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Pharmacology

Introduction
Rising healthcare costs is becoming a very important issue to many Americans. There is a lot of confusion about the specific causes, and the need for a major reform by the government. Most Americans want to continue to have the best care available to them, but are not willing to give up anything in order to make the necessary changes to improve the system.
Main Issue
Rising health care costs is becoming more and more of an important issue for people. "The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, with per capita health expenditures far and above those of any other nation (Bodenheimer, 2005, ¶1) The health care costs have been climbing for many years now, and people are getting worried what the future will hold.
Several explanations have been offered for high and rising health care costs. These include the perspectives that high and rising costs are created by forces external to the health system, by the weakness of a competitive free market within the health system, by the rapid diffusion of new technologies, by excessive costs of administering the health system, by the absence of strong cost-containment measures, and by undue market power of health care providers. (2005, ¶2)
Environmental Analysis
The rapid flow of new technologies in the United States has driven costs up in a short amount of time. The more health care technology improves, the more the cost of health care is going to go up.
Because the spread of new technologies is relatively unrestrained in the United States, many of these technologies are used to a greater extent than in other nations, and the United States thereby incurs higher health care costs. Nations with a greater degree of health system integration have relied on expenditure controls and global budgets to control costs. Although diffusion of technology takes place more slowly in more tightly budgeted systems, the use of innovative technologies in those systems tends to catch up over...