The main providers of health services are health care organizations. To enhance efficiency and cost-effectiveness, health care organizations have combined health care sectors or components to create health systems. These sectors can be divided many ways. The text provides one example, classifying them as financing, institutional providers, individual providers, public health agencies, enablers, suppliers, and regulators. The Health Care Sectors Interactive Media Flash tutorial demonstrates that the components of health care systems can be organized in many ways.
Prepare for this discussion by reading the following chapter from the course text: Introduction to U.S. Health Care:
- Chapter 1, “The U.S. Health Care System”
Explore the supplemental interactive media tutorial, Health Care Sectors.
In this Discussion:
- Describe the similarities and differences in both the components and the systems that you organized.
- Assess the classification system on the basis of the three criteria you think is most important.
- In 2–3 paragraphs, explain why you grouped the components the way you did.
