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Hey, I had a comment about todays class. We were talking today about social structure and how race is an important factor that alters that. I'm wondering how that will change now that our president is african american.
Actually I really like that question from Amanda. I am curious as well to find out what any one thinks or has to say about that because I believe it will change things, just how is the question. Furthermore I am curious if anybody who knows about Obama's proposed health care plan has any insight on whether it will change the overall health & wellness of the people in this country? Not just individually but as a whole. And if so how long do you think it will take before we really see any change.
Great questions, Amanda and Charlie. Before I share any thoughts I might have I'd love to hear others' views. I will add that, from a sociological perspective, that racial structures would be difficult to shift. As with gender structures the meanings around categorizations do change - and change, at times, with some intensity. Consider how blacks were perceived prior to the civil rights movement... A black president would have been inconceivable prior to this important movement... But the racial structures remain... Indeed it is a very powerful source of identity and group membership. Another point I'd add is that for the average African American things have changed little over the years. A quick look at the SES is highly indicative of this...
Do you guys think that this will change now Obama is in the White House?
The question about healthcare reform is an excellent one, too. I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on this. For those who don't know much about it you may want to do a google search for it. In short, it is NOT a single payer system (as has been proposed by Clinton, etc) and instead utilizes existing insurance companies. There are many conditions, though, which are designed to protect vulnerable people who are often barred from attaining insurance because of pre-existing health conditions. There is a lot more to it, however.
Now that President Obama is in office, his policies concerning healthcare and the economy could potentially eliminate some of these race barriers, giving minorities more opportunity. Hopefully as President his policies will help all people struggling, not just minorities.
If anyone is interested in learning more about his entire agenda, here is the official website:
Coming from someone who works in the healthcare field, I am grateful that Obama is trying to reform our healthcare. Insurances are constantly making patients and physicians jump through hoops in order to get anything done. And lots of hospitals are in huge amounts of financial debt because they are not being reimbursed for patient care.
I can relate with what Mary is saying. I work in the healthcare field as well and I see more problems with the insurance aspect than anything else. If Obama can reform the nations healthcare then it will be a large benefit to everyone in general.
I do think that having Barack Obama in office will have a large impact on social structures. Like the others, I'm not really sure how, but even just the way that the African American community has reacted to the election and the response from young people in general is perhaps a sign of change. It may be wishful thinking, but I do think that Obama's policies will impact people's health and wellness for the better. His proposed healthcare plan seems pretty general, but he seems to be aiming to lower insurance costs to improve access to care, and put a big emphasis on preventive care and promoting public health. By lowering the cost and providing better preventive care, I feel this should help at least in a small sense by making more people "healthier" at least in a biomedical sense.
I found some information about the Obama/ Biden plan here: http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
I think that Obama's health care plan is an excellent idea. Not only will it lower the costs for many Americans, but it will also give everyone access to it, which I believe will help with the race issue. I believe that this will also improve the overall health of the Americans, as they will be able to get help when they need it. However,wouldn't universal healthcare increase the wait times to see doctors? I read somewhere that the salary of doctors would decrease, so less people would be interested in specializing, meaning longer wait times to see patients. I was just curious if anyone else had heard this as well?
I myself haven't heard that about doctors, but it could be true. I do know that many facilites such as hospitals and clinic are shying away from hiring all physicians and are shifting towards physician assistants. PAs work underneath the umbrella of the physician but they are paid less. Could that be what you heard? -Nicole J
Working in the EMS field, the topic of universal healthcare was brought up the other day by my supervisor. He stated that it may hurt some health fields; including EMS and some specialized doctors. I think this will cause a trickle down effect, and would then hurt educational institutions (like UNE!)Time will tell!
Regarding the comments about a universal healthcare program and lower salaries to healthcare practitioners- do you think less people would want to become doctors/ healthcare providers? Is a doctor's substantial salary more important than access to healthcare for everyone? At what cost?
If people are going to turn away from having a profession in the medical field based on salary, the acceptance rates of getting into med school would be less competetive...people who truly want to help and don't care that much about salary would be competing.
