The Underlying Assumptions Of Consumer Sovereignty Theory

Maruthappu, M., Ologunde, R., Gunarajasingam, A.. (2012). Is health care a right? Health reforms in the USA and their impact upon the concept of care. Annals of Medicine & Surgery. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2049-0801(13)70021-

"In the past two decades or so, health care has been commercialized as never before, and professionalism in medicine seems to be giving way to entrepreneurialism," commented Arnold S. Relman, professor of medicine and social medicine at Harvard Medical School (Wekesser 66). This statement may have a great deal of bearing on reality. The tangled knot of insurers, physicians, drug companies, and hospitals that we call our health system are not as unselfish and focused on the patients' needs as people would like to think. Pharmaceutical companies are particularly ruthless, many of them spending millions of dollars per year to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs and to convince consumers that their specific brand of drug is needed in

Health Care in the United States is a vast industry that has many different types of people involved in the delivery of care. There are stakeholders that affect the daily operations of health care and they are not necessarily in a hospital setting. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, AHRQ, defines a “stakeholder” as persons or groups who have a vested interest in the clinical decision and the evidence that supports that decision ("Effective health care," 2011, p. 1). These stakeholders are making decisions that impact costs, procedures, and the future of

There are two main distribution principle regarding health care in the United States. The first being social justice, and the second being market justice. The delivery system has continued to undergo periodic changes, mainly in response to concerns with cost, access, and

The most efficient way for consumers to get what they want is through the ‘market’, not the government, but businesses have more power than their customers. Some businesses can and will use abuse this power and cheat and steal from consumers to make money. Because of this, the government regulates the behaviour of businesses to have a market economy that functions properly. These laws mainly protect consumers against; misleading/deceptive representations, unconscionable conduct, unfair contracts, and unsafe goods and/or services. To protect consumers, different legal and non-legal approaches have been taken.

Economic freedom of individual health choices is the overall purpose for Consumer Driven Health Care (CDHC). Freedom of picking the wright policy that fits the specific needs and wants of the consumer. Allowing for the individual to pick the health care provider of their choice is another facet of the program. These choices allow for a more personal approach to finding not only the health care plan but also the provider that the consume may feel the most comfortable with. The end state of which is that the consumer has more control over their health care choices and decisions, rather than

Regulations that prevent insurance companies from participating in interstate commerce have caused competition to grow stagnant in the United States. This lack of competition has allowed the adoption of wasteful procedures by healthcare providers, which in turn passes the increased expenses back to the insurance companies. Therein, insurance costs increase, crippling consumer’s cash flow and quality of life. While healthcare costs continue to rise, people must scrutinize the current healthcare system.

As Americans, we pride ourselves in our rights and freedoms. The right to express ourselves freely, the right to bear arms, and the right to pursue life, liberty, and property. However, this has created an entitlement complex in the American people, making it difficult to discern who has the right to what. One of these issues of entitlement is found in the American Health Care system and who has the right to it. Simply put, the Health Care System is the diffusion of medical and health services to the public. However, a problem arises as there is much conflict on whether or not Healthcare is a personal choice or should be provided by the government. It has been a difficult decision-making process as there are extremes on both sides of the argument.

The health care debate has been a tricky one over the years with legislators ongoing decision on whether rules should be put in place that would even out the playing field between regular folk and health insurance companies. Obtaining affordable health care has been difficult for many and has raised some eyebrows about how these health care companies continue to make billions of dollars a year while people’s health continue to suffer. In 2010, a health care reform, the Affordable Care Act or “Obamacare”, was signed into law which eliminated those obstacles and limitations set forth by the healthcare industry.

This sense of technology is taking over our lives and turning us into couch potato zombies with no active lifestyle because all we want to do is dwell on the internet and social media networks. For example, years ago there were no television ads, cellphones, or computers to stimulate our senses. Now that we do have all that, we are taking advantage of our products and economy, whether we see it and believe it or not. These things are unnecessary for standard living but now the upcoming generations depend on these products to function and live through life. On the other hand, without consumers buying products and manufacturers making these products, our economy would no longer exist. That is the belief that consumer satisfaction is that the economy is fundamentally ruled by consumer desires is called consumer sovereignty. Consumer sovereignty is the idea that consumers’ needs and wants determine the shape of all economic activities. Therefore, consumer sovereignty is the fundamental mechanism that guides economies.

The most important stakeholder in the healthcare policymaking is probably the patient. In Massachusetts, the Act provided “nearly universal health insurance coverage” (case study). In 2009 the

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

Consumers are trapped in this membership and believe they must continue to consume because the ideology of consumer says that spending money leads to happiness, private ownership, which is the ultimate goal in this society.

2.In no other industry the consumer is prescribed what goods or services to use, it’s their free will, whereas in healthcare the patient complies with the treatment prescribed by a healthcare professional.

This specific report addresses the pros and cons of how much government intervention in the marketplace is necessary and appropriate. This report will cover four authors, Cunningham, Green, Friedman and Pertschuk. The authors have written extensively on consumerism and the protection thereof. This author’s goal is to break down some of the theories, which authors seem akin in their beliefs and which authors’ views are bipolar opposites.