The fundamental principles of healthcare finances and ethics are associated with nonmaleficence, beneficence, and autonomy. These principles can be traced back to the Hippocratic ethics that proposes doing no harm and benefiting people (Dunham-Taylor & Pinczuk, 2015). In health care, autonomy is understood as the competence of a patient to practice self-care and complete necessary tasks, which should be supported by care providers, who are also expected to promote the principle of justice. The modes of care financing include optimal income taxation, insurance premium, and proportional income taxation (Nuscheler & Roeder, 2015).
In addition, it is possible to distinguish between the following four modes: out-of-pocket payment, employment-based group private insurance, individual private insurance, and government financing. The care providers use a range of reimbursement mechanisms, such as fee-for-service (FFS), pay-for-performance (P4P), capitation, or diagnosis-based payment (DBP).
The financial aspects related to the health care initiatives are presented by several aspects. For example, Bai, et al. (2017) notes that insufficient training on financial management, a lack of intrinsic motivation, and a weak managerial reference tool create confusion.
It is assumed to apply data-driven tools and staff education to address the mentioned challenges. In spite of the widely proposed idea of eliminating health inequality, some disparities still exist in care organizations. Yamada et al. (2015) state that older adult patients face access disparities, which negatively affects their health status. Among the factors that evoke the disparity, there are insurance coverage, social and demographic aspects, and the availability of healthcare resources. Based on the identified points, it becomes evident that the design and development of healthcare accessibility and affordability, focusing on financial and ethical principles, are critical in addressing health inequality.
References
Bai, Y., Gu, C., Chen, Q., Xiao, J., Liu, D., & Tang, S. (2017). The challenges that head nurses confront on financial management today: A qualitative study. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 4(2), 122-127.
Dunham-Taylor, J., & Pinczuk, J. Z. (2015). Financial management for nurse managers (3rd ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Nuscheler, R., & Roeder, K. (2015). Financing and funding health care: Optimal policy and political implementability. Journal of Health Economics, 42, 197-208.
Yamada, T., Chen, C. C., Murata, C., Hirai, H., Ojima, T., Kondo, K., & Joseph III, R. H. (2015). Access disparity and health inequality of the elderly: Unmet needs and delayed healthcare. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 12(2), 1745-1772.