Here is my paper. I am disscussing the social injustices of health care. The assignment description is available at docs.google.com/View?docid=d4tx2d6_11fjqqhkg3
The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not offer a universal health care program and the lack of health care is a growing problem. The number of Americans without insurance is currently at an all time high ("Health Insurance Coverage 2000," U.S. Census Bureau, Sept. 28, 2001).
70% of Americans rely on their employer for health benefits, but with the recent state of the economy this number is rapidly declining. "Health costs are the single largest cost that employers face - far exceeding energy, labor, material, even litigation." But money saved from cut insurance benefits will not end up in CEOs pockets. American companies simply, "can not compete with foreign business whose government shoulder medical and hospital costs" (Freudenheim).
The answer is not nationalization. A study conducted by University College in London and Columbia University in New York followed 1,000 individuals having similar surgeries. The study concluded that patients in the United Kingdom were four times more likely to die after the same surgery than their American counterparts. Researchers attributed these results to postoperative care and delayed surgeries in the United Kingdom. (boortz)
A state run medical program is not the diagnosis for the United States. Canada's solution to health care is very similar to the United Kingdom. The government pays a majority of costs. But patients pay in other ways. Image the long lines at the post office or Department of Motor Vehicles. Government run programs are synonymous with waiting. Nationalized health care is no exception, it is not uncommon in both the United Kingdom and Canada for patients to experience outlandish and unacceptable wait times. Following a referral from a general practitioner, "it took an average of 20 weeks to see a specialist" in Canada (Lopes).
Some patients in the United Kingdom flee the country in desperation for medical care. A recent article in the Daily Mail, a popular United Kingdom periodical, describes a growing number of health tourists. These individuals are in need of surgery or medical treatment and are fed up or unable to deal with the "frustration of often waiting months for operations and receiving sub par care." The Daily Mail estimates that "by the end of the decade 200,000 health tourists will fly to Malaysia, South Africa, and even America for major surgery." If so many patients in countries with national health care are leaving for treatment elsewhere, it is obviously not the answer. Another problem with national health care is the power it would give government, if every citizen was granted health care, the government would have more reason to regulate personal freedoms. Congress could easily pass a ban on trans fats, smoking, or caffeine with the justification of lowering costs.
America's healthcare solution will not come in the form of a government program. Instead the solution will come from prevention. Thomas Edison believed, "The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease" ("Wizard Edison" in The Newark Advocate (2 January 1903), p. 1). The future doctors need to be teachers more then surgeons. Instead of fixing what is broken, their focus will be to educate their students about proper eating, exercise, and stress reduction.
A recent study attributed the leading causes of death in the United States to only three factors: tobacco, diet, activity patterns, and alcohol. ("Health Insurance Coverage 2000," U.S. Census Bureau, Sept. 28, 2001). All of these elements are preventable. Despite precautionary resources being procurable, many high-value practices are unfortunately underutilized. Less than 50% of the population receives smoking-cessation services, counseling about aspirin use, cancer screenings, and vaccines for infections diseases. Increasing use of these four services would save millions of dollars but importantly, more than 100,000 lives annually (Jonathan E. Fielding, M.D., M.P.H.).
Sadly, Americans do a better job getting oil changes and other preventive maintenance on their cars than on themselves. The country must have an intervention and come to realize the power of precautionary care. Real health care reform will come only from demand reduction, as individuals learn to take charge of their health.
The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not offer a universal health care program and the lack of health care is a growing problem. The number of Americans without insurance is currently at an all time high ("Health Insurance Coverage 2000," U.S. Census Bureau, Sept. 28, 2001).
70% of Americans rely on their employer for health benefits, but with the recent state of the economy this number is rapidly declining. "Health costs are the single largest cost that employers face - far exceeding energy, labor, material, even litigation." But money saved from cut insurance benefits will not end up in CEOs pockets. American companies simply, "can not compete with foreign business whose government shoulder medical and hospital costs" (Freudenheim).
The answer is not nationalization. A study conducted by University College in London and Columbia University in New York followed 1,000 individuals having similar surgeries. The study concluded that patients in the United Kingdom were four times more likely to die after the same surgery than their American counterparts. Researchers attributed these results to postoperative care and delayed surgeries in the United Kingdom. (boortz)
A state run medical program is not the diagnosis for the United States. Canada's solution to health care is very similar to the United Kingdom. The government pays a majority of costs. But patients pay in other ways. Image the long lines at the post office or Department of Motor Vehicles. Government run programs are synonymous with waiting. Nationalized health care is no exception, it is not uncommon in both the United Kingdom and Canada for patients to experience outlandish and unacceptable wait times. Following a referral from a general practitioner, "it took an average of 20 weeks to see a specialist" in Canada (Lopes).
Some patients in the United Kingdom flee the country in desperation for medical care. A recent article in the Daily Mail, a popular United Kingdom periodical, describes a growing number of health tourists. These individuals are in need of surgery or medical treatment and are fed up or unable to deal with the "frustration of often waiting months for operations and receiving sub par care." The Daily Mail estimates that "by the end of the decade 200,000 health tourists will fly to Malaysia, South Africa, and even America for major surgery." If so many patients in countries with national health care are leaving for treatment elsewhere, it is obviously not the answer. Another problem with national health care is the power it would give government, if every citizen was granted health care, the government would have more reason to regulate personal freedoms. Congress could easily pass a ban on trans fats, smoking, or caffeine with the justification of lowering costs.
America's healthcare solution will not come in the form of a government program. Instead the solution will come from prevention. Thomas Edison believed, "The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will instruct his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease" ("Wizard Edison" in The Newark Advocate (2 January 1903), p. 1). The future doctors need to be teachers more then surgeons. Instead of fixing what is broken, their focus will be to educate their students about proper eating, exercise, and stress reduction.
A recent study attributed the leading causes of death in the United States to only three factors: tobacco, diet, activity patterns, and alcohol. ("Health Insurance Coverage 2000," U.S. Census Bureau, Sept. 28, 2001). All of these elements are preventable. Despite precautionary resources being procurable, many high-value practices are unfortunately underutilized. Less than 50% of the population receives smoking-cessation services, counseling about aspirin use, cancer screenings, and vaccines for infections diseases. Increasing use of these four services would save millions of dollars but importantly, more than 100,000 lives annually (Jonathan E. Fielding, M.D., M.P.H.).
Sadly, Americans do a better job getting oil changes and other preventive maintenance on their cars than on themselves. The country must have an intervention and come to realize the power of precautionary care. Real health care reform will come only from demand reduction, as individuals learn to take charge of their health.