Technology and medical cost
...ition between hospitals and doctors for patient dollars, skyrocketing prescription drugs and hospital expenses and increased use of medical services are driving the medical cost up. Along with the skilled labor increase the nation faces the cost for the use of new equipment used to perform the diagnosis and testing so routinely performed. As surgical replacements of organs raise the healthcare costs, more health insurances companies broaden their policies to accept procedures performed today. Artificial joints and organ transplants can cost insurance companies from$1,000 to over $200,000 per operation. The pharmaceuticals are racing to make a better, stronger, more widely used drug. With this progress, researchers are receiving a profit as well as funding for their next venture. Many liver transplants are made possible due to the aid of a new drug called Cyclosporine. A nationwide shortage of nurses, as well a labor squeeze in other health care professions, has led to higher wages and benefits as hospitals struggle to recruit and retain employees. Education has rose in the last 20 years adding to the struggling need to cover the roles considered necessary to fuel the high tech medical field. The costs of malpractice insurance and the lack of availability of malpractice insurance for physicians has been a concern for hospitals. Health care is different from other industries because people have employer-sponsored coverage, so they’re not as price sensitive as they would be if they were paying the bill directly. The slowing economy is also a concern. Millions of people in the U.S. are uninsured each year. Hospitals can’t refuse care to the uninsured, so the amount of uncompensated charges continues to go up. The American Medical Association (AMA) has recently endorsed managed care as the method of cost containment. Managed care, if examined closely simply becomes another way of shifting health care dollars rather than lowering them. With such a system, physicians are encouraged to deliver less care, a dilemma that is incompatible with the physicians` Oath o...