Major Players in the U.S. health services system

Major Players in the U.S. Health Services System
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Major Players in the U.S. Health Services System
The major players in the U.S. health services system are the patients, providers, payers, and vendors (Shi & Singh, 2014). Patients are the consumers in need of medical services. Providers entail the medical professionals that provide medical services to patients. Payers involve the government who provide health insurance coverage to citizens and employers who provide health insurance coverage as a working benefit to their employees. Vendors include private health insurance companies and public health insurance programs that create medical plans to ensure that the medical needs of patients are met.
Each player in the U.S. health services will have self-interests that are often conflicting among the players resulting to positive and negative effects. A positive effect is that it prevents any single player from exercising monopoly and dominating the health care system (Shi & Singh, 2014). That is, the incongruent interests among the players provide checks and balances within the health care system. For instance, the medical professionals would prefer maximum compensation for their services which may not be tenable if they are left to their own. In contrast, the government would like to cut down unnecessary costs in the delivery of health services which will curb providers of health care services from overcharging patients. Negative effects include hindering the implementation of system-wide reforms which would significantly cut costs (Shi & Singh, 2014).

It is cumbersome for all the stakeholders to achieve consensus in how the healthcare services are delivered. Consequently, healthcare services are delivered on a piecemeal basis which is expensive.

Reference
Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2014). Delivering health care in America. Jones & Bartlett Learning.