Title: Identify major factors influencing health care.
Course: Health and Medical Sciences Exploratory (18 weeks) (14001-18) > Section: Gaining an Overview of the Healthcare Industry

Identification should include factors such as

- decrease in death rate
- increase in aging population
- use of medical asepsis
- increase in chronic diseases
- environmental effects on humans
- changes in lifestyle
- new technologies
- personal access to health care
- consumer rights
- economic forces (e.g., competition, supply and demand).

Process/Skill Questions:

- How can knowledge of medical asepsis be useful to the individual consumer?
- How have environmental influences affected health care in the United States? In the world?
- Why has the aging population increased at a greater proportion in recent years? How has this affected the healthcare field?
- How do payment issues (e.g., healthcare reform, private insurance vs. public assistance) influence care delivery?