The Business of Health Care

The transformation of medicine into a profit driven business is a worrisome trend. Capitalism is beautiful in its simplicity and tends to be the most efficient way to allocate scarce resources dependent on the “invisible hand” of the market. But perhaps unfettered capitalism when it comes to the professions in the medical field is a recipe for disaster. Especially when we consider the thousands of people losing their jobs and with those jobs their health insurance. Doctors are being pressured to fluff up there billing such that insurance companies must spend more. They accomplish this through the use of tests that may not be entirely necessary to try to gain more money from the insurance companies to offset off set the thousands of Americans who have no coverage. This leads to higher insurance premiums.

It seems as if the current economic climate may be hitting the medical field harder then most experts have predicted. The old adage is that doctors have excellent job security because “ people will always get sick and need doctors”. Part of this is true; people will always get sick and need doctors. But what happens when the masses can’t afford the health care and those that can are fiscally sacrificed on the behalf of those who cannot pay the unreasonable cost of health insurance. Is it possible that in the current economic climate that medical care can become more about dollars and cents then that of patient care?

According to Dr. Sandeep Jauher recent pledges from the hospital, drug and insurance industry to keep the costs down will likely fail unless drastic changes in how the health industry is financed occur. As Dr. Jauher states “Doctors will not willfully cut their own income. Hospitals and individual doctors are having to aid those who have no insurance due to the economic down turn. So in order to pay for all these people without health insurance, doctors have to charge more and thus health insurance is costlier”.

It seems to me that some sort of restructuring of the health care industry is needed. Or perhaps in times of economic down turn there needs to be something more then unemployment so when times are tough people can still seek medical care that is affordable. The right to be healed of an ailment that can be easily treated should be a fundamental human right. Regardless of income level, how ever those who can pay for their health insurance should be able to without having to foot the bill on their insurance bill. Perhaps in times of economic down turn the country itself should spend more diligently and responsibly to ensure that although we may have to cut back on the extras we all can be happy and most important healthy.

“We have to ask ourselves whether medicine is to remain a humanitarian and respected profession or a new but depersonalized science in the service of prolonging life rather than diminishing human suffering”
- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross