Types of Health Care with Limited Budget - A Paper Example

Health care is one of the critical economic and social pillars determining the safety and well-being of the people at all levels of the society. For people to live healthier and better lives, States have to provide an adequate budget plan for all the existing types of health care services to ensure equity in access and acquisition of services (Grol et al., 2013). The premise explains why in the United States the spending has been increasing in unsustainable rate which is beyond the normal budget plan hence the need of control.

There exist three main types of health care, and this includes primary, secondary and tertiary health care services. The motive of categorization is to limit the budget to every level to ensure that the existing State budget is equally distributed at the local, district and county levels.

There are common reasons that justify the health care costs at these levels, and these include Under-utilization of advanced medical technology, distortion of the payment systems, failure of medical professionals to be aligned with the people's needs and the high administrative costs (Grol et al., 2013). Other facts that form part of the decision include; patient not involved in making decisions, demographic changes about the population of older adults and finally, increase in some chronic diseases and deteriorating health status of the people.

To be specific, the primary health care deals with the urgent but minor challenges of the people at the level. The need has been increasing due to the rise in the population of the elderly who require regular attention since they are exposed to risks of diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, back pains and depression among others. It is linked to social, psychological and physical problems. Notably, primary health care covers mainly the health concerns facing people at the local level and which may be referred to advanced levels for proper diagnose and treatment. It is therefore evident that at this level, the budget should be reduced or placed at a lower amount compared to the secondary and tertiary. The reason is, the population served is small, specialists are few, and medical technology is low (Kongstvedt, 2012).

Secondly, is the secondary health care which deals with referral cases from the primary health care. It deals with the complex emergency obstetric, neonatal care and emergency services. Also, it operates the cases of surgery, gynecological services, and other general medical concerns. In this type of health care, operations are done within a county or district level. It is ever open throughout 24hours and supports a large population compared to the primary care. Also, it has specialists and advanced medical technology hence the need for increased budget plan compared to primary health care but not exceeding tertiary (Grol et al., 2013).

Tertiary health care is complex and deals with the consultative medical issues as well as the compound problems that need special attention and more advanced medical technology. It deals with advanced cases involving plastic surgery, cardiac surgery, burn treatment, neurosurgery, cancer cases and any other interventions involving surgery (Kongstvedt, 2012). These health care stations are mainly regional and national serving entire nation and world population where necessary.

In conclusion, the government spending at the primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare should be controlled to ensure that they are compatible with the initial budget which is sustainable. The spending should also be limited in accordance with the needs of the people, medical technology and available level of specialization.

References

Grol, R., Wensing, M., Eccles, M., & Davis, D. (Eds.). (2013). Improving patient care: the implementation of change in health care. John Wiley & Sons.

Kongstvedt, P. R. (2012). Essentials of managed health care. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.