Universal Healthcare The Pros And Cons
Universal Healthcare is being strongly considered in the United States. Universal Healthcare basically means that every citizen will be eligible for health coverage, regardless of their ability to pay for it. There are pros and cons of such a system.
First of all, let’s take a look at the pros of Universal Healthcare (also known as Socialized Medicine). The benefits are fairly obvious. If we cover each and every citizen with affordable or free health insurance, they will be able to maintain their health regardless of their income.
One major advantage of such as system is that it can literally save lives. People die in our country each day because they cannot afford healthcare. And that includes working Americans. That is a travesty! It’s heartbreaking that there are millions of people who are contributing tax dollars to our national economy who are not in turn given their most basic need: maintenance of their health.
It almost seems obvious that it’s time to take the cue from Canada and implement Universal Healthcare. Their citizens seem to be fairly happy with the system, and it has been saving lives there on a daily basis.
However, as is true with any system (no matter how good a system it is), no healthcare solution is without fault. There are some notable disadvantages to Universal Healthcare which are worth acknowledging.
One negative side effect to providing universal healthcare is that spreading something too thin causes it to lose its inherent value. If we try to spread out our healthcare, it is possible that the quality of care will go down. Why? Because the hospitals and doctors offices will have more patients to deal with!
Naturally, no doctor would deliberately decrease his or her quality of care. Unfortunately, however, if your patient count multiplies, it can be hard to keep up. This could be overcome by the increased funding from the government under a socialized system, since that could cover a boost in medical staffing.
The other disadvantage that could result from Universal Healthcare is a lack of availability of care, causing a decrease in access to healthcare for everyone, including those who could afford to pay for it. There could be waiting lists that could prevent people from getting the care they need.
At the end of the day, we have to decide if the few drawbacks are worth it, in order to help out our fellow Americans who cannot afford to have any care whatsoever.
Healthcare IT Solutions A Win-Win for All Stakeholders
Information technology (IT) has helped change the face of many industries. It is because of IT, that many organizations have had to face a strategic inflection point in their business cycle, for the better. Sure, the change was initially difficult but eventually IT has only proved to be an excellent solution to the many challenges that an organization faces.
When it comes to the field of healthcare, industry professionals are better off focusing on their core competency, rather than channel their energies to other functions of the organization in order to ensure completion of tasks. This is the reason why outsourcing of hospital IT infrastructure is taking place across the industry. There are immense benefits once this activity is outsourced, since the hospital administration can then dedicate its focus to the patient’s well being.
Healthcare IT solutions provide benefits like the application of industry best practices, control of operating costs, ease in coordination between various functions of the organization, eventually leading to superior customer service, etc. Healthcare IT provides valuable information on a real-time basis, and patient records can be viewed by the stakeholders with ease. Outsourcing of healthcare information technology will also help the organization have an effective IT strategy in place that is in alignment with organizational goals. Also, outsourcing of IT-related services makes a lot of business sense for the organization, since upfront investments in IT and the creation of IT infrastructure is an expensive undertaking.
Medical IT is beneficial for patients, too. Electronic Health Records, which is one of the technologies, ensures that patients can conveniently access their medical reports online, thus reducing paperwork. The same reports can be viewed by their doctor which helps them make quick decisions. This can come in handy, especially during emergency situations. In cases where a patient may have to see multiple specialists for a particular illness, each of them can view the same report, once they have access to view it.
Hence, the emergence of IT in healthcare is a boon for all the stakeholders and helps a healthcare organization achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the industry.
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