Going along with what Nicole said, I as well have heard a lot about institutions hiring more PAs. One because their work is valued just as much and has essentially the same knowledge as physicians. And 2 it comes with less pay making things much more appealing for these institutions. And like Craig said about EMS and specialty MDs hurting . I have heard that as well. A big hit is coming towards the specialized doctors big time and the place where, providing it is the concern of anyone who is health care prospect, you will not see a decrease in salary, benefits, etc. is for family practitioners. Private practice doctors are on high demand as so many people head in the direction of specializing. Ashley, aiming at your question I think I know exactly where you are going and you are absolutely right. A number of people who apply and aspire to work in the medical field, A.K.A. MDs tend to follow that career path to better themselves based on those high substantial salaries. And if you are going where I think you are, then I agree. At what cost will a change become evident. Because based on these ideas, then we will see a decrease in help in health care and that's where Marisa's point comes about longer waiting times.
I just want to comment on the idea of things changing in the United States with Obama as the first African American President. Personally, I don't think that it should change how the government is run in any way. Obama is a leader regardless of what color his skin is. It is terrible that people can actually think that he will be an awful president simple because of the color of his skin. That is such a naive mindset for people to have in modern day America. He is an intelligent man, and how he plans to run the country has nothing to do with his race.
Craig I agree but i hope not! Hopefully the healthcare will have better reforms and no allied health fields will get downsized or squished away. I know a lot of hospitals are really struggling right now financially and i hope that it will turn arounnd, because in my town the first thing they're cutting is emergency services!! It does not make sense to me at all! But i guess only time will tell
It is true that a universal health care system would lower the pay of physicians. I think that that is a good thing. My sister is an emergency room doctor and her first choice of jobs after she graduated from medical school was to go to the hospital around the corner from where we grew up which was paying much less than many of the other hospitals that offered her positions. This lowering of physician incomes will make the medical field better. It will be less likely that people will enter the field interested in the high rate of pay and be more interested in actually helping those people who are suffering from illness get better; which is supposed to be the entire point behind choosing this field of work.
These have all been great comments! In reference to the most recent post by A.Nicholas, I feel compelled to play the devils advocate.
It is reasonable to assume that lowering doctor's wages will change motivation about patient care. However, I could argue (not that I believe this) that lowering wages might decrease competetion among vying med-students.
I think that what would ultimately change the quality in healthcare would be what Alex talked about in class. Yes, money would still be the motivating factor, however, the incentive would change from that of an insurance motivated profit-loss minimalization to monetary benefits for those doctors who provide the best care.
In response to T's comment on healthcare and quality there of I think that it is important to step back and look at the structures of American society. I am in agreement with Tyler because we live in a capitalist system that is primarily motivated by monetary gain for the individual, and the corporate institutions, as well as the government. I think that we need some cuts in a TON of our spending when it comes to the medical system, but instead of cutting EVERYONEs salary including family practice doctors and specialists such as OBGYn or Womens Health care professionals, I think that we need to look at cuts in the "superficial" specialties and cut our spending in areas or provision of plastic surgery within the realm of entirely cosmetic enhancement. Boob jobs, nose jobs, etc, not to say that if someone has been in an accident or suffers from life altering or disabling physical make up that they should not have access to this type of health care, but I think everyone should have this access, not just upper crust and I would rather see the cuts in these cosmetic surgeons pay rates than in a family doctors. E
I totally agree with where Mary is coming from. I have always worked in the health care field doing patient registration. Its amazing how many people really dont have any access to insurance and how many people are in up to their heads because of hospital bills. I hope to see that President Obama's healthcare plan will help. Also along with the comment about lowering doctors wages. I feel that if a doctor truly cares about helping out others and is not just in the field for the money then their motivation about patient care should not change. But there are many doctors out there that would surprise us all
Very interesting comments, everyone. I think Ashley raises an excellent point about whether salaries should trump patient care and access.
There are a few things to consider here: how are other countries - with universal healthcare - affected? Are their Drs of lesser quality? The competition for medical schools across the Western world is VERY high. We certainly have many barriers in the States to true meritocracy (the cost of medical school being one of them). In countries which have universal healthcare, there tends to be, at the same time, free education (or at least very affordable higher education) which arguably makes the competition fiercer, the quality better.
Secondly, do we NEED the many specialists that we have? Given our 'procedure hungry' healthcare system, as it stands, it may well be that we intervene, medically, too quickly. There is some research on this... especially as it relates to cardiology.
Finally, given the healthcare outcomes in the US... can we suppose that, things as they are, are working?
