Archive for the Franklin Category
The high cost of health care.
Robert Atkinson
Communication 120
Professor Woods
November 23, 2008
Healthcare is obviously a vital expenditure for any country and most important to the people that obtain the care. In contrast to the rest of the world, the United States spends more than any other but does not boast a higher life expectancy than other countries, like Japan. The major factors in the cost of the healthcare inflation are drugs, staffing and more than any other, administration costs. Reports say that the United States spends over $400 billion more than other countries on healthcare but yet there is no significant disease behind the rise, which should be the reasoning for the much higher cost of care (Angrisano, Farrell, Kocher, Parker, & Laboissiere, 2007). What is driving the higher cost of care which appears to not benefit the public in the United States as much as other nations?
If there is a higher health care cost, then the appropriate thought is that there should be a better quality of life, which should lead to a longer life. However, high health care costs drive the public away from the doors of a hospital to seek treatment, even for problems that the patient deems serious (National Coalition on Health Care). The reasoning not to seek treatment is clear to many of the 1.4 million debtors that filed for bankruptcy in 2001. A study suggests that as many as half of the bankruptcy cases were due to just health care expenses (Himmelstein, Warren, Thorne, & Woolhandler, 2005).
Is bankruptcy by the public the reason that health care costs are so grossly inflated? Reporting by the group McKinsey gives no mention to bankruptcy being the problem, or even attributed bad debt to the rise. However, in Anchorage, hospitals are drawing a line from charity cases to higher costs. Charity cases are simply bad debt written off by the hospital, which by one estimate from Alaska in 1999 was $14 million. In contrast, another hospital in Alaska lost nearly half of the profits in just three years from $40 million for the year 2000 to $13 million in 2003, but climbed back two years later to recover “somewhat” to $27.5 million in profits (Dobbyn, 2005). For an institution that is dedicated to the care of the sick, profits of over $20 million seem hardly the problem for a higher cost to those that do have health care.
If the cost of bankruptcy is causing the higher cost of health care, then the solution for lowering the cost appears to the common layperson is to simply get healthcare. Unfortunately, this is still not the answer as the higher cost to the public that is insured still drives them to bankruptcy, as the average medical cost was over $12,000 even with coverage. In a study from 2001 of nearly 1,700 bankruptcy filings, a staggering 75% of those asked had health coverage at the onset of the filing. To make matters worse, since the debtors that had private insurance were out of work due to the illness, they could no longer afford the insurance and the costs rose higher (Himmelstein, Warren, Thorne, & Woolhandler, 2005).
From the Harvard study of 1,700 bankruptcy filings, a statistic stands out that can possibly explain the reasons behind lowered quality of care and the higher health care cost. The costs of the health care is divided up at around 45% to the hospital, doctors charged 20% and finally the prescription drugs needed to maintain health attributed to 21% of the cost. The debtors are given a charity case by the hospital that is making the lion’s share of the profits, a life preserver that should help stop a bankruptcy. However, the debtor can still be faced with bankruptcy due to the cost of the ongoing doctor and prescription care that combined is the cost that was forgiven by the institution (Himmelstein, Warren, Thorne, & Woolhandler, 2005).
From all this information, it seems likely to conclude that the cost of drugs and the doctor care is what drives bankruptcy. This makes more sense when the average cost of drugs in the United States is over 60% more than in other nations that have better life expectancy (National Coalition on Health Care).
References
Angrisano, C., Farrell, D., Kocher, B., Parker, S., & Laboissiere, M. (2007). Accounting for the Cost of Health Care in the United States. McKinsey & Company.
Dobbyn, P. (2005, July 21). Hospital bad debt driving costs up. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from Anchorage Daiily News: http://dwb.adn.com/front/story/6730104p-6617727c.html
Himmelstein, D. U., Warren, E., Thorne, D., & Woolhandler, S. (2005). MarketWatch: Illness and Injury as contributors to Bankruptcy. Health Affairs .
