Beliefs and Personal Values

Personal Values and Beliefs

My personal values and beliefs are based on kindness and compassion. There is a salutary spiritual component of those values and beliefs as well. However, I truly value life in all of its myriad forms. This valuation is increased when it comes to sentient life. I believe that it is best to live in accordance with life and one's surroundings, as opposed to trying to dictate those surroundings and shape them to one's own benefit. This latter stance is that which is largely propagated via Western culture. However, I believe that the values of kindness and compassion are best actuated by living in accordance with one's surroundings, which is manifested daily in the interactions that one has with other forms of life.

The spiritual aspect of this fledgling belief system is predicated on the notion that there is a universal creator who has engendered existence in a state of harmony. Kindness and compassion are the fundamental values that affect my treatment of others because I believe that the aforementioned spiritual force has intended its creation -- life itself -- to function in harmony. Therefore, I strive to be understanding and to consider the viewpoints of others along with those of myself. Perhaps the most succinct way to summarize my values and beliefs is to reference Immanuel Kant. Kant's philosophy was popularized by his notion of the categorical imperative -- the fact that some moral obligations are so complete that they must be followed (CSUS, 2016). The categorical imperative of the golden rule ("do unto others as you would have done unto you") summarizes my approach of kindness and compassion to others.

My beliefs and opinions about health policy are that equitable care should be given to people at a reasonable or no cost. The most eminent social issues related to these beliefs involve cost. Specifically, the Affordable Care Act has created a situation in which the cost of health care is exorbitant, with premiums in most instances two or three times higher prior to this legislation. Oftentimes in my own personal experience, the providers are issuing substandard quality of care or quality of healthcare packages for these extravagant rates. I cannot afford healthcare insurance due to these factors -- that premiums are ridiculously high and the quality of service has egregiously declined. Ethically, this situation is unacceptable. Moreover, I believe that utilitarianism (which justifies ethical behavior by that which achieves the greatest good for the most people) (Stanford, 2009) can support my stance about these high costs. The justification is typically that by ensuring people that were formally unable to get insurance or who could not afford insurance because it would be too high due to pre-existing health conditions, everyone's premiums would have to go up. There is a greater utility in the healthcare system prior to the Affordable Care Act. After the legislation, everyone has exorbitant premiums. Prior to the legislation, only a relatively small amount of the population had steep premiums. The greater good is achieved with the healthcare climate prior to the Affordable Care Act. Ideally, healthcare should be free or of low cost with commendable levels of quality. It is certainly neither of these things in the current climate.

The most eminent factors relating to my current perspective on healthcare include my personal and professional experiences, as well as my family upbringing and spirituality. The inadequacies I have experienced with the current healthcare climate certainly affect my viewpoint. The surge in costs of premium along with a commensurate decline in the quality of services is something I have certainly experienced firsthand. I also have some experience with this issue in a professional regard as well. I know people whose jobs are paying their healthcare and who are seemingly unaffected by the legislation, which merely acts as an impetus for people to get the sorts of jobs (and to make the requisite temporal commitments to them) that offer these benefits.

However, my familial upbringing and spiritual convictions factor into my opinion about this issue as well. The healthcare issue is so prominent in contemporary times because it is a service that most people need at some point or another. That is why many regard healthcare as a right (Lamp, 2016). The way it has been implemented in this country is in such a way that it truly creates an even more pronounced divide between those that have, and those that have not. That divide certainly goes against the way that I was brought up, which was to consider the nature of an individual regardless of his or her economic status. Moreover, I believe that there are spiritual entities that believe in this viewpoint as well. Thus, it largely appears as though the current healthcare climate is merely another way in which the people of this nation are put at odds with universal forces and law.