Cost, Quality and Access

Cost, Quality and Access

Overview

Healthcare today stands on three pillars: cost, quality and access. Each of these pillars is in direct correlation to the other, and failing to strike a balance among them can be a great drawback to healthcare reform. Balancing the three pillars means working out the different quantities of each that should be applied at any instance to achieve the best result. Cost refers to the finances needed to provide healthcare to all recipients involved. Quality is the measure of the level to which the desired outcome is realized, while access refers to the level to which or the ease with which these healthcare services are reachable to the recipients.

Healthcare reforms are necessary to make certain that the well-being of the society is attained. However, putting these reforms into operation and predicting the outcome thereof is a very difficult task. Cost, quality and access of healthcare services remains to be a difficult task even in the most developed parts of the world. For instance, over 50 million Americans are unable to afford health insurance because of its high cost. Medical expenses have become so expensive that the cost of healthcare has become the number one cause for any case of economic failure. One would expect that high cost of healthcare directly translates to high quality services, but that is not the case in America. Extreme overuse or under-use of resources has become the norm in healthcare services. Some of the resources are misused. For instance, in New Jersey, approximately $10,000 more is used on a person for costs related to death than in other parts of the continent. This extra cost per person does not translate to better ways of dying or better services after death.

Attempts by several states to make health reforms have proven how intricate it is to balance between cost, quality and access. Such states have tried to reduce the cost healthcare by saving and minimizing on health costs. The savings made are...