National Coalition on Health Care. (n.d.). Health Insurance Costs. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from National Coalition on Health Care: http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml
I am fortunate enough to enjoy learning. I should rephrase that as: “I am fortunate enough to crave learning in order to help others.”
Being in higher education has, in my opinion, shown that there really is a need for all this debt that students rack up. I chose to post something to my blog and share it with the class to show part of my Idealist life. I leave all of my posts open to comments and choose to moderate them due to spam alone. I have deleted a couple comments these two years, not due to them disagreeing with me but due to the comment being inappropriate.
For my choice of further resources I could use to improve my grammar, I chose http://www.dailygrammar.com/archive.shtml . I found that out of all the choices, it would prove the most useful since I could easily use it with an iPhone app called gFlash+ . The best thing is that you do not need an Internet connection to use it, so you can be in the middle of nowhere (aka 2 miles out of town in WV) and take a quiz where you will not accidently see the answers. The simple format of questions and answers could be easily manipulated into the template spreadsheet using the programming language Python.
I have used gFlash+ while standing in line at the store, waiting for a customer to finish talking on the phone or while waiting for someone to give my car a jumpstart. So far, I have just used it as a quiz tool for learning new words but dailygrammar has such a common format for answers that I can program a macro to split and copy/paste entire blocks of answers.
I intend to do such a program and enlist my wife to help me, since she is starting school soon too.
Franklin.edu has a distinction of having two pages of information about preferred lenders. Franklin University takes lengthy time to explain the difference in types of loans and the reasons some charges happen when you take money.
Axia has no such page when you are rushing through the pages, just an enrollment officer trying to push you to sign today. They also refuse to defer your tuition unless you choose one of their preferred lenders. Franklin claims no such distinction, instead just promotes it is faster.
So, I have a career in IT that has spanned over 15 years. Recently as some that read my blog may know, I started the path to having a college degree. I chose the University of Phoenix just because it seemed to be the best way to get in right away.
The UoP and the Axia branch are really fast at getting you enrolled. There is no proficiency exams and the pressure to sign a MPN is intense. The enrollment counselor was relentless in getting me enrolled. This does not mean the college is bad alone, just merely that they wish to have as many students possible.
I had a ‘facilitator’ that I could call during classes but only during certain hours of the day. There is an email address for personal and also internal communication. I will note that my last facilitator, Crystal McFall would take vacations during the class and not be able to respond to emails or phone calls. That was the straw on my so called educational back that broke it.
One thing bothered me in my last classes: proof that the facilitators are real. Just words about their lives and a phone number that was at times even posted wrong. I for one did not let that bother me, I learned a great deal and made a good grade at most of what I did. After I had done several assignments, I had a past teacher read the syllabus and the grading sheet. I was assured it checked out to her academic standards.
I am a Franklin University student now due to the problems that Axia will simply not address. Counselors and even facilitators are not punished publicly since you are not told what the result of any investigation is. Yes, you will not even be told that the employee was punished. Even the local school systems have public meetings to discuss this type of problem and there is no hiding.
In closing, my first Franklin class has already impressed me. I logged in since the classes are available a week before they start and much to my surprise…. a PICTURE of (get this) my Professor! I was already impressed with the CD material that arrived in which I was getting offline guidance for that class… the University of Phoenix does not do that.
I was happy at Axia until I started to realize that if the problem occurred again, I had no recourse. Switching to Franklin just might be the best thing yet. Axia is more expensive and a whole lot of problems that just are not addressed. Call Franklin if you are considering a degree and then call Phoenix. All my credits should transfer, which is good. What is bad? I do have to attend a couple audio chat or video sessions with my Professor.
Axia facilitators discouraged the use of voice chat in any way due to “overwhelming” students. Franklin does it right off the bat. You decide which one is better.
Feel free to post your comments with how you feel. I do not wish to discuss how you lost money at Phoenix as there is many ways a student can fail and slip through the cracks due to being helped so much to get enrolled.