In the contemporary world, people value their health more than they value anything else. The formation of Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) fulfilled the desire to have access to quality and affordable health care. HMOs enrolled millions of Americans to access insured medical care; however, as the number of people enrolling in the HMO program increased, government policymakers, patients, and medical service providers started questioning the efficacy and efficiency of the HMOs. The leaders of the American Medical Association (AMA) felt that the HMOs would somewhat influence their integrity in providing medical care.
The reaction of the healthcare providers greatly affected the healthcare centers that embraced the HMO. In fact, such healthcare centers found it difficult to obtain a reputable medical doctor or a competent medical staff. Moreover, the government policy analysts felt that it was not suitable for the HMOs to control the health care costs. The above-named factors acted as the driving force in forming the HMO movement that would protect the HMOs from resistance and attacks.
Fortunately, the radical increase in healthcare costs in the 1960s convinced many activists that HMOs were very significant. Since then, the HMO movement attained national recognition, and medical practitioners and political conservatives have embraced the HMOs. To ensure everything was under control, the HMOs had to adhere to the managed care legislation. The legislation held that the insurance covers and the medical care operations were to be treated differently.
Physicians were taken as government employees, and they focused on serving insured patients. The legislation required healthcare facilities with more than 25 employees to offer an HMO. The legislation also obliged the government to offer federal grants to upgrade existing HMOs and develop new ones so that every American citizen could have access to affordable and quality health care. However, the legislation has faced many challenges, and it has changed with time.
The American government is overspending on health care services. Fraud and abuse cases are on the rise as healthcare facilities have taken advantage of the insurance covers; they over-quote the medical bills at the expense of the government. Generally, America is overstretching its budget on Medicare, whereas the quality of medical care is deteriorating over time.
