Current Legislative Trends That Influence the Supply and Demand of Health Care

Medicaid and Medicare influence demand and supply of healthcare. The policies create incentives for consumers to adopt positive health-seeking behaviors and attitudes. Medicaid is vital for low-income households that face challenges accessing quality, safe, and affordable care (Shrank et al., 2020). The policy allows states to design programs for enhancing access to health services through payments made directly to health care service providers. On the other hand, Medicare is an aged-based statute that protects elderly patients with multiple chronic conditions (Shrank et al., 2020). The statute covers over 40 million Americans, which means that more people can benefit from prices set by the government for physicians. Medicaid and Medicare demonstrate the government’s commitment to maintain its position as a big player in the healthcare sector. As such, government decisions determine demand for different healthcare services by setting prices for procedures.

Both policies eliminate financial barriers that jeopardize access to quality and safe care. The various incentives enhance access to primary, prevent, emergency, and urgent care. However, patients may still face challenges in terms of pricing methods and penalties for non-payment of premiums. Reduced Medicare prices lower supply of services to beneficiaries. Low payment rates also discourage healthcare providers from participating in Medicaid and other state and federal programs meant to reduce cost of health services (Shrank et al., 2020). Thus, government should consider alternatives that make private insurance markets competitive and favorable to patients and healthcare providers.

The uninsured population have low incomes, which affects access to safe, quality, and affordable care. The high rates of uninsured population increases the burden of health care due to budget constraints and the risk of budget cuts to respond to demand for services in other public sectors. Increasing demand for healthcare services among uninsured groups make it challenging for the public health facilities to respond adequately to all patients. In this sense, reduced funding affects supply of essential health services.