Government policy and politics in healthcare

Government, Policy and Politics in Health Care

There are many potential controversies in health care. The text discusses things like increased government involvement, but there are issues arising on the ethical side with the new medical technologies. There are legal and ethical issues that arise from things like stem cells, and the use of robots. The latter, as an example, raises issues of safety and control, but eventually robots will perform many medical tasks. This is something that is going to challenge the industry, patients and regulators alike (Mavrofou, et al., 2010). As new technologies emerge, governments have to understand how to manage them, and regulate their usage. The FDA is constantly evolving its policies, but there are issues that will arise at the governmental level, and will affect the practice of medicine as well.

Another potential controversy with health care will probably come with funding. It is going to be increasingly difficult to finance a health care system that is becoming so expensive. Already today, consumers want the best health care, and this pushes innovation and costs. But it can be very hard to maintain. Greenwald talks about things like looking at alternative systems for financing health care, but governments are not in much better position to finance health care than anybody else is. The reality is that costs are getting out of hand, it tough choices will be required in the future in order to deal with this.

Privacy is still an issue with health care. The reality is that when everything is made electronic, the health care system will become a lot more efficient, and modern, but it will also bear risks relating to people's private medical information. Health care providers and insurance companies will need to have more strategies to deal with privacy, and maintaining privacy.

One thing that is emerging today but maybe is not yet controversial -- but certainly has the potential to be -- is the shifting of responsibilities within the health care system. There is basically a shortage of physicians, something that will only be made worse with an aging population and more people receiving health care insurance. The tasks of health care are being shifted downwards, as organizations are often struggling to find qualified personnel. There are things like nurse practitioners, which are serving to replace more traditional health care roles. While this is happening, maybe it creates risk, or compromises service, but for certain the public is going to have to face that, with a chronic shortage of medical talent, there might be sacrifices that they have to make in terms of the quality of their care.

Drugs are another issue. Drug costs are often controversial already, and that has resulted in people bringing in drugs from other countries to try to save costs. The availability of drugs is going to be more controversial in the future, knowing that the population is aging, and entering that point where health care becomes more important. Access to drugs and the price of drugs are key issues that will emerge.