WK3 discussion HP-111
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The Governmental Role in Healthcare
When speaking about the state of healthcare in the U.S. and who is responsible it is common to blame the government, indeed if one hears a refrain often enough it becomes the truth, right?
The U.S. government operates neither the health care delivery system nor the health services financing system in anything close to their entirety. In fact, in the United States, government is less involved with the provision of health care (in contrast to the payment for health services, with which it is heavily involved) than in any other industrialized country in the world.
But the truth is:
It is important to understand that when politicians throw the term “socialized medicine” around they are doing a disservice to the facts, seeking to sensationalize a topic that is far too important to be treated like a political tool to be manipulated. The statement above is true. With the exception of part of the military healthcare system, the federal government plays a minimal role in the provision of healthcare in the U.S. It has a much larger role in paying for healthcare, however, as the manager of two large payers, Medicare and Medicaid. Insurers (mostly through employment) and the patient pay about 50% of the costs with governmental reimbursement picking up the other half.
Is socialized medicine a bad thing? That opinion, of course, would vary from person to person, but it is important to note that every single industrialized nation provides some sort of socialized medicine model except the U.S.
Wait, let’s say that again.
Every single industrialized nation provides some sort of socialized medicine model except the U.S.
I have known healthcare workers who lived in Canada with one socialized medicine model who flew back and forth to the U.S. to work multiple days in a row in the U.S. Why? Because they would not leave the healthcare system Canada provides for its citizens. And they did not want to pay the costs associated with the cobbled-together U.S. system. Is the Canadian system better than the U.S.? Once again, the answer likely depends on how wealthy you are. No country can provide everything for everyone. Healthcare is a scarce resource that gets rationed regardless. But that rationing will look different depending upon the model. In Canada, for example, rationing occurs by waitlisting nonemergent treatment. Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada, 2020 Report
Waiting for treatment has become a defining characteristic of Canadian health care. In order to document the queues for visits to specialists and for diagnostic and surgical procedures in the country, the Fraser Institute has—for over two decades—surveyed specialist physicians across 12 specialties and 10 provinces.
…overall, waiting times for medically necessary treatment have increased since last year. Specialist physicians surveyed report a median waiting time of 22.6 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment—longer than the wait of 20.9 weeks reported in 2019. This year’s wait time is the longest wait time recorded in this survey’s history and is 143% longer than in 1993, when it was just 9.3 weeks.
Source: https://www.fraserinstitute.org/studies/waiting-your-turn-wait-times-for-health-care-in-canada-2020
Now, I am not picking on Canada. People GO to Canada for its healthcare, not vice versa. Every industrialized nation has to do something, similar or dissimilar, to ration the use of care.
But few do it on the backs of the poor.
Why are some against socialized medicine? Primarily because it goes against their preferred model of smaller government is better government. But also because they are fortunate enough to have healthcare. And they do not feel healthcare is a right.
Our forefathers certainly had no concept of responsibility of the Federal Government, nor of the state government, for health protection of the people. This was solely a local governmental responsibility. When Benjamin Franklin wrote “Health is Wealth” in the Farmers’ Almanac, he was saying that health was a commodity to be bought, to be sold, to be conserved, or to be wasted. But he considered that health conservation was the responsibility of the individual, not of government. The local community was responsible only for the protection of its citizens against the hazards of community life. – Jonas, 2021
The U.S. did not grow up on socialized medicine, nor big government, nor did the Constitution place this responsibility on it.
Expand your understanding of how important watershed moments have pushed healthcare systems to where they are today (watershed: an event marking a unique or important historical change of course or one on which important developments depend).
Include the following aspects in the discussion:
- Complete readings and videos.
- How do you think the founding fathers viewed healthcare?
- Has this view changed among the majority in the US and do you agree? Why or why not?
- List five pivotal impacts that changed the direction of healthcare over the
- centuries.
- Discuss if you think we can improve healthcare for all without socialized medicine.
- Cite any references. Proper grammar, sentence structure, and spelling are required. Use your own words. Copying and pasting are not allowed. 200 words
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