; in most cases, people assume mental disorders to be personality complications. According to Arango et al. (2018), a limitation in knowledge about mental illnesses often leads to individuals suffering from mental incapacities thinking they are normal but are not. Some people with mental complications also reject medical assessment claiming they do not need it. Their families often neglect treatment, assuming they only suffer from mild attitude conditions.

References

Arango, C., Díaz-Caneja, C. M., McGorry, P. D., Rapoport, J., Sommer, I. E., Vorstman, J. A.,& & Carpenter, W. (2018). Preventive strategies for mental health. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(7), 591-604. Web.

Greenwood-Ericksen, M. B., & Kocher, K. (2019). Trends in emergency department use by rural and urban populations in the United States. JAMA network open, 2(4), e191919-e191919.

Long, K.C. (2021). The long-term-care quandary: Helping clients prepare. Web.

McConville, S., Raven, M. C., Sabbagh, S. H., & Hsia, R. Y. (2018). Frequent emergency department users: a statewide comparison before and after affordable care act implementation. Health Affairs, 37(6), 881-889. Web.

Olson, A. (2017). Retirement planning should include long-term care costs. USA TODAY. Web.

Puurveen, G., Baumbusch, J., & Gandhi, P. (2018). From family involvement to family inclusion in nursing home settings: A critical interpretive synthesis. Journal of family nursing, 24(1), 60-85. Web.

Sultz, H. A., & Young, K. A. (2017). Health care USA: Understanding its organization and delivery (9th ed.). Jones & Bartlett.

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