Markets and Medicine: the Politics of Health Care Reform - Research Paper Example

HLTB 03: FOUNDATIONS IN HEALTH Health Studies of Toronto Scarborough Campus Fall ASSIGNMENT #2 TITILE Submitted to Asst. M. Silver The main concerns described in the article are the health risks associated with the use of tobacco. The author states that if the use of tobacco is not regulated, there will be an increase in deaths, related to tobacco use. The article identifies the prediction of a British Medical Bulletin which was of the opinion that there will be an increase in deaths related to tobacco use in developing countries. The author denotes that 3 million deaths all over the world is as a result of tobacco use, and he predicts further that by the year 2025, 10 million people will die due to the use of tobacco. The article is of the opinion that of the 10 million people who will die as a result of tobacco use, 7 million will come from the developing world. The article denotes that despite stringent measures to protect the population against tobacco use, American companies continue to influence its spread amongst third world countries. However countries such as Uruguay managed to initiate stringent measures of preventing its use, therefore reducing the deaths and economic consequences that come along with the use of tobacco. The measures include excessive taxation on cigarette use, placing a ban on tobacco advertisements, graphic labeling that amounts to 80% of packaging. These changes have seen a decline in smoking, and a reduction by 22% of the heart ailments that came as a result of tobacco use in Uruguay. Tobacco smoking is one of the causes of cancer. According to a report by the Canadian Cancer Statistics, cancer is a leading cause of death in the Quebec region of Canada, and all over the country. The statistics estimate that a 31% of all deaths related to cancer, are as a result of tobacco smoking, leading to the rise of lung cancer, and it kills more men and women, than ovarian, prostrate and stomach cancer (Carpenter, 2007). The report denotes that smoking leads to other kinds of cancer such as, oral, pancreatic and kidney cancer. As of 2012, the report denotes that there was 1.5 million smokers, in the Quebec region of Canada, and amongst them, 28% are youths (Canadian Cancer Statistics, 2012). In 2010, tobacco use was 20%. The institution is skeptical of the changes, arguing that since 2006, the decline in tobacco use is minimal (Canadian Cancer Statistics, 2010). In relation to the deaths arising out of cancer, the institution advices the government to increase taxation measures on tobacco sales, to aggressively introduce measures that would fight against tobacco contrabands, to freeze tobacco products and introduce new packaging measures. In Canada, smoking accounts to a higher percentage of deaths than criminal activities such as murder, homicide, and viral diseases such as AIDS. The report denotes that the number of youths who take smoking daily stands at 90, while the government collects an approximate value of 850 million dollars in tax revenue. In Quebec, 32% of hospitalizations amount to diseases and conditions related to smoking, therefore this habit is a hazard to the state of Canada and its people (Canada Cancer Statistics, 2012). Apart from cancer, tobacco use is responsible for causing stroke. The blockage of blood vessels serving the brain, results to inefficient supply of blood to the brain, and the consequences results to failure of the functionalities of the brain. Stroke results to death, or limits the ability of a person to move (Giaimo, 2002). Tobacco smoking increases the level of blood pressure, and lowers the oxygen rate in the blood, and this has an effect of blocking blood vessels that serve the brain, leading to stroke. According to a report by the Public Health Agency of Canada explains that, stroke amounts to 1.1% of the health condition facing the citizens of Canada. The report further denotes that, stroke is one of the major killer diseases in Canada, and as of 2007, 11, 276 people died (Canadian Cancer Statistic, 2012). Asthma is another result of tobacco use. Asthma is a medical condition that attacks the airways of its victim, causing difficulty in breathing. This is by constricting the airways of the patient, leading to production of mucus. This mucus is the root cause of difficulty in the breathing capability of an asthmatic person. It is also a killer disease in Canada. Another disease associated with smoking is high blood pressure (Giaimo, 2012). This is a force that emanates from the blood, against the walls of the blood vessels. Smoking accelerates the vulnerability of a person to suffer from this condition. It does this by hardening the arteries of the blood, through the inhaled smoke. Q.2 One of the steps taken to minimize the consumption of tobacco use in Canada is the enactment of the Tobacco Act. This act regulates the provision and sale of tobacco products to minors, and it defines a minor as a person under the age of 18 years. According to the act, it is against the law to sell any tobacco product to persons under the age of 18 years, in a public institution or place (Carpenter, 2007). The act sets a minimum limit in which a person can sell cigarettes, and the limit is 20 cigars per sale. In case of a breach to this law, a person is liable to a fine of up to 50, 000 dollars. In case a trader sells single cigarettes, he is liable to an imprisonment of up to 6 months, and a