In my humble opinion, we all need a broader understanding of the complicated relationship of various aspects in healthcare reform policy-making.
We can now recall that on 9 Sept. 2009, President Obama hit a homerun. His speech at that time gathered three roles the Americans needed and now still need to assume in healthcare reform: an educator, an ethicist and a tough politician. As to the educator, we expect society to be educated in order to help keep a person ‘up to the times’, and enable her/him to refurnish her/his ‘mental shop with the latest wares’, as per the 1904 statement by the late Dr. William Osler (1849-1919).
That have been considered, next, as a tough politician, he/her will be able to help us all for our health-care policy, no matter wherever county you do live, we expect a leader’s polite smiles and pearls lay a tough politician in order to stand on the hottest issues under the tremendous pressur of the health-care reform. With all the aforementioned, we do need a strong politician.
We should, as well, look for a direction for fruitful areas of future searching that we are depending on informed and assessed leadership to lead us to be our best selves. A leader is able to motivate to the degree that we are willing to have faith in him or her.
Knowing that health-care providers are subjected to laws and that a health-care provider is to create a balance between the quality of healthcare and patients’ rights, however, a provider should not have to choose between proper care for his/her patients with the incentive of making profits and fearing the threat of financial loss. Nevertheless, a provider’s professional integrity appears now to be under challenge. Yet providers must respond to different organizational demands, bill of rights and systems alternatives.
It is, as well, worthwhile to mention that there are also fragmented incentives that could undermine collective cost-effective community care. Any profit or surplus arising from a health-care setting should go to not-for-profit organization for community service to implement and to expand, including but not limited to preventive medicine and health promotion programs .
After all, heaith care should be provided for the welfare of all on a non-profit basis. There should also be tort reform to eliminate unreasonable lawsuits against health care providing personel.
The health-care refoms do not go far enough, but at least they are, so far, in the right direction. It took great political bravery to stand up to the lawyers, doctors, pharmacutical companies, insurance companies, profit making hospitals and the general public who want a quick health care fix, with all the attendant wastage of unnecesary texts, pills, etc.
Bingh Tang
Mineloa
