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Jonathan Omokawa

Two Questions on Healthcare - 22 views

started by Jonathan Omokawa on 03 Nov 11
  • Jonathan Omokawa
    #1 Jonathan Omokawa on 03 Nov 11
     
    1) Is it true that the market is destroying true healthcare and has reduced it to just a business with no qualms about morals?

    2) Do you think that the market will eventually fix our medical fields like it has been predicted the market model will do? Or do you think that there needs to be intervention by citizens to reform so that everyone has a say in which direction our healthcare goes in?
  • Joette Carini
    #2 Joette Carini on 03 Nov 11
     
    I would agree with the fact that our healthcare, now, is more of a business than anything. I even think people go so far as to want people to be sick or unhealthy just so more people could add to the revenue of the healthcare providers. I do not see this so much in private practices, but I see it more in big hospitals. There are more business transactions than anything. Well... there might be more people helping patients than going through with transactions, but I think they they are pretty close. In terms of there being no morals, I would agree with this as well. Considering everything is based on transactions now, not many people care about if people are being wrongly treated as it relates to being charged for things, etc. Of course, people are treated properly medically, but who doesn't think that ambulance prices and things such as that are ridiculous?

    I do not think that the market can fix our medical fields. I think that there will always be a sense of craziness and inconsistency in the field. I think that it would be a good idea to have some intervention by citizens, but in all reality, I am not even sure if that would work. Everyone has their ideal way that our healthcare and medical fields could operate, but I do not think that areas such as those could ever be in a perfect state.
  • Lauren Petta
    #3 Lauren Petta on 03 Nov 11
     
    While I do believe that healthcare is a business, I also believe that it is a thriving business and is in a lot of ways very competitive. Everyone I know sees a different doctor at a different hospital/clinic and has different healthcare insurance. I think that there are a lot of doctors who have good morals and work very hard to help their patients. Maybe the hospitals themselves are concerned with finance rather than morals, but there's a reason that those business men are not doctors.
    I would agree that the cost of pharmaceuticals to persons without healthcare insurance is out of control though.

    I think that the market can do a lot of good. While I am not crazy about government regulation, maybe the health insurers and pharmaceutical companies need a little bit of a push or cap when it comes to overall cost to patients.
    My next door neighbor is a nurse born and raised in Canada...she left Canada because she didn't like the intervention going on in the healthcare world. While I don't know what her particular gripes against the system were, it goes to show that there's really no "fix"
  • anonymous
    #4 anonymous on 03 Nov 11
     
    I think a lot of liberals would agree with what you're proposing about health care (that the market has ruined it and made it more of a business without morals) which is why so many people agree with the universal health care plan Obama has signed and began to implement. In many ways, it is unfortunate what has happened to health care in our nation. People will simply avoid going to the doctor nowadays because it will cost them an arm and a leg (no pun intended... ;) ) and many people suffer severely and even die because of lack of coverage. But in other countries, anyone can walk into any hospital and get free care due to the immaculate government regulation of hospitals.

    I think it will be interesting to see how the problem is fixed. I feel like if there's citizen intervention of any kind, all this will accomplish is a further leftist-rightist division as to who believes universal healthcare should/should not be put into effect. And if the market model were to "fix" healthcare, I think it would take a matter of at least another decade to do so, as at this rate we must have some form of an economic turnaround before any healthcare industries will be impacted, as people need money in order to purchase proper insurance in order to regularly visit doctors and feel freedom to check in hospitals when necessary.
  • nsamuelian
    #5 nsamuelian on 04 Nov 11
     
    I dont think that this problem would be fixed. No matter what happens there will always be problems with our healthcare because there are too many people wanting too many different things. I agree with Joette; i think that citizens should get in contact with this, but it might not have the outcome we all wish it will. If this problem would fix on its own, it will take a long time to do so.
  • Melissa Moreno
    #6 Melissa Moreno on 04 Nov 11
     
    In my personal opinion I don't believe that the market has ruined healthcare. I think that in order to help fix healthcare maybe we should take more of a market approach and allow for nationwide competition. There has been some debate that competition across state lines will provide the best healthcare economically and in regards to quality. That is more of a market model more so than what we have. It is true that the healthcare market is flooded with inflation and lack of service but I do not believe the market itself has corrupted healthcare. So in my opinion the market could theoretically help fix the healthcare system with competition.
  • Eric Arbuckle
    #7 Eric Arbuckle on 04 Nov 11
     
    Government should not entitle citizens to paying higher taxes as a penalty of not buying the governments health care. Also, I believe the government should not force states to spend billions of dollars because of the plan implemented. States already have to make cuts due to the economy. Government continues to spend tax dollars to sustain economy by bailing out or helping companies that, after the fact, go bankrupt, and waste money. This is another case of the government needing to leave the situation to the states, instead of spending more tax payer money. This is a state issue, period. not a national issue. Now as an individual state, if one feels the need to implement health care regulation to the citizens is necessary, then that is the state's right to do so.
  • Mitchell Burris
    #8 Mitchell Burris on 04 Nov 11
     
    As for the first question I would answer: no the market is not solely responsible for the difficulties with our health care situation. The real problem in places like McAllen is poor ethically conduct and a lack of personal responsibility from both doctors and patients. The doctors that treat their practice as simply as way to amass personal wealth are in the wrong business. As for the patients, it is their (our) responsibility to be discerning when submitting to tests and procedures. For example, a few years ago it was recommended that I go through a complex series of procedures for an orthodontic correction. It seemed a bit over the top and unnecessary so I got a number of professional opinions and I eventually decided not to undergo the procedures. They cost and hassle of the procedure would not have been worth the result.

    I like much of the concepts that are implemented at the Mayo clinic and its locally oriented collaboration and ethical approach and apparent genuine care. I think it could be possible to hash out reform somewhere along this path but ,like Eric said above, I think that this needs to happen at the state level. The Federal Government needs to stay as far as possible from health care. Of course regulation is necessary but this regulation would be more efficient and practical and ethical on a smaller level.
  • steve santos
    #9 steve santos on 04 Nov 11
     
    I would agree that healthcare has been turned into a commodity more than anything. Our market capitalism has turned it void of the just moral sense of going about the notion of a fair system or what health care should entail. We've become infamous for only what is produced.

    In the market system in general I feel there has to be a social reformation of it. At the trend of Keyenesian economics the internal stabilizations of the system is constantly at odds with people prompting the desire for an input of the fair market system of the polis and its input. Essentially its policy gridlock where not one can flourish at the detriment of the other.
  • Mangala Kanayson
    #10 Mangala Kanayson on 04 Dec 11
     
    "the way to practice medicine has changed completely. Before, it was about how to do a good job. Now it is about 'How much will you benefit?' "
    I'm not sure that's just the market at work. I think ethics and how the market works both shape each other, but they do not exist in separate spheres. Maybe doctors should take more ethics courses and Med Schools should try to instill a sense of moral duty. Then again, maybe patients should be less trusting, though that in itself breeds a new kind of social problem.

    I think for the market to function appropriately, the federal government needs to step out of it.

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