Multiple factors can have an impact on healthcare finance, including socioeconomic and sociopolitical ones. An example of a socioeconomic phenomenon that defines the financial decisions of individuals and families is socioeconomic status. It tends to have a notable impact on an individual’s decision to use healthcare services, as well as the need to do so. I have witnessed such connections throughout my practice and can prove them with the help of research evidence.
For instance, lower-income limits the access to services while also being associated with increased demand for them (Arpey, Gaglioti, & Rosenbaum, 2017; Fitzpatrick et al., 2015). On the other hand, education is one of the determinants of self-care behaviors, which can affect one’s need for healthcare services (Jaarsma, Cameron, Riegel, & Stromberg, 2017). Therefore, socioeconomic status can have a positive or negative impact on one’s healthcare finance.
An example of a sociopolitical factor that can be of importance for a variety of healthcare stakeholders and is connected to healthcare finance is health insurance (Cleverley & Cleverley, 2017). The political decisions regarding insurance have an impact on the individuals’ access to care, modifying their ability to purchase services, while also affecting the financial matters of healthcare organizations, especially those pertinent to accounting (Cleverley & Cleverley, 2017).
As a person working in the US as a healthcare professional, I am familiar with the impact that healthcare insurance can have on personal and organizational financial matters, and I can also support my observations with research evidence.
The outcomes can be either positive or negative. For instance, Medicare is evidenced to contribute to the reduction of the expenditure risks of individuals, but it is also concerned with federal budget shortfalls (Barcellos & Jacobson, 2015). The latter issue is bound to have an impact on individual and organizational healthcare finance. Also, while Medicare is shown to reduce the number of uninsured individuals (Barcellos & Jacobson, 2015), it is plagued with disparities that signal discrimination issues (Arpey et al., 2017), which are, in turn, connected to economic factors. Thus, that the social, political, and economic factors have complex interrelationships when health insurance is concerned.
References
Arpey, N., Gaglioti, A., & Rosenbaum, M. (2017). How socioeconomic status affects patient perceptions of health care: A qualitative study. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 8(3), 169-175. Web.
Barcellos, S., & Jacobson, M. (2015). The effects of Medicare on medical expenditure risk and financial strain. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 7(4), 41-70. Web.
Cleverley, W., & Cleverley, J. (2017). Essentials of health care finance. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Fitzpatrick, T., Rosella, L. C., Calzavara, A., Petch, J., Pinto, A. D., Manson, H.,… Wodchis, W. P. (2015). Looking beyond income and education. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 49(2), 161-171. Web.
Jaarsma, T., Cameron, J., Riegel, B., & Stromberg, A. (2017). Factors related to self-care in heart failure patients according to the middle-range theory of self-care of chronic illness: A literature update. Current Heart Failure Reports, 14(2), 71-77. Web.