In Healthcare there are many ethical and economic challenges related to policy decisions. New medications are being researched and developed, such as Provenge, which is costing billions of dollars to create and driving the cost of these drugs exponentially. The medical cost-benefit continues to be a rising tension. Who gets to decide what treatment options are available to patients? Advancing medicine and technology has risen the cost to deliver health care. Should certain privileges only be given with those patients with the best healthcare coverage? Per Stein, “Provenge cost approximately $1 billion to develop and would cost each patient $227,000 for a year of life” (p.1). Chronic illnesses and diseases are being prolonged by advanced medicine such as Alzheimer’s and HIV. Ethically speaking, what is the benefit of treating the late stage Alzheimer’s patient? But, if we could develop a vaccine or cure for Alzheimer’s, how much would …show more content…
Our health care system structure has left too many holes to have concrete answers to these questions. If I have private insurance should I be able to take Provenge while my disabled brother is on Medicaid and isn’t even offered this choice. Our government was set up with a check and balance system so that fair decisions can be made. The complexity of healthcare needs these same checks and balances. The insurance companies, the patients, and the doctors all have different views as to who needs these advanced medicines and who is approved for them. It reminds me of my friend who had a child battling leukemia. For five years the family had to scrape, struggle, and fundraise just to treat this controllable cancer. It affected their lives in so many ways, they will never be the same. My hope is that we find a way to restructure healthcare to treat patients that need the medicine or technology in the
According to the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the Affordable care Act from President Obama gives consumers more options and benefits when seeking coverage from insurance company. It offers lowering cost as well as gets more access to high quality of care. This law creates Patient’s Bill of Rights that is very effective to protect consumers from any abuses or fraud from insurance company. Some preventive services are available to many Americans especially Medicare recipients at no cost. Not just that, they also receive a special offer of 50 percent discount for any well-known drugs in the market place under Medicare named “donut hole.” The Affordable Care Act helps other organizations and programs to convince healthcare providers
As humans, the right to medical care is something that should be seen as a privilege. No one should have to worry about if they are able to receive the healthcare that they require. Everyone has the right to receive the care that they should need. The only way to provide equal care for everyone in America is if healthcare were to be free. Though many countries around the world are able to provide free healthcare, this is something that is unfortunately not possible for all countries. There would be many issues that would arise if free healthcare were provided here in America. Due to the fact that quality care would be difficult to find, taxes would be increased, and much more, health care should not be free.
As such, a subset of our patient population has no other option than to use medication that is less than ideal, leading to worse outcomes. To shift the balance in our healthcare ecosystem, cost must be incurred at some level. In financial terms, this is an investment period in which our system can refocus the business model to address care deficits in patient sub-populations. In humane terms, it simply means that we are going to better provide care to the people who most need
I could not phantom what my family’s life would be like if my mother had agreed to those risky experimental procedures. I’m so thankful she said no each time because if she’d given in, I don’t know if my father would be here today. This experience has lead me to realize some critical disparities within health care. Healthcare should be provided to everyone. The potential cost of health care can deter persons in need of treatment. Whether a general checkup or an emergency room visit, the expenses that arise from either of these visits can result in a financial burden for patients -- especially the ones who do not have much money to begin with. From how I see it, healthcare is a privilege. Money directly affects health care and treatments. This is turn can question informed consent for proposed medical treatments. One major health care disparity is the proper implementation of informed consent from health care professional to patient. This is an issue because money's influence on health care can deter from what should be in the best interest of the
Social workers take the role of different responsibilities to serve clients to enable them to achieve best outcome. Social workers do this by following the legal framework of social work practice and the code of ethic of HCPC standard of proficiency. Through practice, practitioners face a number of ethical dilemmas. An ethical dilemma is a situation in which there is a choice between two equal unwelcome alternatives which a social worker have to make relating to human welfare.
