Journal Week 5

This week’s discussion brought out a lot of opinions and perspectives in subject matters that I was not well-versed in. It gave me the opportunity to think critically about topics that are affecting our world right now. Especially the discussion on socialized medicine considering the world climate we are presently in. I would like to begin this week’s journal entry discussing socialized medicine. In our group discussion on of our group members gave an extremely detailed outline regarding socialized medicine along with his thoughts concerning it. I found that to be so helpful as it was the prefect foundation for the rest of our group’s discussion. As a group we all were of the opinion that we did not want socialized medicine. One of the main points we discussed in our group and so it also in the class wide discussion was the idea of the government and its role in socialized medicine. The United States in some ways in already participating in forms of free healthcare through programs such state prison healthcare, Medicare, military medicine, Indian health services, and state funded free healthcare. What sets these services apart from a socialized medicine system is not all aspects of the process is governed by one body. In socialized medicine the government has complete control and authority over every aspect of the healthcare system from funding down to the actual facility. The way this would be funded would be through taxes. While I was reading up on socialized medicine some of the literature was clear to make a distinction between socialized medicine and universal medicine/healthcare. Universal healthcare was described as simply having access to healthcare but did not include the facilities, providers, and hospitals. In my opinion having a socialized medical system where the government is solely responsible for everything is not wise and not fair to the taxpayers. I also think there will be a loss of accountability in this kind of approach who is holding the government accountable for the actions and policies with the authority to make changes. It quickly becomes a political mess in my opinion. Another aspect of socialized medicine to consider is how does this affect healthcare professionals? Will they be properly compensated for the amount of time that have invested in their careers. Beside the compensation will there be enough professionals to service everyone. There is also this idea of rationing that was brought up during our class discussion. There is no way to know if a sort of hierarchy system in determining who gets care first will arise. One of my main concerns with this approach is how will the quality of care be affected. Quality care doesn’t just refer to a healthcare professional being good or bad but their ability to make decisions and provide customized care for their patients. Physicians are uniquely made to problem solve and would being under a socialized structure inhibit them from using creative approaches. In contrast to all the cons I have discussed above I can understand why this approach seems appealing to some. Healthcare is extremely expensive and can be crippling to some especially if situations where you require more than just the regular checkup. I think there are other avenues to explore first to address healthcare in our country that begins with looking to ways to adjust taxes for businesses and make it more affordable for them to provide healthcare to their employees and maybe even lower cost for healthy individuals that might not require as much traditional healthcare as others. I do know of some insurance companies that are taking a similar approach the only caveat is when you get sick it gets very expensive very quickly. Healthcare is absolutely an industry looking to not only tend to the physical needs but