I think that we have way to many specialist that are more into the procedure part than actually helping out a patient. In the world today everyones answer is "surgery" which in many ways leads to a history of other problems. For instance I had wrist surgery a little more than 4 years ago after the surgery i went through numerous hours of PT but no matter how much PT i went through i was unable to rotate my wrist and would get shooting pains. Come to find out when they did the surgery they messed up a bunch of muscles in my arm so they had to go in and repeat the procedure. Careless mistakes like these are what causes people large amounts of money for no reason
Wow, that is a really rough experience! I never thought about the process that patients have to go through post surgery, and how it may involve other areas of health care and major investments of time and money for the patient. Are doctors required to inform the patient of the PT and other possible post surgery procedures that are required of the patient in order to get the full benefits of the surgery, or do they tell them after it is done? Does insurance cover post op or just the operation itself? Where do PT OT and Recreational Therapy stand as far as insurance coverage?
I think Alex raises a good point looking at other countries with Universal health care programs and the qualities of their doctors/overall health care. In class it was briefly discussed how doctors in other countries are actually paid by how well their patients' health statuses are compared to being paid for seeing a patient, perscribing medication and performing a surgery. It seems that our health care system emphasizes on fixing something once it is broken, where we need to be focusing on preventing and maintaining overall health to begin with.
Responding to the number of specialists we have in our health care system reflects our biomedical frame of mind. It seems as though there has to be a specialized expert for any situation or pathology. Even in a broader sense, compare how many people see a personal therapist or go to marriage couseling, have a nutritionist or even a "life coach" compared to 50 years ago. This reflects how willing we are to turn to medical experts for their knowledge.
Ashley- You brought up a really interesting and valuable point about the entire focus of our system on fixing something that is broken, and how it would be very useful for us to shift this focus to maintaining long term health by promoting healthy living through our health care system, so that less needs to be fixed arise in an individuals life span. The way that you put this in your post was really great and made it easier for me to digest the whole concept...thank you!
Hey,
ReplyDeleteI had a comment about todays class. We were talking today about social structure and how race is an important factor that alters that. I'm wondering how that will change now that our president is african american.
~Amanda~
Actually I really like that question from Amanda. I am curious as well to find out what any one thinks or has to say about that because I believe it will change things, just how is the question. Furthermore I am curious if anybody who knows about Obama's proposed health care plan has any insight on whether it will change the overall health & wellness of the people in this country? Not just individually but as a whole. And if so how long do you think it will take before we really see any change.
ReplyDelete-Charlie
Great questions, Amanda and Charlie. Before I share any thoughts I might have I'd love to hear others' views. I will add that, from a sociological perspective, that racial structures would be difficult to shift. As with gender structures the meanings around categorizations do change - and change, at times, with some intensity. Consider how blacks were perceived prior to the civil rights movement... A black president would have been inconceivable prior to this important movement... But the racial structures remain... Indeed it is a very powerful source of identity and group membership. Another point I'd add is that for the average African American things have changed little over the years. A quick look at the SES is highly indicative of this...
ReplyDeleteDo you guys think that this will change now Obama is in the White House?
The question about healthcare reform is an excellent one, too. I'm really looking forward to your thoughts on this. For those who don't know much about it you may want to do a google search for it. In short, it is NOT a single payer system (as has been proposed by Clinton, etc) and instead utilizes existing insurance companies. There are many conditions, though, which are designed to protect vulnerable people who are often barred from attaining insurance because of pre-existing health conditions. There is a lot more to it, however.
Great stuff!
Now that President Obama is in office, his policies concerning healthcare and the economy could potentially eliminate some of these race barriers, giving minorities more opportunity. Hopefully as President his policies will help all people struggling, not just minorities.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone is interested in learning more about his entire agenda, here is the official website:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/
-Margaret (Peg)
Coming from someone who works in the healthcare field, I am grateful that Obama is trying to reform our healthcare. Insurances are constantly making patients and physicians jump through hoops in order to get anything done. And lots of hospitals are in huge amounts of financial debt because they are not being reimbursed for patient care.
ReplyDeleteI can relate with what Mary is saying. I work in the healthcare field as well and I see more problems with the insurance aspect than anything else. If Obama can reform the nations healthcare then it will be a large benefit to everyone in general.
ReplyDeleteI do think that having Barack Obama in office will have a large impact on social structures. Like the others, I'm not really sure how, but even just the way that the African American community has reacted to the election and the response from young people in general is perhaps a sign of change.
