Community Consensus Policy for Allocation of Health Care Resources
Substantial improvement in the treatment of many diseases and increase of life expectancy has been achieved over the years in the United States and other developed countries. This is as a result of allocation of part of the gross national product to health care sector given that the United States sets aside 50 percent per capita on this sector compared to other developed countries.Despite the huge commitment of funds to health care the quality of services given does not equate the expenditure due to the inefficiencies that arise since the country still faces challenges on how to effectively allocate resources to improve services for its population (Moses, Matheson, Dorsey, George, Sadof & Yoshimura, 2013). This paper therefore focusses on procedures for policy making that would ensure access to efficient healthcare services.
Community Consensus in Resource Allocation
An ideal health care system is one which provides quality, affordable and increased satisfaction to an individual and the society. Over the years medical resources scarcity has been on the rise and this problem can be attributed to limited budget on health, donor organs on the decline and increased life expectancy. It has therefore become a challenge to meet all medical needs for all since fair allocation of resources still remains a difficult issue (Drummond, Sculpher, Claxton, Stoddart, & Torrance, 2015). The community consensus policy is a suitable resource allocation policy as it seems to bring on board all parties including the public who are the main focus of this exercise. They are not only fully involved in the process of decision making but also adequately informed which not the case for other policies is. A community consensus policy develops plans that support individual and community health related efforts and mobilizes community partnerships to identify and solve health issues. It also provides platforms for various members of the public to engage in open debates about issues such as rationing of healthcare services and fairness of allocation of health care resources.
Ethical Considerations in Resource Distribution
Ethical issues in regards to the distribution of resources among members of a community revolve around autonomy, equity and utility and comprise of the type of resource to be allocated, who is eligible for the allocation and the amount of the allocation. Factors to consider in this allocation policy include the cost benefit whereby the limited resources allocated should maximize health benefits of population allocated to. While costs are measured through monetary values, benefits are measured using health status improvement and a cost to effectiveness ratio can be arrived by dividing costs by the benefits. Another factor to be considered is equity and efficiency which focusses on the distribution of the resources to groups and individuals and ensures fair distribution of health services to all. (Prasad, Vandross, Toomey, Cheung, Rho, Quinn & Ho, 2013). A decent minimum level of medical services should be provided and ensure that the baseline of healthcare of the poor is raised to eliminate disparities between the rich and the poor. The factors for this policy should be made known to the public to ensure that there is consistency with the general public.
Conclusion
In conclusion, decisions on how to allocate health care resources are always challenging since questions on ethics will always be rised. A good preventive measure to address the issue is by bringing members of the public on board to take part in the decision making process that largely affects them directly. Therefore the community consensus policy is ideal to develop rules for access to healthcare.
References
Drummond, M. F., Sculpher, M. J., Claxton, K., Stoddart, G. L., & Torrance, G. W. (2015). Methods for the economic evaluation of health care programmes. Oxford university press.
Moses, H., Matheson, D. H., Dorsey, E. R., George, B. P., Sadoff, D., & Yoshimura, S. (2013).
The anatomy of health care in the United States. Jama, 310(18), 1947-1964.
Prasad, V., Vandross, A., Toomey, C., Cheung, M., Rho, J., Quinn, S., ... & Ho, N. (2013, August). A decade of reversal: an analysis of 146 contradicted medical practices. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 88, No. 8, pp. 790-798). Elsevier.
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