Should universal healthcare be implemented as national policy

¶ … UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE BE IMPLEMENTED AS NATIONAL POLICY?

Universal healthcare, while touted as the solution to the ailing health care system in the United States is not really all that it is cracked up to be in fact the fundamental problems existing with today's American health care system are not addressed in the Universal Healthcare Plan and in fact, this plan will only serve to exacerbate the already existing problem in its current form. This work looks to various sources in attempting to disseminate what solution among all possible solutions is the most viable approach in fixing the broken American system of health care. This work finds that the best solutions available are those which address the fundamental problems with the American health care system. Further, this brief review cites the fact that countries that do have Universal Health Care are in no better shape and in some cases in worse shape than the American system of health care.

SHOULD UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE BE IMPLEMENTED AS NATIONAL POLICY?

I. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

The work of Charles McGowen, M.D., Chief Medical advisor to the American Policy Roundtable entitled: "Solutions to the Rising Cost of Healthcare: Seeking the Cause of the Problem" states that there has been " a perpetual cost shift in the medical economic paradigm. The physicians who invested many years of their lives to learn the art and science of medicine and surgery, who do the tireless, conscientious, dedicated hands-on care in their attempts to point the health of our citizens in a positive direction, have been deprived of a portion of their income while that fraction, plus the steady increase in insurance premiums every year, go to line the pockets of the MCO administrators and their employees."(2008) McGowen goes on to state: "The recommendations for curing the problem will be forth coming but first we must identify the disease process that got our system to be as sick as it obviously is. Next week, we will look at that Obama plan for nationalizing healthcare in more detail and as you will see, it is not a solution. If anything it will exacerbate the issues that caused the best medical care in the world to suffer from its debilitation in the first place." (2008)

II. POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Many possible solutions have been offered by various individuals and organizations. One example is the suggestion posed by Dr. Gawande who states that "...the histories of the health care systems in the countries he's studied informs how the U.S. should go about providing universal health care." (PRI, 2009) Specifically Dr. Gawande states: "What I came away realizing is that everywhere looked to themselves to build on what they have. And if we did the same thing, if we looked to build on what we have, what we have are actually a series of reasonable choices. For example, we have a veterans' health system that already runs 1200 hospitals, that has in recent studies not only the lowest costs per person of health care, but actually the highest quality results that we have - higher quality than people see through Medicare or through many private insurance plans. And one option is to open that up and let other people join it." (PRI, 2009) second option is to open Medicare or Medicaid government programs that have been generally popular and successful. A third option is to do something like what Massachusetts has done, which is to open private insurers to the public and in fact require people to obtain insurance through that kind of option, but subsidize it heavily especially for the poor. Any of those options can actually be made to work and be made to work quite quickly. But it's expanding the programs that we have and choosing the ones we think work the best, rather than imagining that what we'll do is just blow up the existing system and put a new one in place." (PRI, 2009)

III. RECOMMENDED SOLUTION

McGowen states in the work entitled: "A Doctor's Prescription on Providing Better Health Care in America" (2008) that the following are suggestions to correcting the health care system:

Return to the free enterprise, market-based system of the years prior to 1968: (a) physician visits were fewer and fee for service;

The indigent were provided free or 'in kind' care;

Make health insurance policies catastrophic and $1,000 deductible which will reduce the unnecessary visit to the doctor's office;

Eliminate the middle man;

Make suits more difficult by penalizing the attorney and client who sue for trivialities;

Lower malpractice fees thereby making the practice of medicine more affordable with savings passed on to the patients;

Lower the rate of law suits will result in physicians be less able to practice 'defensive medicine';

remove government from the field of medicine - Medicare has raised the costs of medical care exponentially - physicians are penalized for providing free care;

Make individuals more responsible for their own health care through rewarding nonsmokers and persons with a body mass index below 30;

Bar drug companies from ads on television which will reduce in a cost savings to patients/customers; and Allow the ones who are trained in the care of patients to decide what is best for them. (McGowen, 2008)

IV. ANALYTICAL EVALUATION OF THE POLICY OR PROPOSED POLICY

The solution posited in the work of McGowen (2008) is characterized by a 'return' to the American ideal in health care and health care service provision and is one that allowed the practicing physician the necessary freedom to expand the possible solutions for the individual patient without being bound by a 'call number' diagnosis and one that might be compared to the various choices offered in a drive through line at McDonald's in that the range of possible solutions presently to physicians concerning health care provision and treatment choices is limited through governmental interference in attempting to regulate the health care industry. However, this is not the only problem that presents in the necessary freedom of practice that physicians require because as the system presently operates the physician is effectively barred from providing 'free' health care thereby leaving the estimated 45 million who are uninsured in the United States without even the Hippocratic Oath to appeal on their behalf. Perhaps this indeed is where medical practice has strayed in allowing itself to be servant to the government and its excessive regulations and restrictions placed upon the medical profession in its health care provision. Yet there is a third perspective that must be mentioned and this is how the general public has empowered the government to do just as it has effectively done in regards to the American health care system through excessive and trivial lawsuits against physicians which has only served to drive up the overhead to practicing physicians and resulting in a reduction in the number of young bright individuals who make a decision to enter this field. The American healthcare system is negatively perpetuating a process that is destructive not only to the practice of innovative health care but that effectively renders the practicing physician impotent to provide the best possible health care to their patients.

The work entitled: 'Universal Health Care: The Debate Rages On" states that those opposed to Universal Heath Care programs "are quick to site numerous problems with socialized medicine as they occur in national systems." However, it is stated that there are claims to the contrary that are reported by immigrants of other countries health care accessibility and provision. No matter the debate it is related that the "real argument is not whether we need "better" health care in America. We need more accessible health care at a more reasonable cost. The two issues are not even remotely similar. In contrast to most of Europe, American health care is nothing more than a practice in treating symptoms of diseases. There is little attempt to actually cure anything, and there is certainly even less of an emphasis on prevention of disease in the first place." (Universal Healthcare: The Debate Rages On, 2009)

It is suggested that merely than focusing on "pros and cons" of a Universal health care system needed is a revisement in the "attitudes and practices toward good health." (Universal Healthcare: The Debate Rages On, 2009) It is the opinion of the writer of this article that to merely fund a "massive nationwide program that will keep paying the out of control prices on prescription drugs and the inflated charges to hospitals and clinics will do nothing more than finalize the road to bankruptcy, down which America seems to be headed." (Universal Healthcare: The Debate Rages On, 2009)

The following are stated to "...demonstrate the need for change": (1) America has the highest rate of chronic diseases, second only to Australia; (2) The most rapidly growing disease among children in America is cancer; (3) Obesity and diabetes are at epidemic levels among the nation's young people; (4) The healthiest -- and smallest -- segment of America is the senior population, particularly those who take no prescription drugs;(5) The recommended levels of cholesterol were arrived at by the drug companies, not by physicians or any real medical results of patients; (6) For the first time in history, American young people are dying before their much older parents and grandparents; and (7) Every chronic ailment among American patients could be radically reduced in numbers with a change in diet, exercise, or with the removal of toxins from our homes, environments or food products. (Universal Healthcare: The Debate Rages On, 2009)