ReplyDeleteIt may be wishful thinking, but I do think that Obama's policies will impact people's health and wellness for the better. His proposed healthcare plan seems pretty general, but he seems to be aiming to lower insurance costs to improve access to care, and put a big emphasis on preventive care and promoting public health. By lowering the cost and providing better preventive care, I feel this should help at least in a small sense by making more people "healthier" at least in a biomedical sense.
I found some information about the Obama/ Biden plan here:
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/
-Meghan
I think that Obama's health care plan is an excellent idea. Not only will it lower the costs for many Americans, but it will also give everyone access to it, which I believe will help with the race issue. I believe that this will also improve the overall health of the Americans, as they will be able to get help when they need it. However,wouldn't universal healthcare increase the wait times to see doctors? I read somewhere that the salary of doctors would decrease, so less people would be interested in specializing, meaning longer wait times to see patients. I was just curious if anyone else had heard this as well?
ReplyDelete-Marisa
I myself haven't heard that about doctors, but it could be true. I do know that many facilites such as hospitals and clinic are shying away from hiring all physicians and are shifting towards physician assistants. PAs work underneath the umbrella of the physician but they are paid less. Could that be what you heard?
ReplyDelete-Nicole J
Working in the EMS field, the topic of universal healthcare was brought up the other day by my supervisor. He stated that it may hurt some health fields; including EMS and some specialized doctors. I think this will cause a trickle down effect, and would then hurt educational institutions (like UNE!)Time will tell!
ReplyDeleteRegarding the comments about a universal healthcare program and lower salaries to healthcare practitioners- do you think less people would want to become doctors/ healthcare providers? Is a doctor's substantial salary more important than access to healthcare for everyone? At what cost?
ReplyDeleteIf people are going to turn away from having a profession in the medical field based on salary, the acceptance rates of getting into med school would be less competetive...people who truly want to help and don't care that much about salary would be competing.
ReplyDeleteGoing along with what Nicole said, I as well have heard a lot about institutions hiring more PAs. One because their work is valued just as much and has essentially the same knowledge as physicians. And 2 it comes with less pay making things much more appealing for these institutions. And like Craig said about EMS and specialty MDs hurting . I have heard that as well. A big hit is coming towards the specialized doctors big time and the place where, providing it is the concern of anyone who is health care prospect, you will not see a decrease in salary, benefits, etc. is for family practitioners. Private practice doctors are on high demand as so many people head in the direction of specializing.
ReplyDeleteAshley, aiming at your question I think I know exactly where you are going and you are absolutely right. A number of people who apply and aspire to work in the medical field, A.K.A. MDs tend to follow that career path to better themselves based on those high substantial salaries. And if you are going where I think you are, then I agree. At what cost will a change become evident. Because based on these ideas, then we will see a decrease in help in health care and that's where Marisa's point comes about longer waiting times.
I just want to comment on the idea of things changing in the United States with Obama as the first African American President. Personally, I don't think that it should change how the government is run in any way. Obama is a leader regardless of what color his skin is. It is terrible that people can actually think that he will be an awful president simple because of the color of his skin. That is such a naive mindset for people to have in modern day America. He is an intelligent man, and how he plans to run the country has nothing to do with his race.
ReplyDeleteCraig I agree but i hope not! Hopefully the healthcare will have better reforms and no allied health fields will get downsized or squished away. I know a lot of hospitals are really struggling right now financially and i hope that it will turn arounnd, because in my town the first thing they're cutting is emergency services!! It does not make sense to me at all! But i guess only time will tell
ReplyDeleteIt is true that a universal health care system would lower the pay of physicians. I think that that is a good thing. My sister is an emergency room doctor and her first choice of jobs after she graduated from medical school was to go to the hospital around the corner from where we grew up which was paying much less than many of the other hospitals that offered her positions. This lowering of physician incomes will make the medical field better. It will be less likely that people will enter the field interested in the high rate of pay and be more interested in actually helping those people who are suffering from illness get better; which is supposed to be the entire point behind choosing this field of work.
ReplyDeleteThese have all been great comments! In reference to the most recent post by A.Nicholas, I feel compelled to play the devils advocate.
ReplyDeleteIt is reasonable to assume that lowering doctor's wages will change motivation about patient care. However, I could argue (not that I believe this) that lowering wages might decrease competetion among vying med-students.
