Wk 5 - Reflection: Current Issues In Nursing

Wk 5 - Reflection: Current Issues in Nursing

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Wk 5 - Reflection: Current Issues in Nursing

Introduction

In recent passed act of Tax Cut and Job Act, it is required that every individual has to purchase the health insurance, which was made the law in the act of Patient Protection and Affordable passed in 2010. Data shows that over 45 million of American population is uninsured. The people living in poverty are mostly exhibiting the poor health status. Education, employment, race, and income are important factors that contribute in obtaining the health insurance access. By establishing these measures, it is important for us to answer the question that whether assistance should be provided to the underprivileged or only access should be provided to the privileged people? As the human beings it is the right of every individual to access the health care facility. It has been naturally determined phenomenon, nature law, and right provided through nature to human beings that health care is a right not a privilege.

Discussion

Ensuring health care to people requires some sort of intervention from the government because if it would be pursued through private institutions, then some people would be left behind without the access. With health care cost continually increasing and outpacing wages and inflation, and healthcare access for all failed by the private system, American people increasingly are supporting the government involvement, to seek health care as a right ensured by the government. Many of the American people have experienced the impact that a poor health has on peoples’ wellbeing. Many families and individuals struggle to pay their bills related to the health care cost, making it the no 1 cause of families’ bankruptcy in the America.

Philosophical Argument

According to Aristotle, human bodies have soul that needs nourishment to move in a society. Putting the concept of good and evil aside, and using this analogy of Aristotle, that nourishment is a need for the soul, would it not be right to assist the soul so that human society can run smoothly. For fulfillment of the soul, it must be grow and nourished. Therefore access to health care is necessary for fullest growth attainment of the soul. While according to Aristotle, soul is the first entelechy, final entelechy is reached if the good health care is provided. Politics, theology, and economic aside, nurturing, respecting, and caring for the human being is the essence that can help the human society to grow and prosper. According to Immanuel Kant categorical imperative, the human existence is not for the sake of usage only for a purpose to accomplish task. This means that if people should not be treated as mere objects then the existence of peoples’ worth must be recognized. In healthcare regards, seeking peace and oneself defending can be incorporated in form of the negotiations and electoral process usage to gain hearing of favorable amount of argument that envisions healthcare as a basic human right and should be readily available for all people.

The people with the medical need are mostly those from disadvantaged socioeconomic status. In the year 2010, approximately over 1.5 million individuals declared the bankruptcy. Many legal experts claim that over 60% of the total bankruptcy declarations were as a result of unable to pay medical bills in the America. America is the home of the people with many distinct features like race, ethnicity, culture, and socioeconomic status. Being too diverse in the socioeconomic status, it must be ensured by the government to provide basic healthcare rights to people with the economic disparities.

Arguments and Counter Arguments

People, who think that health care is a privilege, often said that if health care is allowed as a right, then it would burden the economy of the America. A research is conducted in the University of George Mason which concludes that if a government provides health care to all, then federal spending could be increased by $32.6 trillion after the implementation first 10 years. While it can be concluded from another research that providing health care to every citizen is better for productivity of the economy. It is because when people have healthcare access, then people would be healthier and contribute to the economic prosperity. According to the report by the Institute of Medicine, annually America loses $65-$130 billion as a consequence of workers diminished health which decreases productivity among the people who are uninsured.

Another point that is raised by the proponent of the health care as privilege said that under a system of single-payer, health care rights are paid through tax payer’s money. According to them health care is a service not a right and everyone have to pay for it. While it is the tax money earned from weak people as well and in a just society, it is necessary to help the weak people. According to Harvard University Professor Norman Daniels, healthcare affects the way people participate in social, political, and economic society life. It sustains people as citizens that take full participation in prosperity.

Conclusion

First of all the problem in hand was to focus on whether the health care must be considered as a human right or a privilege, we considered it as the basic human right which means that without regard of the socioeconomic status, caste, color, race and creed, all human beings are made equal and should be provided this basic human right. Secondly if this privilege is not provided, then the society would not run smoothly and according to the contradictory point of views, we come to the conclusion that all the things surrounding the point of view making it as a privilege consider health as a good that could be purchased. While societies cannot run on Darwin approach of survival of the fittest because it would lead to the conflict and chaos.

References

Cooper, Z., Craig, S. V., Gaynor, M., & Van Reenen, J. (2018). The price ain’t right? Hospital prices and health spending on the privately insured. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(1), 51-107.

Gil-González, D., Carrasco-Portiño, M., Vives-Cases, C., Agudelo-Suárez, A. A., Castejón Bolea, R., & Ronda-Pérez, E. (2015). Is health a right for all? An umbrella review of the barriers to health care access faced by migrants. Ethnicity & health, 20(5), 523-541.

Porter, M. E., & Kaplan, R. S. (2016). How to pay for health care. Harv Bus Rev, 94(7-8), 88-98.