People or Profits?
In Almeda County, a private hospital turned away a woman in labor because the hospital's computer showed that she didn't have insurance. Hours later, her baby was born dead in a county hospital. In San Bernardino, a hospital surgeon sent a patient who had been stabbed in the heart to a county medical center after examining him and declaring his condition stable. The patient arrived at the county medical center dying, he suffered a cardiac arrest, and died. These two hospitals shifted these patients to county facilities not for medical reasons, but for economic ones -- the receiving hospitals feared they wouldn't be paid for treating the patient. What's right? People or profit? Should there be death or tragedy at the result of poverty and high health care costs, or should a business such as a hospital lose millions everyday to give health care to those who can't afford it? An average person like me would feel for the person who could not afford sufficient health insurance, and as in the case above, the baby inside that mother's womb didn't choose its financial situation, or its parents. That baby didn't ask to be born, and it wasn't given a chance to live.
It wasn't necessarily the doctors fault, and it wasn't even his or her decision, because of business. Business has moved to the heart of health care, a place once relatively cushioned from the pursuit of profit that drives the rest of the
U.S. economy. Throughout the history of the United States, medical institutions have largely been non-profit establishments existing primarily to serve the community. But during the past 20 years, the number of for-profit health care facilities has grown at an exceeding rate.
I think that a society as wealthy as ours has a moral obligation to meet the basic needs of all of its members. I believe that every American, rich or poor, should have access to the health care he or she needs, but the rising costs of care and a growing unwillingness of insurance companies to cover these costs, along with government spending in other areas, have almost totally restricted access to health care for the poor, the aged, and those with tragic health problems. I pointed out earlier that an unborn child shouldn't be turned down for health care, but neither should a man with a knife through his heart. It is getting harder and harder for the aged and those with tragic he...
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...eme with their rules and regulations. They do have an obligation just as the rest of the tax payers of this country to care for the less fortunate. A person can get by with minimal food, clothing and shelter, but they can't get away with minimal or no health care in their times of trouble. The government should work on coming up with a solution to this issue, but they should first focus on the individual businesses like the for- profit hospitals that are giving up human life for money. So, I'm asking you, how much are you worth? How much is your life and all that comes with it, worth? How much is a human life worth? Ten dollars, maybe even a hundred? Of course you can't answer this question. It is impossible and totally unethical to place a cost or dollar amount on a human life. If you take that body away, you are still left with a soul, or what that soul once was. Nothing can replace it, and a doctor or business men or women, have no right to stop care for an injured person because of their financial status. Medical businesses can't turn people into money. In this case, a loss of money is a gain of life, and a fear of a loss of money is a total loss of life, morals, and humanity.
The facts bear out the conclusion that the way healthcare in this country is distributed is flawed. It causes us to lose money, productivity, and unjustly leaves too many people struggling for what Thomas Jefferson realized was fundamental. Among industrialized countries, America holds the unique position of not having any form of universal health care. This should lead Americans to ask why the health of its citizens is “less equal” than the health of a European.
This is nothing new in Catholic Social Teaching. Pope Paul VI condemned the “flagrant inequalities” in both the enjoyment of possessions and the exercise of power. In Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI writes, “The dignity of the individual and the demands of justice require, particularly today, that economic choices do not cause disparities in wealth to increase in an excessive and morally unacceptable
receive an income so that they are better able to support themselves. However, what is lacking in
a little house to live in. Also some dinner so they can survive. It’s not fair for them cause people
I personally feel that the life of a person is well above all policies and regulations and if an attempt to rescue him or her from death at the right time remains unfulfilled, it is not the failure of a doctor or nurse, it is the failure of the entire medical and health community.
...sidered as ethical because it totally violates the will, the freedom of choice, and also the values of the ill person.
