Values and Resource Decisions

McLaughlin and McLaughlin (2015) indicate that societal values, medico-societal issues, and political issues, among other factors, impact health policy and analysis of health policy. Please explain, giving examples, why you agree or disagree with this statement. The values that a society upholds as its norms, or the values that are held by the majority of citizens or possibly those with the decision making power, significantly influences the manner in which healthcare institutions are organized, how they are funded, and their priorities and objectives among others.

That is to say that the ones who hold power in the society will typically influence its institutions at every level. However, despite the fact that some people have more influence over institutions that others, the way that such norms disseminate throughout the U.S. healthcare system is far from a static system that is simply top-down in nature.

For example, decisions about health care programs and policies, as well as factors related to patient care, are made at multiple levels within the system at different points in time and can all affect the treatments made available to the patient: (a) the macro level where policy is established by governments, health authorities, insurance plans, etc.; (b) the meso level where organizational budgets are established by organizational administrators; and (c) the micro level where care is delivered by clinician providers (Jones, 2015).

Thus, each of these levels interact in a dynamic fashion to form a set of values, norms, and a culture that can be evident within the entire system. Many of the decision that have to be made involve the allocation of the resources that are available within a system. For example, because there are not unlimited resources available to the health care system, there must be decisions about how the resources are to be distributed that must be made in order to prioritize different objectives.

Furthermore, these objectives represent a reflection of the priorities that a society, or its decision makers, value. Many of the health care systems in the industrialized world provide universal care that treats everyone as equals and is totally egalitarian. Other systems, such as the one found in the United States, place more of an emphasis on the individual than the public good and ration many services based on the mechanisms that are inherent in a free market system.

Healthcare rating has been extensively discussed in the medical profession and is understood as withholding beneficial interventions, mainly for cost-effectiveness reasons that occur at all levels and in all healthcare systems around the world (Papastavrou, Andreou, & Vryonides, 2014). In regards to the system in the United States, the rationing that is involved is skewed more towards individuals and families with the availability of resources to pay for care.

This can be viewed in stark contrast to the more collectivist oriented universal care systems that place more of an emphasis on rationing resources in such a manner that treats everyone equally. McLaughlin and McLaughlin (2015) indicate that societal values, medico-societal issues, and political issues, among other factors, impact health policy and analysis of health policy. The examples provided in regard to the priorities exhibited in how resources are distributed in the health care system based on different sets of values provides evidence for their position.

There are many examples that are immediately apparent when comparing different international systems. One example that can be found in our hemisphere, in close proximity, are the contrasts between the health care systems found in the U.S. and Cuba. Life expectancy of about 78 years of age in Cuba is equivalent to the U.S. and can represent roughly equal health outcomes by this measure; yet, in 2005, Cuba was spending$193 per person on health care, only 4% of the $4,540 being spent in the U.S. (Fitz, 2010).

Cuban medicine is widely recognized by international health groups such as UNICEF as surpassing that of developing countries.