U.S. Health Systems

Running head: U.S. Health Care

U.S. Health Care System

Dr. Robert Lindsey

HSA 500: U.S. Health Care System

July 29, 2012

1. Identify and evaluate at least three (3) forces that have affected the development of the health care system in the U.S.

There are many forces that have affected the development of the healthcare system in the U.S. Health care is affected by social, economic, behavioral, political and technological issues. The three that will be addressed here include economic, social, and behavioral. Employment, health cover and costs are all part of the economic structure and part of the financial access to healthcare. With the spiraling economy however, employers did not drop or restrict coverage or prevent eligibility of its employees to continue coverage. In some cases they may have even reduced the costs by realigning the benefits offered or sharing in the cost. However, until now, individuals in jobs paying lower wages, working in smaller firms or industries that had the misfortunate of losing their jobs were more likely to be left uninsured but with today's economy the effect has expanded to a wider group of workers. Another economic issue affecting the development of the healthcare system is that employer-sponsored healthcare coverage has changed. Some employees are no longer offering health care as a benefit. This will continue to be an issue in the healthcare system if the economy remains in recession (American Medical Association, 2005).

Social factors that have affected the development of the healthcare system in the U.S. often interact with socioeconomic factors. Population size and composition as a social factor, has a great impact on health services. The population has grown tremendously, mainly due to the rate of natural increase and is attributable to high number of births compared to the number of deaths. The second factor is due to net in-migration and accounts for...