America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). (2011, September 9). Rising Health Care Costs. Ahip.org. Retrieved October 22, 2013, from http://www.ahip.org/Issues/Rising-Health-Care-Costs.aspx
The America’s Health Insurance Plans is identified as the national trade association and represents the health insurance industry. They advocate for a variety of public policies and seek to promote prevention and wellness, they partner with providers, and help patients become more informed about their health and manage chronic conditions. They address the causes of such high health care costs and spending because greater than one-sixth of the US spending is in health care. We found this to be beneficial in understanding the significance of eliminating any barriers to transparency; they propose that by eliminating barriers to transparency is a crucial proponent in addressing health care costs. Transparency addresses the stakeholders increased awareness and insight into health related issues. We believe that this is a vital aspect in our proposal to decrease this barrier and improve outcomes in preventive care.
Baicker, K., Cutler, D., and Song, Z. (2010). Workplace wellness programs can generate savings. Health Affairs, 29(2): 304-311.
Baicker, Cutler, and Song sought to find if investing into workplace wellness programs would prove to be beneficial for economic budgets as well as overall public health. The authors found that this type of preventive care can produce savings results that span even over a short-run horizon. Statistically, every dollar invested into a wellness program decreases medical costs by $3.27 and absentee day costs fall about $2.73. This led to the conclusion that a wider adaptation of these programs may be proven become beneficial for budgets and health outcomes. Although they do not study specific mechanisms at work or suggest broader applicability of wellness programs, this article has helped us understand the impact this kind of investment may have; seeing such significant returns on investment suggest that our proposal would be an acceptable approach encompassing budgets and health outcomes.
Baker, C., Fortney, C.A., Wewers, M. E., and Ahijevych, K. L. (2011). The cultural context of smoking among immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 22: 166-175.
This article presents a study between cultural perspectives in smoking amongst the immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The immigrants studied were recruited from the Midwest United States, and the factors of smoking were determined. They found that this cultural group is strongly closed to pharmacologic approaches and emphasized the importance of stress management and social connectedness. Interestingly, intervention needs went beyond language use and illustrated the importance of bringing cultural considerations into interventions. With a growing number of minorities residing in the Midwest region, this study shows factors that can be...