American Healthcare System

Questions: 1. Who are Ben Rush, Flexner, and Koch? What did they accomplish?2. Compare advantages of MD training?3. How has MD training changed since 1800s?4. What were some problems with Flexners report?5. How have hospitals evolved?6. What was the original purpose of insurance and why has insurance grown?7. What is the difference between Medicaid and Medicare (in detail)?8. What is the difference between buying a widget vs healthcare?9. Why do healthcare costs continue to increase and what are some solutions?10. What is a PPO, HMO, deductible, risk rating, HSA, co-pay, and denial? Answers: 1. Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), Robert Heinrich Herman Koch (1843-1910), and Abraham Flexner (1866-1959) were enlightenment intellectuals who are known for greatly contributing to the development of medical education in the country. On his part, Rush, a renowned physician and professor of chemistry, he did a lot of research that really reformed medicine. Koch, a pioneering microbiologist is credited with discovering the causes of the troublesome Tuberculosis (TB). Flexner, on the other hand, is praised for his Flexner Report that transformed medical education and made what it is today. 2. MD training should be recommended to all medical students because it has many advantages. First, it is a structured kind of training that is properly designed to suit learners and make them to be creative and critical scientists. Besides, it gives learners an opportunity to enjoy an extended period of learning and mentorship. This gives them enough experience to be competent professionals upon a successful completion of their studies. 3. Indeed, MD training is an evolving process that has undergone a lot of changes. At the beginning, in the 1600s, during the colonial period, medical practitioners were mainly subdivided into apothecaries, surgeons and physicians based on the level of their education and experience. As time went by, more changes were introduced such as the building of medical colleges, setting of admission standards, introduction of specializations, MD courses, licensing and certifications of practitioners. 4. Although Flexner Report is celebrated as the most important development in the history of medical education in the USA and Canada, it was criticized for leading to the restriction of access to medical education because it made it more expensive and restricted for the minority and disadvantaged groups such African-Americans and women. This is why the enrolment rate to medical schools declined from 28,000 to 14,000 by 1920. 5. The changes in the medical sector have not excluded the hospitals because they are also evolving as well. Initially, hospitals were built using different designs, offered services to clients and used little technologies. Today, all these have changed because of the expansion of departments, increase in the number of patients and technological innovations that was not there before. At the same time, hospitals now focus on delivering equitable, safe, efficient and patient-centered care. 6. Originally, health insurance was exclusively used for catering for the boarding and nursing care services gotten at the health care facility. Today, insurance has grown because it is needed to cover all hospital expenses including the physician bills and medication. 7. Unlike Medicaid which is a federal-state insurance scheme, Medicare is a federal government health insurance scheme exclusively for the old people who are over the age of 65 years. 8. When one buys a widget, one uses money to acquire a good. However, when buying healthcare, one acquires a service. Basically, there is no much deal because each of them gets a value for the money spent. However, the only difference is that, unlike a widget, healthcare service is intangible and cannot be separated from the person offering it. 9. Healthcare costs continue to increase because of the increased costs of running health facilities and rendering healthcare services. To solve the problem, the government should be actively involved in regulating healthcare sector by subsidizing healthcare services and taming the inflation rates in the economy. 10. PPO, Preferred Provider Organization, is a health insurance plan that does not cover all, but a few select specialists within the network of the insurer. HMO stands for Health Maintenance Organization which is an insurance plan that has lower rates of out of pocket payments and monthly premiums than other options. However, it only covers certain healthcare services qrendered by a specific group of healthcare providers. Deductible is the total amount of money paid for by an insured before the insurer starts paying the expenses incurred Risk Rating is the determination of the likelihood of a risk occurrence based on the anticipated threats and the situation. HAS, a Health Savings Account, is a health insurance plan in which an individual covers all the medical expenses. Co-Pay is the fixed amount of money catered for by the insured and must be paid before acquiring the medical services needed. Denial is a term used in insurance to mean the refusal of an insurer to pay for the healthcare services received by the insured