Health Care and the Marxist Theory

In the past centuries, health care was the responsibility of individuals and their own families but today Medicine comes to be an institution only as societies are more productive and people take on specialized work. At the same time as people become dependent on governments and organizations to provide them their health care and insurance, here is the problem. Social conflict analysis points out the connection between health and social inequality. Following the ideas of Karl Marx, we can match health to the operation of capitalism. Most attention has gone to three main issues: access to medical care, the effects of the profit motive, and the politics of medicine.

Start talking about access to health care, I would say, Health care is essential for all people but at the same time people have to pay directly for a medical care. If not, so you don’t have the chance to live. This allows rich men and the upper class to have the best health care. The problem is very serious in the US as they don’t have a universal medical care system such as in European countries. Social conflict theory in the US argues that the society provides the best health care but only for rich people, leaving 50 million Americans without health care insurance at present have low incomes. This is the case the movie, John Q, is arguing. A factory worker, whose child needs a transplant, however his medical insurance doesn’t cover the costs of the surgery.

Marxist theory argued that the problem is not just about access to medical care. It is the capitalist economy that defines health and medicine. Under the umbrella of this system, “the main goal of medicine is not health but profit. The profit turns doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical industry into multibillion do...

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... higher incomes to support the program. Parents can use their health care plans to include their children till the age of 26 which solved similar problems to John’ son.

To conclude, health care is a primary responsibility of governments. They have to make sure that everybody has a total insurance which ensures equality between all members of the society with no segregation between rich and poor. Marxist theory mentioned that medicine became a profitable project more than a human task to serve people and save their lives as it was linked to capitalism. John, the poor factory man was guilty for doing such a sever action to keep hostages but at the same time he wasn’t guilty to be poor and didn’t have an insurance to save his son’s life. Physician role is to be fair when dealing with patients and to think of morals and ethics of the profession before thinking of money.