Week Three SOC 490

“Don’t think you’re on the right road just because it’s a well-beaten path.” – Unknown

We as humans have a tendency to conform. But when we use the term conform, it usually connotes conformity of society as a whole in, looks, fashion, or what is considered to be normal in our world. There is a different example of conformity however, one that seems to be sweeping the globe: “Medical Tourism.” This term is used to name the growing trend of foreigners from across the world who travel to the United States for the soul purpose of receiving medical care in an American hospital. According to an article from MedCare Link about “Medical Tourism,” a McKinsey and Company report from 2008 estimated that an average of 70,000 “tourists” came to the US for medical care that year. And while this may not be very surprising, because it has been assumed for so long that the medical care provided in the United States is far superior to care found anywhere else in the world, there is a contradiction in some healthcare statistics that may suggest otherwise. In a statistical comparison of between the US and Canada and the US and Italy, the infant mortality rate in countries such as Canada and Italy were substantially lower than the rates in America as of 2007. Along the same lines, life expectancy in both of those countries not only started out higher than the US back in 1990, but have also increased more rapidly than the life expectancy in the US over the years, making the US life expectancy an average of 3 to 4 years shorter than the other two countries as of 2007 as well. So in that case, why is there such popularity for receiving medical care in America even though, statistically speaking, America is lagging behind some countries in these important health statistics?

I believe the answer lies within a few long-standing assumptions about America and our healthcare system. First, there is the existence of advanced medical technology and prestigious medical schools in the United States. Second, multiple of the nation’s top hospitals are world renown for their specialty care and treatment. While it is undeniable that America offers state-of-the-art care at hospitals even close to home, such as the Cleveland Clinic, even the MedCare Link article cannot ignore that other countries are now able to rival certain parts of our heath system when it says, “this [America offering the best care in the world] is beginning to change as developing countries are becoming more popular when it comes to minor surgical procedures, since these countries have begun to catch up with the US when it comes to technology and talented doctors.” Even though this may be the case, there are still thousands of foreigners who travel to the US for their medical care because it has been the country to come to for medical treatment for so long. Interestingly enough, even though America could be considered an undisputed leader in quality of medical care, our nation’s own health is failing compared to countries who do not receive nearly the number of medical tourists that the US does.

From and American viewpoint, this lagging of overall national health, while the US still leads in technology, hospitals, and doctors, is really quite worrisome. Newhall suggests this decline in overall health is due to the fact that too many American citizens do not have health insurance and therefore cannot afford to pay for the excellent quality of care that exists in our country. He writes, “We are in a healthcare famine. Millions of us are suffering and millions more will suffer soon. More than 20,000 people die each year in this famine because they cannot afford the price of for-profit insurance.” Newhall argues that switching to a universal healthcare plan will eliminate the “healthcare famine” in the United States and even suggests that this would provide “excellent medical care to everyone in the nation,” thus allowing the citizens to have access to the quality of care our country has to offer. Gadium takes it a step further when it says, “In our era, for various reasons, reciprocal ties and mutual dependencies increase day by day… This development, which is called socialization, while certainly not without its dangers, brings with it many advantages with respect to consolidating and increasing the qualities of the human person, and safeguarding his rights.” Gaudium references our duty as humans to provide our fellow humans with what they need in order to protect everyone’s rights, and/or right to the quality of care our country is able to provide.

Pipes argues this viewpoint however, by saying that this number of citizens without health insurance is seriously exaggerated. She talks about the fact that the vast numbers of “uninsured” Americans (estimated at about 46 million) consists of many people who are just temporarily uninsured, not living permanently without health insurance. That being said though, just being without health insurance for a short period of time could lead to a decrease in national health if those people are unable to receive consistent medical care. She also writes, “The numbers are misleading… Nearly 10 million uninsured aren’t even US citizens.” This means that about 10 million people, who are considered into the statistics of national health, are foreigners working in America and in her opinion, they should not be included in the list of uninsured in America. Conversely, in the article by Cicero, he argues that one was considered a Roman not by his citizenship or birthplace, but simply because he fought for Rome. In the same mind-set, shouldn’t foreigners working in America be included into the group of uninsured Americans?

Even though America leads the world in medical research, medical schools and degrees, doctors, and technology, the health of our citizens is lagging behind countries that have citizens who leave and specifically come to America to receive better medical treatment! This is because the United States houses top-notch hospitals such as The Cleveland Clinic, The Mayo Clinic, and The Johns Hopkins Hospital, but groups of our nation cannot afford to pay for the medical treatment even from places of much lower in prestige. There truly is a healthcare famine in America and it seems to only be affecting our own nation because of the lack of affordable healthcare.