Respond to the two post below:

Response One:

The definition of a Right: An entitlement, a power, privilege, demand, or claim possessed by a person (The Free Dictionary, 2019). The definition of a Service: An act or a variety of work done for others, especially for pay (The Free Dictionary, 2019).

I believe that Medical Care is a Service. It is something that is provided in return for payment. The cost of healthcare is rising. Individuals do not choose when they will become ill, or what they will be diagnosed with. Healthcare needs to be patient centered and based around the needs of its patients (Porter & Lee, 2013). It needs to be cost effective. Patients have to be able to afford the care that they are receiving. Value has to be improved without increasing healthcare cost and cost need to be decreased without affecting patient outcomes.

There are several terms that are used interchangeably however, they are actually not the same at all. Individuals, healthcare services and providers need to understand the difference in order to benefit from care and provide better care for those they serve.. Health insurance is not healthcare. Health insurance is not health. Health insurance is not a right. Healthcare is not health. Health is not a right. Individuals are smartest and healthiest when self-motivated to do so by natural consequences. No individual should be obligated to work for free or be extorted by federal government force to purchase items or services for others. Government regulations and third-party reimbursement increases costs and decreased efficiency. Direct patient pay for free market competing services is most efficient, cost effective and promotes excellence (Wax, 2017).

Healthcare is a service and the service providers have a responsibility to work as a team to increase the outcomes of patient care. The team can improve by comparing their delivery of care and cost with other providers.

Response Two:

I agree with the statement medical care is neither a right nor a privilege. Healthcare service is provided by health professionals to those who wish to purchase it. Healthcare is a business, a service. Healthcare also plays a huge role in the economy. Health care spending in 2017 was 17.9 percent of the Nation’s Gross Domestic Product, which equates to $3.5 trillion or $10, 739 per person (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2018). The statements above may read cold and callus; however, at the end of the day it is about other people’s livelihoods, health insurances bottom lines, and programs to fund care for those without the means. We all need medical care, thus people (sellers) are going to provide it. Healthcare is a commodity.

We often have this romanticized “humanitarian” view of healthcare tugging at our hearts. Many of us are or were healthcare providers, we see a human in front of us, not a profit in front of us or finding ways treat them while still meeting a money grubbing bottom line. People are struggling with illness, diseases and disabilities ever day. We desire health care systems that are affordable and effective (National Health Council, n.d). I’m on the fence with “accessible, as I read more and more about how we should frame access to healthcare, and there is a huge cultural and attitudinal piece to why people seek healthcare in the first place, regardless is its available and right around the corner. I found an old but super helpful article by Aday and Anderson (1974) that has collectively helped me link all the different concepts of how we should measure access to healthcare. The article was supported by a grant by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. I hope you find this article as helpful as I did. Lastly, ProCon.org has a webpage that addresses healthcare as right/privilege or as a service.