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The Cost of Health Care
Choose one of the two topics below:

• Discuss the issue of uncompensated care (the uninsured) in the U.S. and its impact on the health care system, the cost of care, and on health. Discuss the history of the trend, describe the extent of uninsured care, and the current status of this problem. Include in your discussion what you think the role of nursing needs to be in relation to health care of the uninsured.
• Discuss the issue of health care cost inflation. Describe the forces influencing the increase in health care costs. Select one strategy currently used by nursing, or that could be used  by nursing, to control costs and discuss why you think it would be effective.

Write a 2- to 3-page paper on one of the above topics using the following guidelines and evaluation criteria. Use a minimum of five references from the professional nursing literature in the assigned course readings and other references in the Walden Library. If they are relevant, you may use one or two professional web sites in addition to the literature references.
Begin the paper with a brief paragraph that provides an overview of the assignment and its purpose. There is no separate heading for this paragraph; the heading is the same as the title of the paper. This will be about 2-3 sentences. The last sentence in this paragraph is a sentence that begins “The purpose of this paper is to ¨. This paragraph is worth 20 points.
Use the headings below for each option for the rest of the paper.

Option A:

• Uncompensated care in the U.S.  – 40 points
• Discuss the history of the trend, the extent of uninsured care, and the current status of this problem.
• Impact of uncompensated care – 40 points
• Discuss the impact of caring for the uninsured on the health care system, the cost of care, and on health.
• Nursing and care for the uninsured – 40 points
• Discuss at least two strategies nursing could use to provide care or influence the provision of care for the uninsured. Describe the reasons why you think these strategies would be effective.
• Summary – 10 point
• Provide a one-paragraph summary of the main points in the paper.

Option B:

• Health care cost inflation – 20 points
• Discuss the history of inflation of health care costs and the current status of this problem.
• Factors influencing health care cost inflation – 40 points
• Discuss at least two factors influencing the increase in health care costs. Describe nursing’s role in increasing health care costs.
• Nursing and reducing health care costs – 60 points
• Discuss at least two strategies nursing could use to help in the effort to reduce health care cost inflation. Describe the reasons why you think these strategies would be effective.
• Summary – 10 point
• Provide a one-paragraph summary of the main points in the paper.

Format/style
Proofread your paper as described in the tips for success in this course and correct any typos, grammar, spelling, punctuation, syntax, or APA format errors before submitting your paper in the Dropbox. You can have up to 30 points deducted from your grade for this assignment for these types of errors, or for not using at least the minimum number of required professional literature references..
Total points for assignment = 150 points.