Critical Essay on Public Health Policies and the American Sickness: How Health Care Become Big Business

Introduction

The American Sickness: How health care Become Big Business and How You can take Back is a book on health care policies implemented in the country by Elisabeth Rosenthal. The author in this book reveals to us how health care has become an expensive affair in the country and has been rendered dysfunctional and further elaborates the steps that can be taken to solve this. Various research in the past has documented how grave the health care system in the country, how bad this turned out in the past few decades alone is a matter of great concern that the author establishes (Rosenthal, 2018). She doesn't only stop at the identification of the disease that ails the industry but goes further to propose changes that can be used to treat this diseases. She reveals categorically how doublespeak within the healthcare can be decoded, pitfalls eliminated and get care for families.

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Some years ago, some the American health care system was said to hinge on how similar medical care is to broccoli (Rosen, 2015). In 2012, the Affordable care was found contentious and brought before the Supreme Court (Rosen, 2015). The judges of the case argued the fact that the government compels its citizens into buying healthcare, while each of the populace needs food also. If the government was able to influence its citizens into buying medical insurance, why not make the citizens purchase food. In due time, however, the affordable act survived the ordeal. However, it was fractured as it was now optional to get the cover thus leaving millions of the poor Americans without the benefits. Unlike other policies, health care policies appear to be different. Health care policies in the past have been able to create anxiety and expense across the political divide, heartache, and hardship than I being recorded when buying broccoli.

In the political scene, the Medicare bill has been contested because the government should not be allowed to intrude into the issues since this has an adverse effect. Such opponents have identifies that some surgeries such as the Lasik eye surgery cannot be covered by health insurance. This is caused by the fact that such a medical operation is expensive and the government cannot be able to sustain it through a Medicare act (Rosenthal, 2018).

On her book, the physician turned journalist, Elisabeth Rosenthal offers her perspective on the issue. In her book, the author delves into the public health policies and tries to provide answers on her eye-opening book (Rosen, 2015). The author is known for award-winning articles and formerly worked with New Times and currently is the editor in chief of the Kaiser Health News. In this book, the author seems to have chronicled the endless pathologies in the America medical, industrial complex begging with the drug prescription and how they became costly. She further dates the hip-replacement surgeries and how this become expensive to the point of patients being flown to Belgium for operations.

Rosenthal holds the views that the health care market is different, this she sums up being the economic rules of the dysfunctional medical care. Here, she identifies rules that govern the healthcare market, some such as a rule 9 appear to be visible (that money is made I billing of anything and everything in the healthcare sector), some are even humorous, such a lifetime of treatment is considered to be preferable as compared to cure and some being big and interesting such as a rule 10 which says that prices would be able to rise to whatever level that market would be able to bear (Rosenthal, 2018). This rule explains that the health care market cannot be compared to other segments of the economy since what the healthcare market can be able to carry, a well-functioning market segment would not be able to hold. The healthcare policies in the country have been developed to measure that health care is not actually like a healthy market, it has been designed to behave like a racket. This racket I tolerated only because many institutions are ready to come and chip in and thus in the process provide a cover to the bill and ultimately, the health market is concerned with our health which is at the line.

The epicenter of the crisis in the health sector lies in the once small hospitals. As results of the hit TV shows, a large segment of the population now thinks of the hospitals as being public spirited pillars of the communities that they exist in. Although most of the hospitals are legally considered to be non-profits ventures, the reality of the matter is that hospitals now have turned into big business. They have maximized the economies of scale by optimizing on the surpluses within the hospitals, and this can be used to increased wages for workers and increase expansion. This is done even when the hospitals are not required to earn profits of remit funds to shareholders. During the last few decades, hospitals have grown, and the modus operand of such hospitals is now businesslike.

Providence Portland Medical Center has been identified as a perfect example in the book. The hospital was founded by the nuns four decades ago. The operational hub of this hospital is in Portland Ore. Over time, the hospital moved to be bureaucracy and employed professional coders in the hospital to be able to reimburse the insurance rules and be able to acquire revenue and money. In the meantime, the hospital stopped payments done to its staff including the nurses and doctors. The workers of the hospital were regarded as being independent contractors in the process. This happened at the time that the CEO of the company earned more than four million dollars in a month. This can be summed as being a weird mix of both Mother Teresa and Goldman Sachs. This is just an example of how the problems that face the health care system in the country begins with the hospitals.

Drug prices are also another pertinent issue in the public health sector. The book details the expansive cost of drugs, the skyrocketing medical testing processes and the overpriced medical devices. The market of medical devices is dominated by few industry players that shun direct competition and in the process have put in place cozy relationship with the customers who describe to their products. The insiders within the health sector own this company and have resorted to measures to maximize on the bottom line.

The book fails to explain to us why the deeply broken system exists and continues to afflict the sector. People need to be insured for the high costs in which they face in the medical process. People might be able to pay for things such as Lasik, a non- emergency procedure done on patients in which they have time to shop around for the best offers, but they need insurance for the biggest tickets used in the treatment of afflictions such as cancer, cardiac surgery or even organ transplant. Treatment of such is beyond the means of a majority of the individuals but only to the richest and even individuals are not able to shop and choose the best alternatives when care is needed (Rosen, G. 2015). In the same way that we blame mortgages for the financial crisis in the economics, we should be able to blame the health insurances for the failure of public health policies and the health care crisis that is in existence currently.

What makes it different for the United States and other countries is not about the health insurance, instead, it is all about the role in which the government plays in the provision of public health. More apparent is the fact that individuals who benefit from the dysfunctional sectors have been able to galvanize its resources and use the government if the day to be able to protect their business. In countries that its citizens have access to sophisticated health care, the citizens must be able to rely on the expertise of the caregivers within the professional and the financial muscle of the caregivers within the industry. Also, in any other capitalistic and prosperous country, the government is tasked with not only providing cover for its citizens but is also responsible for ensuring that tee individuals in the market who try to use their financial strengths in other to charge more by raising prices within the industry are not given a chance. The government should be able to form a strong counter pressure on such individuals without having to be influenced by the politics of the day.

Conclusion

Without having a clear view on the healthcare market, and especially its political aspects, it is easier to see the recurrence of the same problems that have faced the health care policies in the past. Health is a critical issue in human development and as such needed not be treated like broccoli. The health care market is a different market that necessitates a different set of actions. The market would not be able to solve the high levels of bureaucracy or even the high costs of health care. What is needed is government policies that are aimed at ensuring the country healthcare in the country is independent and affordable to all people. Just as it is highlighted in the book, the public health market is different and needs to be treated as an entirely separate entity. The book takes the story of the US medical system has it never been told before, it highlights to us hospitals are now run by business executives, research charities are currently working with pharmaceutical companies to ensure that they reap the best in situations where many patients are dying when there exist solutions to their medical problems.

References

Rosenthal, E. (2018). An American Sickness: How Health Care Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. Missouri Medicine, 115(2), 128.

Rosen, G. (2015). A history of public health. JHU Press.