Nurs 6050 Week 1 Assignment

NURS 6050 Week 1 Assignment Essay

The Role of Government in the U.S. Health Care System

As stated in the course text, Health Care Delivery in the United States, “the health care enterprise is one of the most important parts of the U.S. social system and of our economic system as well” (Kovner and Knickman, 2011, p. 4); however, with millions of citizens uninsured, rising costs, massive health disparities, and the need to improve quality and access, many view health care as a broken system. As such, it continues to be a significant political issue in the United States. Most agree that something needs to be done to fix the health care system, but the methods and solutions for addressing problems vary greatly, particularly with respect to the role government should play. Proponents of varying approaches often have strong, emotional opinions, making compromise difficult.Nurs 6050 Week 1 Assignment

In this Discussion, you will consider the role of government in health care, and you will examine the impact of a social, economic, technological, ethical, or legal issue on health care delivery.

To prepare:

• With this week’s Learning Resources in mind, consider this question: Is health care a right or a privilege?
• Review the media presentation for this week, focusing on the role of the government in health care including Affordable Care Act.
• Pinpoint a social, economic, technological, ethical, or legal issue that could, or has, affected health care delivery in the United States.
• Locate a current article from the popular press (within the past 6 months) related to the health care issue you identified. How does this article inform your understanding of the influence of your selected issue in the health care debate?Nurs 6050 Week 1 Assignment

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By Day 3

Post your position on whether health care in the United States is a right or a privilege, and explain what you believe to be the proper role of government in health care. Justify your position. Explain how the social, economic, technological, ethical, or legal issue you selected is impacting health care delivery and whether this issue should be addressed by the government or by private entities. Identify the article you selected, and explain how this article informs your stance.

The Role of Government in the U.S. Health Care System

The question of: Is health care a right or a privilege, can be debated forever. According to the text, “our nation is built on the idea that society should ensure an opportunity for ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’” (Knickman & Kovner, 2015, p. 4). Life being the key word in this statement. Health care is an important role in ensuring life. The statement “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is taken directly from our Declaration of Independence. Is not the role of the government to protect its citizens? The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act 2010 (ACA) expanded the role of the government in health care. The ACA was designed to protect patient rights and make health insurance more available to the people. The theory was to make health care more available and affordable to the public. As this week’s video stated, the U.S. provides some of the best health care in the world as far as technology to deliver. The video also goes on to explain how on average, people in the U.S. end up pay more for health care in comparison to other countries (Laureate Education (Producer), 2012d). Nurs 6050 Week 1 Assignment

We are a pivotal place, waiting and watching, to see which direction our nation will go. We have two candidates debating on issues, and we will have to choose which person to lead our nation in the coming years. This is vitally important to myself and the state I live, much like others across this country. New Hampshire finds itself in a crisis with opiate abuse. According to a local newspaper, the issue is “More Americans are dying from opioids than at any time in recent history, with overdose deaths hitting a peak of 28,000 in 2014” (Ronayne, 2016). When speaking of ensuring life, this statistic is going in the wrong direction. Internationally, the BBC wrote an article about the heroin and opiate crisis in the U.S., writing “The US is in the throes of a heroin and opioid epidemic – drug overdose has become the leading cause of accidental death, overtaking traffic accidents” (Pressly, 2016). While one candidate is electing to stop drugs via policing and tackling the issue through the judicial system, the other is electing to put money toward health care. According to the Concord Monitor (Ronayne, 2016), the candidates plan “would send more money to states to expand drug treatment and mental health services, promote greater availability of the overdose reversal drug naloxone and support better prevention programs in schools, among other things.” In NH, we find ourselves with one of the worse rankings in opiate abuse and death rates. Even worse we rank in the bottom for resources for those suffering from addiction. As a nurse working in the busiest emergency departments in the state, we see the effects of having few resources available for our patients.

The U.S. Constitution states that life is a right given to all citizens of the U.S. Providing health care to those citizens helps protect the same right.Nurs 6050 Week 1 Assignment