- Published: December 28, 2021
- Updated: December 28, 2021
- University / College: The University of Newcastle, Australia (UON)
- Level: Doctor of Philosophy
- Language: English
- Downloads: 26
Access Care The article highlights Massachusetts’ experience with health care reform especially by examining data on employment in the healthcare industry to ascertain the impact on the health workforce. According to the article, the Massachusetts’ healthcare legislation served as a model for the national healthcare reform legislation passed in 2010. Although the state has achieved almost near universal insurance coverage there have been challenges of growing health insurance premiums, increased spending on healthcare, as physicians are concerned with access to primary care and administrative burdens (Staiger, Auerbach & Buerhaus, 2011). The article indicates that the healthcare reform in Massachusetts has triggered growth of total healthcare employment per capita. However, the growth was primarily based on administrative occupations and patient care support professionals and not amongst physicians and nurses. This is probably because the physicians complained of the administrative burden that the law imposed on them. The program may be costly because of the need to employ more physician and nurses.
Effects of Increased Access to Care on the Providers
Increased access to care will have a great impact on physician who may in turn get dissatisfied with their jobs and perhaps quit. The increased access will promote third party payment arrangements, which largely compromises the independence and integrity of the medical profession. Moreover, the physicians will be subjected to increased government regulation as well as oversight and will mostly be dependent on unreliable government reimbursement for medical services thus resulting into tremendous pressure amongst the practitioners. Patient centered health care reform should be adopted that restores doctor patient relationship thus making physicians the key decision makers in the delivery of care as patients become key decision makers in financial care but not the government.
Reference
Staiger, D. O., Auerbach, D. I., & Buerhaus, Peter R. N. (2011). Health Care Reform and the Health Care Workforce — The Massachusetts Experience. The New England Journal of Medicine, 365(12), e24. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com/docview/893766044? accountid= 14872