Health care Financing
The Healthcare system, also known as the health system, refers to the organizations made up of persons, organizations, and resources whose aim is to provide healthcare services to meet target inhabitants’ health requirements. Nurses play a noble task in delivering healthcare services. Therefore, it becomes necessary for the nurses to comprehend the matters that are linked to healthcare, which include funding that affects healthcare delivery. Nurses are also known as patient advocates, and they are in a place to work with the patients and their relatives to help them access means to bump into their healthcare requirements. Different nations have different healthcare systems that can be compared against each other and come up with a nation with a health care system that takes care of everyone in the society, including the rich and also the poor.
To compare the healthcare systems of different nations, the united states’ healthcare system and that of Germany will be considered. To begin with, health care in the united states is delivered by a number of diverse groups. Health care amenities are mainly possessed and run by the citizen sector (Gottschalk, 2018). A citizen sector is a sector that is privately possessed by persons or groups. It is customarily as a means of an initiative for revenue rather than being retained by the government. This makes the United States health care system exclusive among other progressive developed nations. United states lack a uniform health care system and widespread health care coverage. It also lacked healthcare coverage for everyone until recently when it endorsed legislation authorizing healthcare treatment for everyone.
The government funded 64% of healthcare expenditure in the year 2013. It was funded through programs such as Veterans health administration, Medicare, children’s health insurance, and Medicaid (Gottschalk, 2018). People below 65 years of age get insurance through their family members’ employers by buying health assurance individually or remaining uninsured. For the community sector, the government provided health insurance for workers in its role as boss.
Unlike the United States, Germany, on the other hand, has a widespread multi-payer health care system. This is a form of universal health care in which a lone public scheme covers the expenses of vital healthcare for all inhabitants. From a study carried out by the world health organization, it was discovered that the government funded 77% of Germany’s health care, and the other 23% was privately funded back in 2004 (Grunow & Nusheler, 2014). In the same year, 2004, Germany was ranked number thirty in the world in life expectancy. The infant mortality rate was very low, which could be attributed to the excellent health care system that it had. The contrast of European health care systems, which is based on waiting time, outcomes, and liberality, also known as the Euro health consumer index, placed Germany in the seventeenth spot in its analysis in 2015 (Grunow & Nusheler, 2014). The Euro health consumer index discovered that Germany had the most restriction-free and consumer-oriented healthcare system in Europe. Patients in Germany are permitted to pursue any care which they wish and when they want. The government keeps health record reserves through the health system, which makes Germany’s healthcare system, one of the healthiest systems globally.
There is also an existing difference in the two healthcare systems of the united states and Germany, which is about how the jobless, children, and people who are retired access the healthcare services. In the united states, the healthcare system does not offer health care to the nation’s whole population. Utmost inhabitants are covered by a combination of sequestered assurance and central state programs (Langenbruch, 2016). To the unemployed people, there is a health coverage option that they can use to access health care. The unemployed can get a cheap health cover plan through the market place, with investments based on their revenue and household size. Such people can also meet the requirements for low-cost or free coverage over Medicaid or the juveniles’ health coverage programs. The household size of an individual and income are the ones that determine what health coverage someone is entitled to and how abundant help they will get remunerating the coverage. For retirees, they can also access health care by the use of the marketplace to buy an insurance plan.
Germany’s health care system, on the other hand, is different from than one of the united states. It is said to be one of the healthiest healthcare systems globally. The health issues of the country’s entire population are taken care of by the healthcare system (Schenker, 2014). Children, the unemployed, and the retired people are among the people in the society who can be said to be poor. Some of them lack enough money to at least buy food. Money to take care of health is, therefore, extra charges, which to many, it can be hard to get. This is, however, not a problem in Germany since the health care system is considerate of everyone. It is not a requirement in Germany that one must be insured to be able to access health care services in the event of sickness. Both the rich and the poor have easy access to the health care system in Germany, and this gives the reason why Germany is said to have one of the best health care systems across the world.
Coverage is a term which refers to a quantity of the range to which the services rendered shield all the possible requirement for the services in a community. Therefore, coverage for medication would mean the extent to which a healthcare system renders health services to the community members (Langenbruch, 2016). The united states health care system allows the patients to access medicines in various ways, which include health insurance coverage. If a patient has coverage from a health insurance exchange plan, an employer-sponsored health plan, or programs such as Medicare or Medicaid, the patient may experience different opportunities and challenges in accessing the medicine. In Germany, the health care system is funded by statutory contributions, which ensures free healthcare for everyone. Therefore, it means that patients can freely access medicines from all the health care facilities in Germany since they are all paid for. The citizens are also allowed to take out private health insurance to replace or to top up state cover. Unlike the united states health care system, the one for Germany does not require people to be insured for them to be able to access any medicine.
A referral is a distinctive pre-approval that health planners, especially the ones with a point of service, must get from their selected primary care doctor before seeing a professional or another medic within the same network. The united states healthcare system requires that a person in need to get a referral to see a specialist to write a letter of referral to the consultant or specialist explaining their condition and their medical history (Schenker, 2014). This process is charged. The person can only be referred to the specialist if their former doctor believes that the specialist treatment or assessment is necessary. If they do not think that it is necessary to refer the patient to the specialist, they deny the patient the referral permission. Germany’s healthcare system differs in that the former doctor’s opinion on the patient does not matter. If the patient asks to be referred to a specialist, they are just granted their wish provided that they can pay for the specialists’ services.
Since the united states healthcare system allows people to get ensured for their medical care, the health insurers do not charge extra or deny treatment to an individual or their children because of a pre-existing illness. This is also the same case with Germany’s healthcare system, which does not charge or deny coverage of the patients’ pre-existing conditions. The financial implications of the united states healthcare system are severe to the poor since it requires that they get insured for them to be able to access health care services leaving the poor disadvantaged. Germany, on the other and has everyone taken care of regardless of how rich or poor someone is. They all get fair treatment, which makes Germany’s health care system to be one of the best across the world.
References
Claxton, G. (2016). Pre-existing conditions and medical underwriting in the individual insurance market before the ACA. Montana, 152.
Gottschalk, M. (2018). The shadow welfare state: Labour, business, and politics of health care in the united states. Cornell university press.
Grunow, m., & Nusheler, R. (2014). Public and private health insurance in Germany: the ignored risk selection problem. Health Economics, 670-687.
Langenbruch, A. (2016). Quality of psoriasis care in Germany: results of the national healthcare study. Archives of dermatological research, 401-408.
Schenker, Y. (2014). Oncologist factors that influence referrals to subspecialty palliative care clinics. Journal of oncology practice, 37-44.