The provision of healthcare in most parts of the world is rapidly transforming. There are very many arguments as to the manner in which the provision of healthcare services should be conducted ethically. Additionally, the subject of healthcare involves several stakeholders, and it is up to these stakeholders to make massive considerations in the provision of healthcare. It is up to the politicians to make policies that ensure that the prevailing business considerations and financing of the provision of these healthcare services do not infringe the rights of individuals to receive quality healthcare services. Additionally, the stakeholders in the provision of healthcare should ensure that they make ethical considerations. Some of these stakeholders include pharmaceutical companies, health insurance companies, doctors and patients, and the government.
Over the years, there has been a conflict of interest from the pharmaceutical companies in the ethical practice of the provision of healthcare. The main instance of controversy in this relationship between the pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare delivery system is the amount of money that the pharmaceutical companies use in marketing of medical supplies. This brings about a major conundrum in that the pharmaceutical companies may act in prejudice of their clients’ interests. It is also evident that the pharmaceutical companies can go to large extents of ensuring that they sell their products to their clients regardless of whether the products are effective. This is because the pharmaceutical companies are more interested in the making of profits and the health of the patients is no longer their primary motive.
Furthermore, it has been noted that the modes of marketing by the pharmaceutical companies has drastically changed as other modes of marketing have proved to be ineffective over time.
The marketing stance that the pharmaceutical companies are using currently is called detailing. In detailing, the pharmaceutical companies send their sales representatives to the medical practitioners to have face to face communication to explain to the medical practitioners about the functionality of the medical products being sold. These sales people usually use unethical practices to ensure that the medical practitioners recommend their drugs. These sales representatives usually carry with them gifts and samples. Ethically, some of these gifts ensure that the practitioners feel swayed into recommending the use of the drugs. Another ethical consideration that should be made is the impact that the sales people have on the medical practitioners. In some instances, the medical practitioners have the essential knowledge and the sales personnel have the necessary materials to convince individuals to purchase products. The sales personnel suggest the medical products and yet they are not experts in that field. The medical practitioners may also fall into the hand of unscrupulous sales people who may offer bribes to the medical practitioners. This procedure may go a lengthy way in ruining the health of the patients as the medical practitioners have to use the medical products of the pharmaceutical companies regardless of the impacts that the medical products may have on the patients. Ethically, this is not correct and should be checked. This is because the patients suffer from the greed of both the medical practitioners and the pharmaceutical companies. Additionally, the integrity of the relationship of the people providing the healthcare is also compromised. In terms of business, the pharmaceutical companies tend to benefit from the recommendation of the medical practitioners in that the practitioners may suggest the drugs that are more expensive to the patients even though the patients could have received the same kind of treatment through the use of cheaper similar drugs. The association between the pharmacological corporations and the patients may also be compromised massively in that the patients may demand that they use the medical products from a particular pharmaceutical company as they have seen several advertisements about the effectiveness of the products from that particular company.
Another stakeholder in the provision of healthcare is the health insurance companies. There are many ethical considerations that should be made by the healthcare insurance companies. This is because there are many complexities in the provision of health insurance. The main considerations that health insurance has to deal with include the issues of equity and social justice. It is evident that there are contrary impressions that are generally given by the political rhetoric, but there are also equal countermeasures to affect the health insurance providers to ensure that all patients receive the needed medical care. Ethical considerations have to be made by these medical practitioners in regard to the structuring of the system of insurance to the patients and the roles that each of the stakeholders and the government has to make. The system of healthcare insurance has to be carefully scrutinized to ensure that all patients are covered. One of the main ethical considerations that have to be considered is the source of funding to cover the healthcare insurance. In many cases, the state covers the funding but in some cases, the state only covers healthcare portions. There are other medical situations that are in contention in that the state does not feel obliged to fund. These medical conditions include abortion and healthcare for beauty purposes. In some states, the act of abortion is not supported. The government feels that if an individual has to do an abortion, the patient has to pay the medical insurance themselves.
