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.