fine of 50, 000 dollars. This stringent measures, reduces the use of tobacco in Canada. In Ontario Canada, the province developed a strategy plan on how to reduce smoking. In the plan, the government of Ontario introduces policies, legislations and programs aimed at protecting non-smokers from the harmful effect of smoke, encouraging young people to avoid smoking, and initiating programs to help smokers quit the vice. One such program is the Ontario Free Smoke Act. The act prohibits smoking in public places, and in areas where there is food and beverage services, prohibits promoting use of tobacco in entertainment areas, and tightens the laws regulating tobacco sale to minors. In Canada, there is an extensive mass media campaigns for purposes of reducing the intake and consumption of tobacco (Smoking in public places, 2012). Institutions such as Canadian cancer statistics, and the department of Public Health of Canada, have instituted mechanisms of educating people on the adverse effects of tobacco smoking. For instance, the department of Public Health runs a website where it puts all information regarding tobacco use. The government of Canada uses the health care policy directorate in the regulation of tobacco use, and treatment of related medical conditions (Carpenter, 2007). The directorate has four divisions, namely, chronic and continuing care division, quality care and pharmaceutical division, health human resource strategic division, and health care divisions systems. Through these divisions, the Canadian government strategizes on how to handle tobacco use, and medical conditions arising from it. The health care division provides analytical care, and policy leadership on issues relating to productivity in the management of health care, governance, accountability, and innovation. In relation to tobacco use, the division coordinates all efforts of the government that address the reduction of tobacco use, and treatment of related ailments (Canadian Cancer Statistics, 2012). The government, through the human resource policy division, trains medical personnel on chronic diseases, and deploys them in Canadian hospitals. This personnel gain skills in treating patients with lung cancer, asthma, and high blood pressure. These diseases are related to tobacco use. The chronic and continuing health care division is responsible for provision of primary health care system. The division diagnoses, and treats the ailments associated with tobacco use, or any other diseases that affect the state (Carpenter, 2007). The quality care, technology and pharmaceutical division is responsible for the identification of main issues affecting the health care system, implications and trends, thereafter advising the Federal government on their implications. In Britain, the government provides health care though the National Health Service. The National Health Service has ten institutions which deliver health care services in UK. They are known as strategic health care authorities. The strategic health authorities have the responsibility to enact and implement fiscal policies of the department of health, at the regional level (Gaiamo, 2002). Each strategic authority performs its functions through the National Health Trust, at the local level. These steps by the Canadian government have seen an improvement of the health complications arising out of tobacco use. For instance, there is a reduction of tobacco smoking in Canada by more than 50% since the 1950s. These institutions have effectively implemented the Tobacco act, protecting minors from accessing the drug, and reducing its intake in Canada. In Britain, the strategic health care authorities, through their public campaigns against tobacco use, have achieved success in the reduction of tobacco use. One of the strategies in the reduction of tobacco use in Canada is to involve tobacco smokers and government health care agencies in drafting a policy that will help tobacco smokers stop the vice. The health care agencies will thereafter create a body, recognized by law, to monitor the rehabilitation of these people. The government should then involve initiate a legislature, that imposes heavy penalty on tobacco abuse, and increase taxes on the substance. This will make it expensive to buy tobacco products, reducing its consumption. To reduce tobacco usage worldwide, it is essential to create an international body that will lobby various governments in initiating legislation that will reduce the consumption of alcohol. Such an institution should create an international framework, which will guide various governments in the process of reducing the rates of smoking, and use of tobacco substances. References Canadian cancer statistics 2010 special topic : end-of-life care.. (2010). Toronto, Ont. : Canadian Cancer Society. Canadian cancer statistics 2012. (2012). Toronto, Ont.: Canadian Cancer Society. Carpenter, C. (2007). How to workplace smoking laws work? quasi-experimental evidence from local laws in Ontario, Canada. Cambridge, Mass.: National Bureau of Economic Research. Giaimo, S. (2002). Markets and medicine: the politics of health care reform in Britain, Germany, and the United States. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Smoking cessation in the workplace: a guide to helping your employees quit smoking.. (2007). Ottawa: Health Canada. Smoking in public places: Québec, Ontario and Saskatchewan : final report. (2005). Ottawa: Health Canada. Top of Form Bottom of Form Read More