Another ethical consideration is the provision of the privately funded medical insurance covers. In over a century, the medical healthcare in the United States has been privately funded by individuals. This has been possibly due to the arrangement of the state with the people in that the levels of taxation imposed on people with such arrangements has been done. This kind of arrangement provides its own set of moral considerations. Most of the workers do not know if their employers are paying the medical insurance or if the medical plans of the companies in which they are working with cover them.
An argument arises as to the importance of the introduction of the single payer system. The single payer system is a system whereby a single entity acts as the payer of the system and is in charge of all the collection of the medical bills. The administrator in this system would act in the capacity of paying all the health costs for all the providers of the healthcare such as the hospitals, practitioners and physicians. In this system, the patients are in a position to choose the medical practitioners that they want to represent them. An ethical consideration must be made in the occurrence of this situation in that there will always be conflicts that will arise amongst the stakeholders. Through this system, the general population of citizens would be able to get the healthcare. However the ethical considerations that has to be, made is the inclusion of the patients who do not have a medical insurance. These individuals are viewed as being lazy and that they are irresponsible as they do not have the insurance. The individuals who oppose the particular payment system argue that these individuals should take more responsibilities to ensure that they have the medical care. Statistics indicates that a small percentage of individuals chose not to obtain insurance and yet they can afford it. Another way in which the particular payment system can be seen is that a particular payment system could be misused as a form of the state giving the uninsured individuals handouts and the other people will not get the handouts and thus resulting in a form of discrimination. Proposers of the system argue that the government should be more involved in this system in that it is similar with the government bailing out the automotive industry during the recession. Based on this rationale, the government should also pay the insurance of the uninsured. Some persons also contend that there is no need for them to pay for the unhealthy living styles of some individuals who have chosen to abuse drugs. They argue that some people involve themselves in situations that detriment their health knowingly as they comprehend that the state would pay their medical bills.
Hart (34) argues that an ethical consideration has to be undertaken to cover the people who do not practice so bad vices because they may be suffering from conditions that are beyond their control such as the genetic predispositions. Some individuals argue that healthcare is a fundamental right, and everyone should be provided with. On the other hand, some oppose this argument by stating that no individual should be able to get free medical healthcare. This is because the healthcare has to have some costs. Additionally, the funding of the medical care is from the taxes of other persons. They argue that if the function of the healthcare is to provide strength to the people, then it is the responsibility of the individuals to ensure that they get the healthcare themselves. If the purpose of health care system is to maximize strength, then it makes sense to align financial incentives so that people will utilize the most efficient, low‐cos t interventions. For instance, primary care visit’s less expensive than ER upkeep or being hospitalized for unnecessary conditions. Making initial care visits free or extremely low cost removes a significant barrier is seeking out such upkeep and consequently saves cash. In this sense, the wellbeing care system should be planned to guarantee that cost‐effective chief care services are permitted or obtainable at low cost, while making less operative intrusions more costly.
The healthcare and medical practitioner professional have interrelated responsibilities in terms of the provision of healthcare. One of their main roles is to attend to the patients in the community who required medical attention. Their second responsibility is to ensure that they administer the physical, financial, human resources and technologies that are available for meeting the needs of the patients that they serve. Their third responsibility is the provision of continued research, education, and scientific management of the patients that they serve. All these roles are expected of them, and it is their responsibility to ensure that they perform these duties diligently. The problem arises when these medical practitioners have to make compromises as to the duties that have the most importance. All these responsibilities bear a certain level of vitality and choosing the one that is most necessary is difficult. It is evident that moral dilemmas arise as these medical practitioners have to manage all these duties. The considerations of these ethical dilemmas are extremely painful due to the inadequacies that are present in the healthcare systems. Some of the healthcare systems are designed in a way that they do not realistically promote the ethical practices that the medical practitioners should be performing. This makes it difficult for them to practice their profession.
According to Goodman et al (78), during the provision of the healthcare services, medical practitioners are not only supposed to provide their services to the individuals alone but they should also serve the community at large. Some of the members of the community cannot afford the medical healthcare, and it is the responsibility of the medical practitioners to provide for the people who do not afford such care. This may bring a strain to the hospitals as the medical practitioners are forced to provide services that are not compensated.
