Comparative SummaryComparative SummaryThe quality of care as well as the care people receive is affected by the way societies pay for health care and the amount of resources devoted to health. In most countries, health care is financed by an organization associated with the government or financed by the government itself (Finkler & Ward, 2006). The government or the organizations associated with the government pay for health care services using taxes collected from people in the communities. In some developed countries for example, if there is a single-payer system, then government will pay for care directly, whereas in the United States part of the health care system is market-based, which means a portion of the United States health care system is paid for by private entities such as individuals and employers (Finkler & Ward, 2006). Even in market-based systems, the government sometimes provides health care to vulnerable populations because these vulnerable populations are usually funded by Medicare. Vulnerable populations are classified as a group of people who are not incorporated into the health care system because of various reasons. Some reasons these groups may not be well integrated into the health care system may include, but are not limited to, health, economic, ethnic, geographic or cultural characteristics (Flaskerud & Winslow, 2010). Some examples of vulnerable populations include ethnic and racial minorities, the urban poor and rural, immigrants who are undocumented and individuals with multiple chronic conditions or disabilities (Flaskerud & Winslow, 2010). Government and market-based financing both offer different advantages and disadvantages in health care financing. All societies are faced with making choices between how to provide access to advanced health care as well as basic health care, how much to pay for health care and which innovations will be made available to patients (Gapenski, 2008).
There are many differences between for-profit, not-for-profit and government funded health care organizations. For-profit health care organizations generally focus on making money, while not-for-profit health care organizations primarily focus on its patients and the quality of care. For-profit health care organizations do not answer to the communities they serve; rather, they answer to investors (Gapenski, 2008). The profits that are generated through the organization does not go back into the community, the profits are usually paid out to investors. Not-for-profit and government health care organizations usually return its profits back into the community by putting money into new technology, programs, services and better care that meet the needs of the community (Gapenski, 2008). In for-profit health care investors are the organization’s top priorities, where as in not-for-profit health care the patients are the organization’s top priority (Smith & Wheeler, 2000). In not-for-profit
for-profit organizations, the funds go directly to their patients(g) and to their care units(g), and not to their beneficiaries(g). For-profit and Government-led Health Care Organizations
To be effective, the organization needs to invest in more effective, “effective” services. This includes providing, expanding, upgrading and monitoring better care and providing services that people use each day while they have healthcare, improving patient care, reducing costs and improving the quality of care. The number of people covered should be a key indicator of the effectiveness of an organization’s business model. Not-for-profit health care organizations that do not have their patients’ services or are not in a position to provide those services, but may do, must also invest in new technology and services to reduce cost and improve the quality of care that people have. For-profit health care organizations should invest in these services and improve the service they provide. For-profit and Government-led health care organizations should also invest in the public sector that allows them to serve the community and the economy as a whole. For-profit organizations must: increase the frequency and quality of services available for users;
have a dedicated set of workers to work on these services and ensure that the services are provided as cheaply, as soon as possible per resident;
provide new services on a budget in light of patient needs. For-profit and Government-led Health Care Organizations
Each of the organizations should spend its money on training, outreach, development and other benefits for its customers and beneficiaries. Not-for-profit health care organizations don—and could not spend—money to make patients better, particularly those who are being treated for an illness that no one would do in the community’s existing health care system (Gapenski, 2008). For-profit and Government-led Health Care Organizations
The Department of Health and Human Services has a long-standing preference for employers, such as that of the National Association of Quality Organizations, which makes an active effort to recruit and train employees. Indeed, many employers are more interested in recruitment and training employees than in teaching and training workers. The Department of Health and Human Services must, however, seek to support it. The public works bureaucracy (NPD), for example, has a preference for employers that train employees. As a result there are few public works employees in the United States and the NPD’s preference will remain for employers with higher rates of annual turnover and more long-term commitments if the employees aren’t being trained for a lower hourly rate of pay (Gassman, 1991a,b). For-profit and Government-led Health Care Organizations
The National Association for Quality Organizations, which is a nonprofit of the Department of Health and Human Services, has extensive training programs which it uses to train its employees. The Association has a unique emphasis on public policy—for its purposes, it is responsible for overseeing the American Health Care Act of 2006 (HR 527; Schleier and Fitch, 2004). Its mission is to inspire and protect those who serve the public and those who work in the private sector. The organizations they serve must, on a monthly basis, recruit, train, train and train additional employees (Davies & Moore, 2006). Although it doesn’t directly train people, its members are expected to provide the services that have been developed for the specific needs of individual employees within a given organization. For-profit and Government-led Health Care Organizations
For-profit and Government-led Health Care Organizations (GHCOs) are made up of many different organizations. These organizations have no central office, and are organized by the Federal Government but have a number of administrative offices across the country. For-profit health care organizations are also incorporated or formed within the Federal Government. Some GHCOs are incorporated with the Federal Government as a part-of-government entity. For-profit and Government-