Question

]1. As discussed earlier, our government is attempting to make medical care “free” to all Americans –free at the point of sale, with the costs paid for by taxation and government borrowing—at least when it comes to the TESTING for the COVID-19 virus. a) is this a good idea? Or a bad idea? Why? b) should the same policy—make it free to all – apply for ALL FOLLOW-UP CARE for patients who test positive for the virus? Why or why not? c) If the answer to b is yes, then why not make ALL medical care services free to ALL people in our country for ALL services---preventive and emergency? I mean, what is the difference between treating victims of the virus and treating all other medical conditions and issues? IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE? If so, what is it??? d) Is it relevant that most other “advanced” economies try to do it this way---make medical care free at the point of sale? e) What are the lessons learned in the case of “free” medical care in Britain? What ‘went wrong’ in that case? f) What is the goal, in this case? What is the government of Britain trying to achieve? g) What COULD the government of Britain do in order to achieve this goal? Please give two or three options. h) What SHOULD it do, in your opinion? Why? i) HOW IS MEDICAL CARE DELIVERED TO THE PEOPLE IN OUR COUNTRY? What are some of the various programs, and which groups of people are covered by each program? J) The Trump administration just took steps to block some Americans for signing up for health coverage through Obamacare. Is this a good idea? Or a bad idea? Why?

Answer 1

a) The aforesaid case puts forward a question on making medical care free to all Americans at least for the testing of the Covid-19 virus at the point of sale with the cost paid for by taxation and government borrowing. In my opinion it is not a very good idea. The matter of fact is that almost 90% of the citizens of America are affordable of paying for the medical care and thus there is no need at all to make this free of cost which would result in an extra burden to an economy which is already in trouble. But what can be done is that the programs like the Affordable Care Act could be promoted and those individuals who are unable to pay for the medical care could be identified, especially while making tests for the Covid-19 and those individuals could be given a free testing so that they are not being alienated from the testing purposes due to non-affordability of the health services in the nation. Moreover, the purpose of collection of the cost for the same by an additional taxation would result in an extra burden to all the sections of the public who already are facing the trouble due to loss of jobs and many other similar issues created due to the economic slowdown during the time.

b) As said in the above case, the same strategy may be adopted in providing the follow up care in case of those who are tested positive for the Covid-19 virus. Since the follow-up care is a little more costly than the testing, thus we can find that more number of people would have to be covered under such a mechanism and thus proper identification of those who are unable to afford the same should be identified at the point of sale and proper mechanism could be implemented that they are receiving the proper treatment and thus are receiving the correct treatment procedures for the virus.

c) There are a lot of differences on how we treat a pandemic situation and how we treat other medical situations. The difference is that a pandemic spreads so fast that we have so many patients that would get affected daily. The hospitals and the other medical care facilities, the doctors and health workers should be always updated with the daily numbers so that appropriate care could be given to the increased number of people on a day to day basis. Thus, the treatment line of how we treat with a pandemic and other disease is always different which would have much implications on the economy of a nation. It is seen that in case of America, more than 50,000 people are being affected with the disease on a day to day basis and the nation has implemented many programs that are improving the spending on the healthcare for the citizens. Many such packages have been inducted in to the economy and the budgetary provision shave been redirected on the treatment of this disease. Once the treatment line of this is followed for all other diseases, this would create a huge economic burden on the government and thus the method of provision of healthcare to those who are needy should be followed for most of the cases so that those who can afford the same are paying for the treatment and those who are not affordable are being taken care off and thus a judicial balance is thus maintained in an economy.

d) The case is similar in many other economies as if now. But there are certain economies which could implement this policy of providing free care to Covid-19 patient as the number of day to day patients are low. The advantage of this policy is that more number of people would be brought under the first line treatment and thus the economy could be prevented from additional costs that are lost as opportunity cost by reducing the spread to many other people and thus could be advantageous for such economies. Thus, in those countries where the patient count is low on a day to day basis, this policy of providing free or subsidised rate of treatment could be followed.