Health care issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Health care issues - Essay Example There are several challenges that the governments around the world are facing, however, financial challenges in the health care sector seem to be of utmost importance. According to a survey conducted on top issues a hospital faced, financial challenges topped the list of 13 challenges that the respondents were asked to rank (American College of Healthcare Executives(ACHE’s)(2011). The survey also took a closer look at the top 3 concerns. Medicare reimbursement and bad debts were major contributors to the financial problem. Another major contributor was increase in cost of staff and supplies. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute, ‘In 2010, the emphasis on cost continues. (PWC, 2010). In a its annual report published in December 2009 the institute stated that managing costs and getting more out of less will be the second most important challenge for the health care industry. Second only to the impact of Health Reforms (PWC, 2010). MEDICARE CHALLENGES Medicare, a health care program taking care of the elderly has been facing problems for quite some time now. The problem has been two-fold: on one side the overall cost of providing health care is going up and on the other hand there is a large number of baby boomers who are going to be eligible for Medicare this year (Levey, 2009).