Aside from the individuals who cannot afford the care, the medical practitioners are constantly faced with situations that may compromise their integrity. Some of the major pharmaceutical companies may try to force the medical practitioners towards recommending their products through the use of bribes in the form of gifts. This, however, is not the only ethical concern that the medical practitioners face. Another ethical concern is the obligation to report or to inform their patients about the appropriate medical treatments, the patient’s conditions, and the associated medical costs. This should be done in complete honesty. Some of the information that the medical practitioners have been sometimes very sensitive in nature. It is vital that they comprehend the way in which they communicate these messages to the patients without withholding the other information. If the medical healthcare practitioners are emotional in nature, then they may give the wrong information due to poor judgment. The medical healthcare practitioners should also be in a position to keep calm even if they are in a dire situation in that is critical so that they do not impact the patients negatively.
Another ethical consideration that the medical practitioners are faced with is the decisions that they make while attending to the patients. Some of the patients may be suffering from conditions that are highly communicable. It is the job of the medical practitioners to ensure that they attend to such patients even after understanding the risks that they are putting themselves in. in some instances, if the medical practitioners are killed in war fields, the government do not compensate them.
The medical practitioners also have to juggle between the resources that are normally limited with providing an effective and efficient medical care to the patients. These situations normally arise during times of natural disasters and time of war. Due to the limited resources at these times the doctors are forced to work in harsh conditions. Some of the medical practitioners are obliged to provide healthcare in war fields, and this undermines the risks that they have to take to provide the medical care. The resources that are scarce have to be properly distributed within the departments of the healthcare facility.
The government plays two major roles in the provision of healthcare. One of the main roles is the provision of funding. The government is not obliged to gain profits from the healthcare services. Most of the public healthcare centers are not taxed. The government is also obliged to provide subsidies to the companies that produce these medical supplies. This brings about a problem in that the other sectors of the economy find it discriminatory to subsidize certain parts of the economic industry. The other problem that the government faces is the subsidization of the education of the medical practitioners. The government has taken the initiative to fund the education of medical practitioners; however, after completion of the education programs, some of the practitioners opt to work for privately funded medical centers as the pay in these centers is high. This means that the government is met by a shortage of medical practitioners, and yet it paid for the education of many medical practitioners. The government is also placed in a hard situation when the medical practitioners want to privatize the provision of medical healthcare as the government normally runs the facilities that provide medical care and in most occurrences, they do not have the professional know-how. The government also has to make policies regarding the provision of quality healthcare. This is normally the bottleneck in the government legislating in that the government has to juggle between the provision of quality healthcare and the provision of the healthcare to the general population that would mean that the level of quality would go down. This is a major cause for concern as the government cannot win on both sides.
According to Dolan, Paul, and Olsen (99), another issue that must be carefully scrutinized is the provision of healthcare to the elder members of the society. There is always a controversy as to the individuals who should pay for the services offered to these people. Should the government pay for these kinds of services or should it be the guardians of these old people who should pay? The costs are normally high as these people basically require the most attention and the have to be taken to homecare homes. Some of these people suffer from geriatric diseases and have to be monitored carefully.
In conclusion, it is evident that the provision of healthcare is a business venture that has many stakeholders. There are various ethical considerations that have to be undertaken to ensure that the provision of quality medical healthcare. The people who seem to have a major impact in the provision of healthcare are the doctors. The doctors provide a link between the patients, the government and the pharmaceutical companies. It is the doctors who are also most vulnerable to the pressures of the business environment in that they can be lured by money by both the private medical practitioners and the pharmaceutical companies who want them to endorse their products. The major ethical concerns are who should pay what and who receives what. The government has major problems in that it is supposed to formulate policies to be used in the healthcare industry, subsidize the production of certain medications and provide funding for the education of medical practitioners.
Works cited
Goodman, John C, Gerald L. Musgrave, and Devon M. Herrick. Lives at Risk: Single-payer National Health Insurance Around the World. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. Print.
Hart, Valerie. Patient-provider Communications: Caring to Listen. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett, 2010. Print.
Dolan, Paul, and Jan A. Olsen. Distributing Health Care: Economic and Ethical Issues. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ. Press, 2002. Print.
