Health Care Economic Issues Outline
Abdel, Susan
Erin, Irma
September19, 2011

I. Introduction
Providing health care service for uninsured and underinsured individuals in the United States is an ongoing concern. A report released by the U.S. Census Bureau reveals the number of uninsured Americans under age 65 rose from 45.7 million in 2008 to 50.0 million in 2009 and an estimated 25 million American’s were reported to be underinsured in 2007 (Gould, 2010). Uninsured are individuals not covered by any type of health insurance. Underinsured are individuals who have health coverage that does not adequately protect them from additional costs of care. From an economic perspective, the weight of this concern falls heavily on the leaders …show more content…

ii) Commit more money to preventative measures 2) Macroeconomics i) Lowering health care expenditures nation-wide ii) Decrease labor-market fluctuations
c) Tools supporting best practices 1) Opportunity cost 2) Measuring the value of services 3) Evaluating the scarcity of products
d) Benchmarking 1) Laws prohibiting discrimination of individuals with pre-existing conditions. 2) Government containment of health care costs 3) Tax break for purchasing health insurance 4) Monetary incentives for using preventative service 5) Universal health care plan
e) Policy and regulatory environment impacts on financial management of health care 1) Federal and state legislators are striving to develop policies, regulations, and reform to improve quality and constrain costs
f) Economic incentives and competition 1) CMS is the major spender on health care and provides the most reimbursements 2) Incentives are essential to promote quality of care i) Electronic Medical Records: Financial incentives from the government ii)