The Iron Triangle of Healthcare Assignment: Write a 1-page paper on the 3 components of the "Iron Triangle of Health Care" The iron triangle is a term used to describe the three attributes of the American Healthcare System. These features compete with one another to set a standard for care that is offered to the public. The three concepts that make up the Iron Triangle are: Quality, Cost & Access. The term is largely credited to William Kissisk's book Medicine's Dilemmas: Infinite Needs Versus Finite Resources (1994). Each feature of the triangle move in tandem with one another as there are increases or decreases in either area. Quality describes the level of care that is delivered to patients. Cost describes how expensive it is for provider to deliver services and how expensive it is for patients to receive services. Lastly, Access describes how easy or difficult it is for patients to receive their healthcare services. In an ideal world, the goal would be to have providers give high quality service to all patients at an affordable cost. Unfortunately, when one area of this triangle rises there may be adverse effects to the other areas in most cases. An example of this would be the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010. One of the intents of the Affordable Care Act was to give access to healthcare to many Americans that would otherwise not be able to receive coverage for various reasons such as unemployment or pre-existing conditions. Although the Act was a great advancement to healthcare reform, making accessibility to care higher has driven cost increases on the government & insurance providers. In our current healthcare industry, Cost has been the feature that we have seen the most increase. Healthcare costs have seen a 55% increase over the last decade according to the 2020 study by Kaiser Health News. This increase in cost has affected many American's ability to afford their healthcare services although there may be quality service available to them. In an attempt to offset rising financial responsibilities from the ACA, insurance companies have increase deductibles and co-premiums on participant plans. In the end, it is important that the