Friday, January 21, 2011
HW 32- Thoughts following illness and dying unit
There are so many nightmarish dominant social practices associated with illness and dying that I have discovered this unit and so many of them go overlooked. The fact that the incentives of the American health care system are to benefit the large health insurance companies and make sure that the people get less care is sickening, and what is even worse is how little people know about it. It is also unfortunate that our system invests practically all the money that it spends on health care on terminal patients, rather than preventive medicine that would help to keep patients from getting sick in the first place. It seems like the most positive and promising alternative to our flawed system of medical care are the social health care systems in places like Canada, France, and England. Although the systems over there have issues as well, at least the intent of systems such as the National Health Service in England have honorable intentions, where as our system is immensely flawed and extremely corrupt. In connection to our previous food unit, part of a system of health care focused on prevention would be to try and help people change their diets to prevent diabetes. Instead, we focus on expensive equipment to sustain the lives of the sick and elderly in their final hours.
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Even though I do not go to the school you go to or take this class, I feel like you did a good job summarizing everything that you learned. It seemed like the main part of what you learned during the unit was directly related to what you did for your final project, and all the problems with the incentives of our health care system as well. Good job!
ReplyDelete"It is also unfortunate that our system invests practically all the money that it spends on health care on terminal patients, rather than preventive medicine that would help to keep patients from getting sick in the first place."
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting point that I had never really thought about before. It would be interesting to do some more further research on something like this, but I think a strong case can be made supporting an increase in preventive care as well as health care outside of the United States, which you accomplished in your project.
Your summary of the worst aspects of health care in this country is just right. It seems that that it all comes down to the fact that many Americans are so selfish that they don't want their taxes to go towards helping everyone get better care. Just as you say we should spend money on prevention. For example, spending money on getting people to eat better and get more exercise obviously makes much more sense than huge expenditures on terminally ill patients. The corrupt health care system that is in place in America must be replaced with a system that mirrors that of Canada, France, and England(as you say). I liked the way you presented you findings in a clear & concise manner that made your argument strong. Good job.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your summary. I think it was nice how you connected it back to the food unit in order to show how the two relate. I agree with you, that it is "sickening" that our health care system has such incentives that it sometimes ignores its own people without them realising. It would be extremely interesting to see how people would react if many more were educated about the American health care system. Perhaps people would want a change, or maybe not.
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