Finkelstein, A. (2021, January 22). Why It’s So Hard to Cut Waste in Health Care. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/business/why-its-so-hard-to-cut-waste-in-health-care.html
Summary
The article “Why It’s So Hard to Cut Waste in Health Care,” written by Finkelstein, an economist, outlines vital information on how the Pandemic (COVID-19) has caused people to receive less medical treatment (Finkelstein, 2021). The economist reveals that the conduct saves money but harms overall health adversely. In most health care policies, it is clear that the primary goal is to cut waste and, at the same time, preserve critical treatment for all patients. However, the emergence of the Coronavirus pandemic has a considerable bottleneck that has made it challenging to attain the goal (Wei et al., 2021).
As per Finkelstein, the emergence of the pandemic and its need for quick treatment has made other vital health care treatments, such as vaccinations, drop tremendously in the United States. The article indicates that people have been unwilling or unable to receive medical attention that is not linked with coronavirus, making healthcare spending decline sharply (Finkelstein, 2021). The evidence is portrayed by a 10% drop in overall total care expenditure in the first nine months of 2020 than a year earlier. Other essential health care concerns, such as hospital admissions for severe heart attacks and strokes and routine childhood vaccination visits, massively decline due to the pandemic.
Analysis
The article was written by one of the competent economists, Finkelstein, an economics professor at M.I.T. The information is presented efficiently with no grammatical errors and understandable language. The author brought significant insight regarding the low spending seen in most American healthcare facilities due to the coronavirus pandemic. Irrespective of coronavirus being a threatening virus requiring intense interventions, people are confused about what to do, making them reluctant to seek other health care treatments (Wei et al., 2021). For example, the article noted that radiological scans and routine cancer screening frequently declined with low follow-up treatment and spending.
The article’s reliability is undoubted because it is one of the oldest American newspapers based in New York and has a global readership (Mohajan, 2017). The consumer press has engaged various fields, including clinical, politics, business, e.tc, that affect our daily lives. The magazine, as of 2022, has new writers of over 2000 from different academic fields and touches significant domains, including healthcare matters. The magazine was founded approximately 170 years ago; this settles to credibility and accuracy of the information given by the author.
Finkelstein has indicated that reducing wasteful spending is one of the economic spendings of any health care policy. The health care sector in the United States comprises 1/5 of the economy, with one-quarter of spending wasted. Aspects like high administrative costs, improper medical care, and high prices lead to wasteful spending, insurance premiums, and taxes that do not benefit patients (Finkelstein, 2021). These aspects triggered by coronavirus pandemic emergence are significant to the nursing profession. The profession advocates for reducing needless medical care, guided by the patient’s stable financial positionality in making prudent health care decisions.
Relevance
The article’s topic is equally vital in giving an insight into how health care in the U.S. has encountered the problem of cutting waste during the pandemic era. As the author has indicated, the pandemic has cornered two primary levers employed in approaches to limit wasteful medical care. The strategies are anticipated to lessen patients’ demands and limit the treatment availability by care providers. As a result, indiscriminate effects and reduced treatment are born that are not vital in caring (Finkelstein, 2021). Patients are encouraged to make good decisions concerning health insurance plans that allow insurers to settle for some medical costs that may arise.
From the economic perspective, as per Finkelstein’s approach and the overwhelming evidence, patients, when they pay more, become entitled to use less medical care, the concepts that currently are practiced otherwise (they use less type of care). The author has noted the central aspect during the pandemic that hinders cutting wasteful care, including using less care types such as high deductibles. For essential care, patients paying a fixed fee has been evidenced to be appropriate to cut waste in health care. Such structure is equally significant in providing families and large communities a clear image of how they can cut waste during the coronavirus pandemic.
Reflection
The article is essential in health care settings in providing current trends regarding economic views and the direction towards cutting waste, especially during and after the coronavirus pandemic. The arrival of COVID-19 from China compromised vital aspects in the health care sector, including limitations to other treatments, hospital visits, and high cost of treatment (Wei et al., 2021). Less medical treatment that saved money was detrimental to many lives of people needing health care and treatment. Critical treatments such as vaccinations and hospitalization to handle chronic disease declined, with low spending and a high risk of mortality rates being recorded.
As the author noted from his research, during the pandemic, Medicaid skyrocketed preventive care at home, and emergency visits were discouraged, which made treatment spending further upsurge. Therefore, the article of Finkelstein is essential for the future to understand vital concepts surrounding cutting waste, especially when or after a pandemic (Welfens, 2020). Patients must be aware of the economic theory supported by increased studies that when patients have financial skin in the game to pay more have the advantage of using less medical care.
References
Finkelstein, A. (2021, January 22). Why It’s So Hard to Cut Waste in Health Care. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/business/why-its-so-hard-to-cut-waste-in-health-care.html
Mohajan, H. (2017). Two criteria for good measurements in research: Validity and reliability. Annals of Spiru Haret University Economics Series, (4).
Wei, E. K., Long, T., & Katz, M. H. (2021). Nine lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic improve hospital care and health care delivery. JAMA Internal Medicine, 181(9), 1161-1163.
Welfens, P. J. (2020). Macroeconomic and health care aspects of the coronavirus epidemic: E.U., U.S., and global perspectives. International Economics and Economic Policy, 17(2), 295-362.
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