A lot of people I know seem to be oblivious about our current health care situation, okay maybe I'm not oblivious to the fact but maybe a nonchalant attitude. It is easy to overlook things when you feel powerless or that you will not be affected directly. I am by no means an expert in the current situation but I think I have observed enough so far to make a valuable argument about the situation. I will try to break this down ad make it a bit less complicated than the news.
There are a multitude of players in the health care system but I will focus on a few for the sake of simplicity. The individual/consumer/ everyone in the US
The physician
The government/ politicians
The insurance and pharmaceutical companies
1. The individual/consumer/ everyone in the US
The current health care reform a.k.a 'Obama care' intends to have most Americans covered under an insurance plan. The debate of private vs medicare/medicaid continues, that topic is one that I can talk about for days. Basically majority will be covered, but some people agree and some don't, bottom line is whenever an individual not covered under an insurance plan goes to the emergency room for treatment we all pay for it(tax)...so why don't we cover everyone. The biggest argument with this is that government will be taking too much of a role in health care. The reason I believe that is a good argument for the nay sayers is the sol reason that we live in a country of Democracy. It almost comes across like the current administration is slowly taking control away from the people, with the housing, wall street, the banks, now HEALTH CARE. Another thing that residing in the United States or anywhere in the world is that, you get the best...If and only if you can afford it ( lil wayne flies private jet but i travel southwest). So this creates a dilemma because there are no doubts about the good intentions but it seems like the stretch or power of the government is surpasses the strength or the ability of people to choose. This also beg the next question, If our current societal model supports the idea that people who can afford it(private insurance) get better care than those who are just surviving (medicare/medicaid), then can we EVER have equal health care??? here in comes the physician...
2. The Physician
There are very many health professionals but I want to focus on the doctors because I will be one( fingers crossed) and I feel that they are affected the most. After an undergrad degree and the MCATS we begin medical school. Tuition and cost of living ranging from 50k to 70k or more each year. These expenses mostly facilitated by loans for four years. Then you go through residency where you are likely to make minimum wage or less with the amount of hours you work, this lasts somewhere from 3 to 7 years. Then you finally enter your field, but you still have those loans plus interest, possibly a family and married (apparently that's what's hot in the streets). You now have to make a choice between working in an underprivileged community with very few individuals on private insurance or a wealth community with a lot of private insurance. I know what I would pick because I am not in the field for the money but I when posed with all these circumstances I can see why people desert the suffering neighborhoods. These communities that are underprivileged with increased rates of diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure will end up being treated in clinics by residents. So how do we solve this? increase reimbursements with medicare/medicaid to make it more attractive but instead these programs steadily get cut. These changes lead us down a broken spiral staircase that I like to call health disparity. The new health care changes will increase patients dramatically and might possibly lead to an increased burden on doctors to see more patients n a day, reducing the time spent with patients and reducing the quality of care. I have to add though that of recent the voice of physicians have started to grow and we are staring to get more involved in lobbying and creating physician friendly policies.
The truth hurts and in the case of health care the truth is that good quality care is expensive and if we want good quality for everyone we have to hurt a little bit in our pockets (taxes). And we have to inspire more young kids to get involved in pursuing careers in health care.
If you agree or disagree with anything let me know, there is a comment box for a reason ;)
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