Block, W. (2008). Is there a human right to medical insurance?. Business & Professional Ethics Journal, 27(1/4), 1-33. Retrieved from http://secure.pdcnet.org.ezproxy.liberty.edu:2048/pdc/bvdb.nsf/toc?openform&journal=pdc_bpej&yearrange=1999 –2009&category=0027_40182_2008
While there is tremendous variation in stakeholder viewpoints regarding what pharmacare should look like and who should fund it, there is clear consensus on many overarching principles. Our reliance on prescription drugs as a key tool in the maintenance and restoration of health has increased greatly since the inception of Medicare. Our current fragmented approach for funding of therapies has led to
Having an effective ethics and compliance in health care training course for employees within a company is a positive effort to keep not only the company running strong and efficient, but also developing standards for other companies to follow who are trying to create a more applicable format for corporate regulations. According to federal guidelines, designated and regulated by the Office of Inspector General (OIG), a company in compliance to federal healthcare standards will have effective education of employees, investigation measures, discipline and enforcement measures, intervention of violation standards, strong internal audit standards, compliance officers and staff, and lastly, written company standards and policies that is freely available to all employees.
There are many ethical issues in the healthcare field. These issues range from insurance coverage, senior care, childhood immunizations, beneficence, abortion, medicinal marijuana, honesty and medical research (Fritzsche, D., 2004). Today we will discuss the ethical concerns in only one aspect of heath care and that topic is research (Benatar, S., 2000). Medical research is necessary in order to make strides in health care, introduce new medications, to discover new symptoms and disorders and to test new treatment options for current medical problems. Students of medicine, universities and pharmaceutical companies conduct this research primarily. Much of this research is time consuming and costly, therefore obtaining funding is not
In a perfect world all patients would receive the same level of healthcare and they would all be treated equally based on their illness. Although, living in a capitalist society not everything is meant to be equal. Our country was founded by settlers looking to escape from punitive taxation and were looking to be free from all other countries and start a new country. The United States is known as the place for people to chase the American Dream, where you work hard and the fruits of your labor can potentially payoff, overwhelmingly in some cases. However, not everyone can or will realize their American Dream since space is limited at the top. The richest Americans are able to enjoy larger homes, nicer cars, and lavish vacations.
My initial approach would be to save the patient by monitoring her blood pressure and heart rate. To keep her alive would have been my top priority before proceeding to any other step. Once she is stable enough to respond to the treatment, I will advised with the staff to cleaning the patient to perform other tests. First, I would do my best to save her life at all cost, and place her on a ventilator for a period of time hoping her respiratory condition to improve before contacting her primary care doctor and relatives regarding her status. Because many risks are involved using a ventilator such as lung damage, infections, I would urge the staff to contact any close relatives about the procedure and contact her previous doctor to know any past
The cost of new medical drugs seems to be accepted by many people who use them. These pharmaceutical companies increase their profits more and more each year because many people assume that it does cost a lot of money for research and development. Where in reality, they are only spending about 15% of their profit margins on research and development alone. A huge percentage of these drugs are actually tested in other countries where people are more willing to do trials with these drugs because they cannot afford them. Not only are there more people who are more willing to try them, but also there is less regulation and oversight when it comes to testing. Conducting these clinical trials overseas not only saves
Written about the structure and culture of biomedical heath care and a society that is attempting to prolong aging, Medicare funding, funding and development of research, and today’s definition of standard care, Sharon Kaufman brings to light the many dilemmas posed to the American health care system. Her ethnographic story, Ordinary Medicine: Extraordinary Treatments, Longer Lives and Where to Draw the Line reveals the booming biomedical research and clinical trials industry, the power held by Medicare and private insurance, and a rapidly changing standard of care once a medical treatment is considered reimbursable. This leads to systematic changes in the standard of care result in a massive amount of pressure being placed upon doctors, patients and families to make an ethically and medically sound decision in refusing or accepting therapy. Kaufman exposes the driving forces behind the expansion of biomedicine, society’s response to the growing industry on a personal and bureaucratic level.
Worries about quality could disappoint critical changes in medicinal services delivery and financing. Policymakers, payers, supervisors, and others must face present and potential quality-of-care issues with the same energy and advancement that they are coordinating to issues of expense. This message applies to public and private segments alike and to elected, state, and neighborhood governments. Taking care of business, social insurance in the United States is eminent. Such care including aversion, early finding of ailment, and propelled helpful administrations is not, in any case, accessible to a great many Americans who are uninsured or underinsured. Indeed, even Americans with protection, including Medicare and Medicaid, may not generally have admittance to sufficient consideration. In the meantime, some Americans might be subjected to unseemly or pointless techniques.
costs but not life-time care, so many patients only take their medicines as their finances allow