One of the most important environmental issues affecting health care is the struggling economy, as the high unemployment rate and high prices mean that fewer people can afford health insurance today than before. Emerging health care legislation is another issue, and new president Barack Obama has ideas in the works for providing better health care options to citizens.
Some of the reasons that individuals do not choose a career in the health care profession include long hours, low pay, the heavy responsibility that goes with the job, fears of malpractice lawsuits, and fears of contracting deadly diseases such as AIDS. In addition, many of the benefits that used to be associated with the health care profession, such as the enjoyment of caring for patients, have been lost in the bureaucracy and larger organizations. Health care professionals are overworked and do not have the time for the things that used to make the job enjoyable.
The financial implications of a health care organization providing access for everyone are that costs will be higher, because patients that can pay will be helping to pay for those that cannot, and that the organization's workforce will be stretched thinner to accommodate more patients, thus lowering quality of care for all, which indirectly affects the financial side because patient count is likely to diminish over time.
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