Introduction. One-fourth of America’s population lives in rural areas. Compared with urban Americas rural residents have higher poverty rates, a larger percentage of elderly tend to in poorer health, have fewer doctors, hospitals and other health resources, and face more trouble in terms of healthcare services. A 55-year-old man dies of overt obesity on a mountainous home for lack of electricity and running water for being deprived of healthcare facilities. The irony however, is that America boosts and flexes the strongest economic muscle the world over.
Unbelievably though the united states spend 40 percent of its (gross domestic product) GDP and 75 percent more on a per capita basis than any other country world over on healthcare. “Typically, funding formulas for federal funds favour highly populated states, creating a variety of challenges for rural areas” Aging program director. Overview. Research discloses that rural America has fewer healthcare providers and consequently fewer managed care plans than ambitious urban markets. There are few practitioners and most leave rural areas to join managed care organizations elsewhere.
“ We need a psychologist. There are a lot of issues that people deal with out here in the sticks with no “real” help. Oh sure you can go to your minister, but they too live in this community and for too long and that becomes uncomfortable. ” Rural Resident. Most rural hospitals have closed; health care facilities on the other hand face a financial predicament. Lack of resources and poor transport infrastructure are barriers to access for rural population. “Though one wonders how true it is for America to lack resources”.
As a result residents face grueling outcomes and higher risks of death than urban patients. The absence of advanced life support training for emergency medical personnel. Identifying these factors may help shape solutions. Different conditions therefore, determine the type of plans that will develop and survive. Managed care plan development is likely to be the result of aggressive negotiations between the limited number of providers, managed care plans, local health systems or hospitals, and the payers.
Each rural region is somewhat unique, and considerable complexity exists in the rural marketplace. Strategies. Government Based Plan The integration of government and public policy could however, have fundamental influence on the market It’s the government’s obligation to ensure that it does not only act as a payer but also as cardinal entity that has the powers to institute rules that would otherwise act as a conduit which determines an equal basis bargain. It is however, necessary, therefore that the rules should entail a holistic view of of rural health delivery.
Areas exhibiting poor access, extra services could be vital to facilitate efficacy application of the system. While this may increase costs, it may also lead to better patient patients. The government has to also act as a “watchdog” ensuring the creation of performance standards and equitable access to care for all population groups. State plans should only be approved on conditions that they carry a statewide implementation vision that should occur in a twinkling of an eye in addressing this anomaly if health in rural America.
Medicare should be made available; in simple words it should be brought to the people and not the people to go for it. Thus the medically indigent population should be the beneficiaries. All sectors of the medically indigent population that is intended to benefit from the program. Scarcity of resources is also be a bone of contention in this scenario coverage of support services are of great significance since they effectively help to maintain a comprehensive care such as transportation, social work, nutrition and health education.
The federal government has the obligation to recommend the altering of the Medicare program basing on using the existing program as a platform to which new benefits and methods of financing the program are considered. This includes, an adding a prescription drug benefits to the Part B benefits, without altering the program. The same could be done with benefits, as occurred for preventative in the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. Implementing this approach has the new benefits through the integration of government regulations (Health Care Financing Administration) and private fiscal intermediaries.
Private Plans. The government’s extreme role hinges on the fact that it is the sole responsibility of the federal government to finance the program. An overt absence of government is unheard-of in this case recognizing that complete withdrawal of government financing will not occur. However, the federal government should consider providing vouchers to Medicare beneficiaries with a primary objective to purchasing health insurance in the private marketplace.
“As a member of the Rural Caucus of the Texas Legislature, you can be assured that I am well aware of problems and challenges of the rural areas of this great state. I applaud your efforts to identify and eliminate the regulatory barriers that hinder the efficient delivery of programs to rural areas”. Member of the Texas legislature. This dream could be realized by giving all beneficiaries to a new benefit but offer it through both private and public plans and subsidize the premiums.