What should be the governments role in health issues - Essay Example

The health care sector today faces serious challenges regarding the affordability, quality and coverage of its services. There are about forty sevenmillion Americans without any health insurance coverage (“What's Wrong with America's Health Care”). Even larger is the number of those suffering from chronic illness and are on the waiting lists of Medicare and Medicaid without any proper medical treatment. Those who get the medical benefits from these government funded programs complaint about the quality of health care that they receive.

These along with several other health care issues need immediate attention of the policy makers. There is a huge debate being carried out on the solutions to these problems. Different causes have been identified by various experts on the field which include expensive medical insurance, preemptive medication suggested by physicians leading to costly tests and drug purchase, market regulations imposed on the drug supply, fraud and deceit by the patients, and undue profiteering by the pharmaceutical companies.

However, most of the analysts are of the view that all these problems can be traced back to one policy matter, and that is government’s involvement in the health care system. Those against the government’s regulations and financial involvement in the health care system argue that market and social trends are continuously changing in the modern societies. The free market economies of the twenty first century do not go well along with a highly regulated and government financed health care system.

As in the case of other social sectors such as food, housing, entertainment etc. a health care system based on the free market rules will be able to address the needs of the citizens. It will make the citizens more responsible and will shift the burden of financing the health care sector from government to the people itself. Those who disagree to the argument suggest that the health care sector is very different from other social sectors. Health is one of the basic human rights. As the free market economy rules have so far been unsuccessful in providing health care services at affordable prices to the majority of population.

Hence, it is the responsibility of the government to intervene and regulate the sector and make sure that good health care facilities are widely available. However, what this group of analysts fail to acknowledge is the fact that government is already paying huge sums in the state run health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid; $446b in Medicare program alone in 2010 (“Fiscal Year 2010 Budget in Brief – Medicare”). Government has already pushed the limits to accommodate the extra expenses and cannot afford to go any further.

Moreover, there is a large number of taxpayers growing weary of the huge spending on health care which largely goes to the senior citizens much elder than the retirement age. There is a huge proportion of health care budget lost in the waste and fraud due to irresponsible behavior of the people only because of the fact that people are not burdened with the expenses of their own health care. Even larger is the amount wasted on the health issues arisen because of citizen’s own carelessness in eating habits and personal hygiene.

In my opinion, the only solution to the problems faced by the health care sector today is to make citizens more responsible of their own well being. If people have to pay for their medicine, they will try to avoid going to the doctor by taking good care of themselves. Unnecessary and preemptive medication will be discouraged in this way. Moreover, huge spending on devices such as Implantable defibrillators will be avoided as there are cheaper alternatives available to these expensive surgeries.

Only those will then opt for these surgeries who can actually afford it. Medical care offered by government can then be limited to people belonging to extremely low income group and up to a specific age limit. References Fiscal Year 2010 Budget in Brief - Medicare. (n.d.). In US Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved June 26, 2011, from http://dhhs.gov/asfr/ob/docbudget/2010budgetinbriefl.html Haughton, J. G. (1968). Government's Role in Health Care Past, Present and Future. Journal of the National Medical Association, 60(2), 87-91.

What's Wrong with America's Health Care. (n.d.). In AFL-CIO. Retrieved June 25, 2011, from http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/whatswrong/