WEEK FIVE TOPIC/FOCUS: Health Care Work Force and Financing Health Care Learning Objectives Upon completion of the module, the students will be able to: 1) Explain the health care work force professions and the financing of health care Learning Activities 1) Read Chapters 7 and 8. Assignments: (30 Points) Due Week 5 1) The majority of schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and other professions and their teaching hospitals are heavily subsidized by federal and state funds. Many of those graduates, when they become health practitioners, feel no obligation to society for their publicly supported education. Do health care providers who reap the benefits of high compensation and social position have an ethical responsibility to repay taxpayers by meeting the need of the medically underserved (and in rural areas)? 2) An oversupply of physicians in many urban regions contrasts with continuing problems in rural and inner-city areas? Why does the mal-distribution of physicians persist in spite of the number of physicians graduated? 3) Do licensure and other professional regulations serve the public as much as they serve the self-interest of those already in the various regulated professions? Explain your answer. 4) Medicaid is shouldering an ever-increasing burden of cost for long-term care for the elderly, with enormous impacts on state budgets throughout the nation. Discuss alternatives to ease this drain of Medicaid resources. 5) Explain the meaning of the following statement: The principles of managed care reverse the financial incentives of the fee-for service reimbursement system.