As an LDS, white, college graduate, living in Utah and being related to die hard Cougar fans, I am a black sheep when it comes to political views. I am usually pressing my own mute button during family discussions with the words, "Obama", "Taxes", and "Socialized Medicine". But because of the blessing of the blog, I will be deactivating the mute feature and letting you in on my views of such contraversial things.
A major pet-peeve of mine is the opposition to universal healthcare, or "socialized medicine" as it is referred to in my more conservative circles. I have to propose an objective and fair question to those that are in opposition. Where does the implementation of a universalized healthcare system take us that would degrade society and our current standard of living? Let's look at some elements of this issue before we decide on an answer.
Before someone should be allowed to decide where they stand on this issue, they should answer a very loaded question, is the access to healthcare a right or a priviledge? If it is the latter, only those that have been either blessed with sufficient financial security or those who have earned that same financial security by the sweat of their brows should have access to all our health care system has to offer. If you believe in the former, you believe that access to all forms of treatment is as universally secured as freedom of religion, speech, and other contitutional guarantees.
Having answered that question, you now have a new one. How do those that provide health care services, ie doctors, nurses, hospitals, receive compensation? How much should they receive? As a soon-to-be medical student I will be incurring roughly $250,000 worth of educational debt over the next four years of med school. I may be incurring additional debt as a resident if I decide to defer payment of school loans until after I have completed residency. I am banking on the commonly recognized fact that as a practicing physician, I will be making plenty of money to pay back those debts and still live very comfortably. I would even dare say I can most likely live more "comfortably" than 98% of the world's population. Will I deserve that type of compensation for my services? Is my educational debt a good enough excuse to keep my salary so high and your medical bills so burdensome? I want to give you my opinion on this issue.
Historically, physicians were more often very respected and appreciated members of any civilized society. Even in the tiny villages of remote jungles had their revered medicine men. In the end, all we have in this life is our life itself. Take everything away from me but my life and I'm still here, living on this planet. We always hear, "at least he's healthy" or "at least she has her health." We value our health above most anything. It's clear that the services of a health care provider are almost priceless. However, we have made it very clear that "priceless" is not a great way of getting a doctor paid at the end of the day. My own ,semi-educated opinion is that a physician renders one of the most if not THE most important service we can get from another human being, but he does not need to be a millionaire or drive to the hospital in a Ferrari. At the other end of the spectrum I don't want my doctor worrying about his financial situation and living paycheck to paycheck while his worry should be completely bestowed on myself or my family member. So how do we decide on a price? Even though the price should reflect how valuable we see the service, it does need to be in a certain realm to make it affordable. Affordable for who, you ask? That brings us to the first question again. Should only the richest of us be able to live after an accident? Should only the wealthiest of us be able to give their children a long, healthy life? I'm going to give that one a big'ole WWJD.
So who deserves healthcare? In my opinion, everyone with a heartbeat deserves healthcare. Not just the wealthy or the well-connected. But how do we compensate doctors when not everyone can pay for their "priceless" services? Are doctors to render services for free? Well a WWJD won't work here because we are, unfortunately, still subject to the natural man and the "natural" way of things. The answer is not if the individual can pay but if our society can pay. Compensation is due for the service, we all agree on that whether we like it or not. But we certainly don't like the idea of shelling out our hard earned money to provide healthcare to not just perfect strangers but possibly to strangers that are deliberatly neglecting their health and getting away with it because we are covering the check! How just is that? The hard-at-work and the ever-responsible man should feel a little jipped in having to take care of the ever-irresponsible and slow-to-work guy across the street. Where is the justice in that?
I have struggled with the justice of universal healthcare. I do believe it is a right, not a priviledge, to receive treatment. But I don't believe that a right to health care allows the right to neglect one's health and become a burden to society.
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It's good to hear someone from the medical community give their opinion on the matter. Just as food is a necessity to live, so is healthcare in many instances. Although food is not free (however subsidized by the government for those who cannot afford it-WIC, foodstamps, etc) it is easier to get your hands on with a few dollars.
ReplyDeleteEconomically, universal health care does not make sense- why should society bear the cost of someone who is not contributing to that society? However, if we looked at everything with a purely economic view, I believe our society as a whole would suffer from more greed than it already does. That is why we have republicans to make us think money and democrats to balance it out with good-will. jk it is a very interesting argument and not one with an easy answer.
My dad was in the military where we had free health care. We would wait in line for hours at the free clinic- but it was free and that fact saved my family's life financially because of many health problems/accidents/injuries.
I suppose the best solution would be free clinics paid for with tax dollars. For those seeking higher-class/more convenient health care, they can go to a private practice. Kind of like public education: we all pay taxes that go to public education but may choose to pay for private school for our children. I don't know, just an opinion.
Sorry for the long comment but I've been thinking about this topic lately.
p.s. how are you guys? Tell Ashley hi for me. This is Meghan Johnson by the way.