SOC 490-2 Week 3

The question of how much influence the government should have on healthcare is a tough one to answer. Too much government influence is not good, but neither is too little. In my opinion, there should be a median, a way to control healthcare expenses with some government authority just to keep things under control.

For people who have good jobs, or money to afford health insurance, our healthcare system is fine now. However, for individuals with jobs that do not provide health insurance, or for individuals that cannot afford it, our healthcare system now basically sucks. People individuals now will not go to the doctor even if they really need to due to not being able to afford the costs. And then when they need to be rushed to the hospital, the emergency room cannot turn them down, and people are paying for their bills though taxes, which many are not happy about.

Some people are trying now to get the government completely out of the healthcare issue. If this were to happen, a “consumer-driven” healthcare system, people would have savings accounts for their healthcare expenses as well as a lot of control over their diagnoses. Lagoe, Aspling, and Westert tell us that in a consumer-driven healthcare system “ positive healthcare behaviors and decision making are rewarded by fewer out of the system expenses.” But then Shearer brings up the point of “an employee with a existing heath conditions such as high blood pressure or diabetes will face very limited choices in the individual marketplace if his employer decides to “cash out” its health insurance plan,” as well as an employee with a chronically ill child because they will face extremely high out of the pocket fees.

The healthcare system now, and the one we are looking into, as too extremes. No matter how much government influence we have on our healthcare, not everyone will be happy, but we must find some type of median. I feel that seeing as it is the “people’s choice,” why don’t we make it just that. The people’s choice. Would it be bad if people could choose whether to have a HSA or keep the health insurance they have now? It may or may not be difficult to do (I really do not know), but at least everyone would have the choice. Individuals would have the choice of how much government influence in healthcare is best for them. So the way I personally see it is, is that everyone is different, and everyone has different needs, so if America really is such a free country, people should get to make their own decision on the government’s influence of healthcare.