The world is changing day by day, and the healthcare sector is also experiencing massive changes regarding healthcare policies, practices, demographics, diverse disease patterns, and evolving treatment plans. According to WHO, increased urbanization has gone hand in hand with the evolving diseases (cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases), changes in diets, and physical inactivity of people contribute to the higher rate of diseases due to unhealthy lifestyle choices among the population. Air pollution and TB are killing millions of people each year. A healthy healthcare system is needed to eradicate or to get rid of these diseases which will eventually help the nations to enhance people’s life expectancy Healthcare financing is the mobilization and allocation of funds to cover the health needs of the people in a health system.
The purpose of health care financing is to avail funds as well as to ensure that all individuals have access to adequate public and personal health care. Usually, the required funds for public sector healthcare services are taken from taxpayer money (Asiskovitch, 2010). For example, the ACA focuses on providing healthcare to a population that is unable to pay for medical services and is therefore at grave risk of illness and life-threatening diseases. The way healthcare services are financed, to some extent, determines the level of health status within the country.
Health care financing has some impacts on health outcomes; public health financing plays a useful role in life expectancy because a significant portion of the overall populace in underdeveloped and developing countries is unable to afford expensive healthcare and needs government aid (Agency for Healthcare and Quality, 2011). On the other hand, privately financed health care is costly and entirely out of the reach of an ordinary man, and therefore, the health status of such people will continue to deteriorate.
With the changes in healthcare technological advancement and the increased patient expectations, the role of nurses is evolving as healthcare professionals. As the health system is changing, nurses may find they need to attain more skills, and knowledge to efficiently perform.
References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). (2011). Access to healthcare. In National Healthcare Quality Report, 2011 (Chap. 9).
Asiskovitch, S. (2010). Gender and health outcomes: the impact of healthcare systems and their financing on life expectancies of women and men. Social Science & Medicine, 70(6), 886–95