I think that what would ultimately change the quality in healthcare would be what Alex talked about in class. Yes, money would still be the motivating factor, however, the incentive would change from that of an insurance motivated profit-loss minimalization to monetary benefits for those doctors who provide the best care.
In response to T's comment on healthcare and quality there of I think that it is important to step back and look at the structures of American society. I am in agreement with Tyler because we live in a capitalist system that is primarily motivated by monetary gain for the individual, and the corporate institutions, as well as the government.
ReplyDeleteI think that we need some cuts in a TON of our spending when it comes to the medical system, but instead of cutting EVERYONEs salary including family practice doctors and specialists such as OBGYn or Womens Health care professionals, I think that we need to look at cuts in the "superficial" specialties and cut our spending in areas or provision of plastic surgery within the realm of entirely cosmetic enhancement.
Boob jobs, nose jobs, etc, not to say that if someone has been in an accident or suffers from life altering or disabling physical make up that they should not have access to this type of health care, but I think everyone should have this access, not just upper crust and I would rather see the cuts in these cosmetic surgeons pay rates than in a family doctors.
E
I totally agree with where Mary is coming from. I have always worked in the health care field doing patient registration. Its amazing how many people really dont have any access to insurance and how many people are in up to their heads because of hospital bills. I hope to see that President Obama's healthcare plan will help. Also along with the comment about lowering doctors wages. I feel that if a doctor truly cares about helping out others and is not just in the field for the money then their motivation about patient care should not change. But there are many doctors out there that would surprise us all
ReplyDeleteVery interesting comments, everyone. I think Ashley raises an excellent point about whether salaries should trump patient care and access.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few things to consider here: how are other countries - with universal healthcare - affected? Are their Drs of lesser quality? The competition for medical schools across the Western world is VERY high. We certainly have many barriers in the States to true meritocracy (the cost of medical school being one of them). In countries which have universal healthcare, there tends to be, at the same time, free education (or at least very affordable higher education) which arguably makes the competition fiercer, the quality better.
Secondly, do we NEED the many specialists that we have? Given our 'procedure hungry' healthcare system, as it stands, it may well be that we intervene, medically, too quickly. There is some research on this... especially as it relates to cardiology.
Finally, given the healthcare outcomes in the US... can we suppose that, things as they are, are working?
I think that we have way to many specialist that are more into the procedure part than actually helping out a patient. In the world today everyones answer is "surgery" which in many ways leads to a history of other problems. For instance I had wrist surgery a little more than 4 years ago after the surgery i went through numerous hours of PT but no matter how much PT i went through i was unable to rotate my wrist and would get shooting pains. Come to find out when they did the surgery they messed up a bunch of muscles in my arm so they had to go in and repeat the procedure. Careless mistakes like these are what causes people large amounts of money for no reason
ReplyDeleteWow, that is a really rough experience! I never thought about the process that patients have to go through post surgery, and how it may involve other areas of health care and major investments of time and money for the patient. Are doctors required to inform the patient of the PT and other possible post surgery procedures that are required of the patient in order to get the full benefits of the surgery, or do they tell them after it is done? Does insurance cover post op or just the operation itself? Where do PT OT and Recreational Therapy stand as far as insurance coverage?
ReplyDeleteI think Alex raises a good point looking at other countries with Universal health care programs and the qualities of their doctors/overall health care. In class it was briefly discussed how doctors in other countries are actually paid by how well their patients' health statuses are compared to being paid for seeing a patient, perscribing medication and performing a surgery. It seems that our health care system emphasizes on fixing something once it is broken, where we need to be focusing on preventing and maintaining overall health to begin with.
ReplyDeleteResponding to the number of specialists we have in our health care system reflects our biomedical frame of mind. It seems as though there has to be a specialized expert for any situation or pathology. Even in a broader sense, compare how many people see a personal therapist or go to marriage couseling, have a nutritionist or even a "life coach" compared to 50 years ago. This reflects how willing we are to turn to medical experts for their knowledge.
Ashley-
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a really interesting and valuable point about the entire focus of our system on fixing something that is broken, and how it would be very useful for us to shift this focus to maintaining long term health by promoting healthy living through our health care system, so that less needs to be fixed arise in an individuals life span. The way that you put this in your post was really great and made it easier for me to digest the whole concept...thank you!