Student response Professor Initial Post: Many factors contribute to the rising

Student response
Professor Initial Post: Many factors contribute to the rising cost of healthcare in the US. One of the main factors is cost of drugs, especially cost of novel therapeutics.  Another contributing factor is surprise billing associated with out of net work providers (Refer to Module IX for details). Your thoughts?
Student response: Several factors contribute to the rapidly rising costs of healthcare in the United States. Some of those factors include federal policy changes, supply chain issues, and wasteful systems. Insurance premiums for 2023 increased an average of 4 percent from the previous year and they are projected to continue to rise another 6 percent in 2024 (Ortaliza et al., 2023). Rising costs deter patients from obtaining health insurance and when said patients are treated, hospitals are often left uncompensated for the services provided. The Coronavirus and Disease pandemic caused a huge setback for supply chains due to a significant increase in demand for personal protective equipment like masks, gloves, gowns, and hand sanitizer. When demand increases and supply fails to follow suit, the cost of supply items increase. In addition to supplies, physician salaries, administrative fees, and prescriiption drug costs financially hinder the healthcare industry. Depending on their specialty, physicians are often the highest paid providers in healthcare. The U.S. healthcare industry has a complex billing process which involves several parties at various levels, all of which have to be compensated for. Prescriiption drug companies raise prices to compete with their competitors and when there is only a small pool of companies that sell a particular medication, they are able to name their price. For example, there are three primary companies that produce insulin. Thousands of patients depend on insulin shots for uncontrolled diabetes. The manufactures can price the drug as they deem fit because the demand increases daily.  
                                                                                                                     Reference
Ortaliza, J., McGough, M., Salaga, M., Amin, K., & Cox, C. (2023, August 4). How much and why 2024 premiums are expected to grow in Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/how-much-and-why-2024-premiums-are-expected-to-grow-in-affordable-care-act-marketplaces/#Distribution%20of%20proposed%202024%20rate%20changes%20among%20322%20reviewed%20ACA%20marketplace%20insurers%C2%A0
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