But What Does It All Mean?

Hello everyone. For my last blog I would like to summarize the knowledge and insight that I have gained from this project. Shamita and I began with providing some basic information about America’s health care system, where party’s stand on health care issues, various interest groups, and news about how health care is changing today. So here is what it means to me.

When I began researching health care, I sided with the Democrats for the most part. I believe in expanding health insurance coverage to all, but I know it’s not realistic for America to make the radical change to socialized medicine, at least not any time soon. I also realize the importance of helping individuals to manage their own health needs and customizing insurance, which the Republican Party advocates. Everyone should be responsible for their health and taking care of it, but no one should ever be denied help especially when their life is at risk. No side has all the solutions, but now I at least understand where they’re coming from.

I think Shamita makes a good point when she noted the conservative contradiction on “reserved” health care and at what point they believe life begins. In Denver last Tuesday, 131,000 signatures were delivered to the Secretary of State’s office that supported a constitutional amendment that would, “define ‘person,’ to include any human being, from the time of conception...‘Proponents have said that their goal is to overturn Roe vs. Wade, so certainly there are national implications,’ said Toni Panetta, spokesperson for the Protect Families Protect Choices Coalition”. http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=91715 Although this is primarily a human rights issue, it affects the legalization of abortions and brings up the issue of legislating morality.

This project has been very enlightening, however, I feel like our health care system is stuck in some weird limbo of ineffectiveness. Each party has its own beliefs, but no solution. We know the system isn’t working as well as it could be, but it gets us by for now. All we can do is follow what we have now until we can create a health care system that is more efficient and beneficial to Americans.

The Bigger Picture

To culminate the larger meaning of my project, I would like to present a summary of what I have learned the impact on my knowledge and awareness that the project has had this past year.

My overall goal was to be able to understand how various interest groups and current policies are shaping the health care policies of tomorrow. Periodically, I have done some reading on online web sources and been paying attention to the news. Below, are some of the most important ideas I have walked away with…

This project has definitely given some depth to my political perspective on health care. Because I am now more aware of platforms and issues, it has become easier for me to view how my ideology adheres more closely to one party line than another. Before this project, I always viewed myself quite liberally aligned in terms of all issues. However, now I find that I am extremely conservative when it comes to abortion and medical law. My liberal and Democratic side seems to hold strongly with health insurance and health care costs (more on the economics of health care).

Maybe someone can respond to this concern of mine, but if conservatives believe that life begins at conception and it should be protected, then why don’t they feel that health care should be “reserved” and not allowed to protect as many human beings as possible, not just the elderly and the poor? These two stances of theirs seem to contradict one another…

I recently read an article that discussed “health care cost inflation”. It stated that although health care itself is on the lowdown, health care costs are at their peak. Revenues to the social security budget that are being given to the beneficiaries are also starting to decrease. As the burden of health care costs shifts from employer to employee, citizens are becoming very frustrated about having to pay so much for health insurance in addition to automobile gasoline. I noticed a comment after this article made by an M.D. in Los Angeles. I followed the link to his blog and discovered that he doesn’t exactly view the American Health System as perfect…http://mckinseytomainst.blogspot.com/.

Researching health care this past semester has helped me comprehend the various issues and their potential solutions. It is clearer than ever that we will be struggling with a relatively incompetent health care budget in the next couple decades. Most probably, the struggle will begin soon. Possibly, the struggle began very long ago.