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

Health care cost - Essay Example escalated by about thrity nine percent in the four year period between 1999 and 2003, while the hourly earnings during the same period have escalated by fourteen percent. This galloping health care costs that is affecting affordability of health care is the reason for concern. Any control measures need an understanding of the factors that are responsible for the escalation in health care costs. According to Ginsberg, 2004, advances in science and technology that has seen a rise in new technologies available to health care, is the prime driving force behind the escalation in health care costs. These new technologies have provided newer diagnostic tools and treatments in the medical care of patients. Many of these diagnostic procedures and treatments are much more expensive than the older diagnostic procedures and treatments. An example of this is the expense involved in magnetic resonance imaging, which increases the diagnostic costs significantly, where it is employed as a diagnostic aid. Some treatments may be more cost effective, and lead to less discomfort in patients, but it is these very same beneficial qualities that cause its higher rate of use, leading to increase in costs. Thus new technology is the main culprit in the escaltion of health care costs. Does that mean denying the use of new technology in health care is the solution to the vexing problem of escalating healthcare costs. The answer is no. For in doing so the benefits of advances in science and technology would be denied to the people. The solution rather lies in the judicious use of new technology in healthcare (Ginsberg, P., 2004). Health care costs cannot be eliminated, and need to be only controlled for, "health interventions are not free, people are not infinitely rich, and the budgets of [health care] programmes are limited. For every dollars worth of health care that is consumed, a dollar will be paid. While these payments can be laundered, disguised or hidden, they will not go away"