Question

Who are the major stakeholders in healthcare systems in USA? What are their roles and
responsibilities? Why current healthcare is sometimes called ‘sickcare’?

Answer 1

There are mainly 5 major stakeholders in US healthcare system .

The government

The payers

The providers

The employer

The patients

Roles:

Government;

The roles of the government in the quality delivery of healthcare services include
purchasing healthcare. The government is supposed to build hospitals and other healthcare
centers throughout the country to ensure that even the people in remote areas get access to the
services. Secondly, the government should ensure that all the vulnerable populations get access
to quality care. By doing this, there will be reduced mortality rate in the nation as a result of diseases. Thirdly, the government should regulate healthcare markets and monitor the quality that is being offered in the market. This will ensure that there
are no illegal health care services being carried out in the country and those legally available offer top notch services.
Another role of the government is promoting the attainment of new knowledge by
helping healthcare students to get enough knowledge on their course of study. It should also develop the healthcare employees and make sure that they are working in a comfortable
environment, and none of them is being victimized. Lastly, the government is mandated with convening all the major stakeholders in the healthcare delivery system.

The payers;

Payers are those stakeholders who make sure that the scarce financial resources are used accordingly. In this regard, their use must go hand in hand with delivering quality service in the health care centers. Also, there use is expected to bring about a wide access to the required services, the safety of the patients and health care coverage that is affordable to the patients.
For this objective to be attained, it is their role to ensure that they have an accurate data that is reliable.Moreover, it is their role to make sure that the payment given for services offered is fair and reflects the kind of the particular service that is being offered. In the recent years, there has been a lot of focus on the service payment and the management of health condition.

The providers:

The provider or physician's play very important role in healthcare delivery system as stakeholder. Besides ensuring quality care, they also play
a role in regulating the rising charges of healthcare delivery. the physicians are obligated with balancing between their roles of taking care of the
patients for the insurance organizations and making sure that they pay the right charges for the services that they receive.
Besides, the providers also have responsibilities to patients that are independent of the insurance companies. In this regard, they are responsible for beneficence. This implies that they can do anything that is necessary as long as what is being done will benefit their patients.
However, they are not supposed to act independently and claim that they know the best and leaving out the desires of their patients, by acting this way the will be practicing paternalism.
Therefore, the doctors and nurses have the responsibility of making sure that their clients wholly participate in decisions that concern their health.

The employer;

The employers are responsible for both keeping the medical charges and down and
making sure that the physicians are always at work. In instances whereby the providers have stopped r boycotted working, they are mandated with making sure that they return to work quickly. In this regard, they can take part in playing a critical role in the shaping of the health care’s systems delivery. This can be done through direct measures to put into place systems change. Mostly, this has been achieved through their negotiations with health plans and their
decisions concerning the configuration of health benefits for their workforce. Therefore, the employers should focus on the rising costs of providing health insurance advantages. Also, they
are supposed to make aggressive considerations that will bring about low medical costs or, at least, slow down the rate at which the charges are increasing. Moreover, the employers are
obligated with paying their contributions to the health care delivery system.

The patients:

Patients are central to the healthcare systems operation they fall under the category of major stakeholders. The first role that patients have in the healthcare systems is the ethical obligation towards their health. They are also responsible for controlling the costs that are paid
for the services that they are offered in health care centers.

The Healthcare is sometimes called sick are because according to Americans, their healthcare system donot come into action until the citizen become sick, a system that waits until they become ill before it kicks into action—instead of a health care system focused on helping their stay healthy.