Financing of Healthcare

In the office I work for, the majority of the patients will have a co-pay with the remainder covered by their health care plan. With the rising costs of health care there is an increasing strain on the financing of health care.  It is becoming  increasingly more difficult for those without health insurance to meet their health care costs. Our policy makers have been reluctant to combat this issue with meaningful reform such as tort reform.  Regarding insurance there are many patients lacking adequate insurance or have none at all. One way to combat this is with individual mandates as proposed by the current administration. By requiring everyone to purchase health insurance, including the young and healthy, insurance can be provided to those who cannot currently afford insurance. However the constitutionality of individual mandates are in question.  A current concern regarding delivery pertains to the lack of providers in certain areas of expertise such as primary care as well as regional shortages of physicians in rural and impoverished areas. Another concern regarding delivery pertains to changing demographics with inadequate providers in specialties such as urology and geriatrics. 
A solution in this area may be to provide financial incentives for physicians to enter these specialties and serve in these locales. Regarding payments, as the  insurance carriers shift more and more of the costs of health care to the patient it is becoming increasingly more difficult for the patient to meet these costs. Solutions here could include more personal responsibility such as healthy lifestyles, avoidance of obesity, avoidance of alcohol and smoking, and greater physical fitness. This resulting in less need for health care services. Other practical actions include those contemplating a family should not do so if they cannot afford to provide appropriate health care to their children. That is, a greater emphasis and demand for personal responsibility.