This is the main basis for the ethical and moral questions revolved around Euthanasia and PAS. Washington v. Glucksberg in the US Supreme Court Majority Opinion on June 26, 1997: "The history of the law's treatment of assisted suicide in this country has been and continues to be one of the rejection of nearly all efforts to permit it. That being the case, our decisions lead us to conclude that the asserted 'right' to assistance in committing suicide is not a fundamental liberty interest protected by the Due Process Clause. " This just further supports my belief that all of the arguments say that the need or the right for assistance with death is not and never was a right at all. I also believe the fact that a physician would be making money and profit off of this trade of PAS is kind of sickening.
Healthcare plays an important role in almost every person’s life at one point or another. Many times, one can get caught without, or underinsured and it can be detrimental to their livelihood. With the rising cost of healthcare, it is likely that having a national healthcare policy in place, and as an individual, being able to afford and obtain adequate health insurance has not been required until now. With the new national healthcare plan, it is required for all citizens to obtain and maintain some sort of public or private insurance policy. The rising costs can be attributed to many things. A significant reason for the astronomical cost of health care is because of the staggering amount of uninsured or underinsured individuals receiving medical attention and almost many never paying the bill. Those who do have insurance have seen a gradual increase in their premiums and deductibles to make up for this.
In the United States of America, there are millions of individuals that live with chronic medical problems. In which these conditions require some sort of medical attention at least once a month for revaluation, and possible treatment. Thankfully, for the majority of those individuals with their health insurance covers those costs that essentially would cripple their bank accounts. On the contrary, there are millions of people living in the United States, who are uninsured. Even with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act or as it is known by the public Obama Care, there are still individuals who cannot afford the basic needs of healthcare. Health care should not be looked at as a privilege but a right for everyone regardless of their
Health care in our nation should be provided directly by the federal government under what is known as a “single-payer” health care system. It is a program that would cover Americans from “the cradle to the grave”. In our current system, hundreds of billions of dollars go to insurance company overheads, unnecessary administrati...
shelter. You know, no big deal. But what of the middle class? They have no
Healthcare has now become one of the top social as well as economic problems facing America today. The rising cost of medical and health insurance impacts the livelihood of all Americans in one way or another. The inability to pay for medical care is no longer a problem just affecting the uninsured but now is becoming an increased problem for those who have insurance as well. Health care can now been seen as a current concern. One issue that we face today is the actual amount of healthcare that is affordable. Each year millions of people go without any source of reliable coverage.
a baby ranging from low birth weight and abnormalities to death. There are a few government
The movement for changing the Health Care system believes that there is a need for change because of the problems that the system faces today cannot be handled. Every month, 2 million Americans lose their insurance. One out of four, 63 million Americans, will lose their health insurance coverage for some period during the next two years . 37 million Americans have no insurance and another 22 million have inadequate coverage . Losing or changing a job often means losing insurance. Becoming ill or living with a chronic medical condition can mean losing insurance coverage or not being able to obtain it. Long-term care coverage is inadequate. Many elderly and disabled Americans enter nursing homes and other institutions when they would prefer to remain at home. Families exhaust their savings trying to provide for disabled relatives. Many Americans in inner cities and rural areas do not have access to quality care, due to poor distribution of doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics and support services. Public health services are not well integrated and coordinated with the personal care delivery system. Many serious health problems -- such as lead poisoning and drug-resistant tuberculosis -- are handled inefficiently or not at all, and thus potentially threaten the health of the entire population. Rising health costs mean lower wages, higher prices for goods and services, and higher taxes. The average worker today would be earning at least $1,000 more a year if health insurance costs had not risen faster than wages over the previous 15 years . If the cost of health care continues at the current pace, wages will be held down by an additional $650 by the year 2000.
What is the value of a life? Is it how long you live, what you accomplish during your lifetime, or things you acquire? The ethics and moral reasoning behind this simple question does wealth equate to happiness? This has been asked many times and the debate from both sides has great points and emphasis, but I would like to talk about those who seem to be thrown on the back burner the needy. Now if you were to hear the word needy many different categories come to mind homeless, unemployed, sick, and the underprivileged. Each sector is different in terms of the needs and what is asked to help them: however they stand together in regards to some type of assistance to help them attain and maintain simple everyday tasks in their lives.