Agency Analysis

In these uncertain times it is hard to imagine where the direction health care is going. There are critical issues plaguing the current healthcare system in the United States. Human and Health Services is an important entity and there are many programs that serve under this umbrella. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the part of the federal government that's responsible for administrating programs that deal with health and welfare. According the official HHS website, the department works with almost one fourth of all federal government expenditures and administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined. The Department's programs are administered by 11 operating divisions composed of eight agencies in the U.S. Public Health Service and three human services agencies (TechTarget 2013). Unfortunately, there is a large population of Americans and legal citizens, alike, which do not have sufficient healthcare insurance or any at all. Every few decades a presidential candidate speaks in hopeful tones about reforming the healthcare delivery system and creating a program that would be beneficial to all those in need and ultimately saving the government money on expenditures. Our current President, Barack Obama has passed a national health insurance policy which would allow everyone healthcare benefits, but with talks of a universal system or as some put it “socialized” medicine there are sneers, jeers, raised eyebrows and questions to the effectiveness of this type of program. Due to the ever increasing aging population and the swell in unemployment, Medicaid and Medicare are the largest government funded healthcare programs in the United States providing considerably more coverage than private insurance or other managed care organizations. So in a way the majority of our population is all ready benefitting from a socialized system. With the nation in its recessive state, everyone has been affected, especially when

References: Buchbinder, S and Shanks, N (2007) Introduction to Health Care Management. Jones and Bartlett Publishing. Sudbury, MA Search Health IT (2013) Health and Human Services. Retrieved August 5, 2013 http://searchhealthit.techtarget.com/definition/Health-and-Human-ServicesHHS