30) Is Health Care Reform Just “Talk?”

Title: Health Care Reform – Why so much talk and so little action?

Summary: Dr. Victor R. Fuchs publishes an article in the New England Journal of Medicine to discuss why there is so much talk of health care reform, but so little action.

Topic: Should the Obama administration attempt to  convert the United States to a single-payer health care system?
Category: Academic Research

What is it? Article written by Dr. Victor R. Fuchs
Publication Information: Jan. 15, 2009
Author: Dr. Victor R. Fuchs
Location: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/360/3/208
Accessed: Mar. 9, 2009

Support:
Victor R. Fuchs, Ph.D. and Professor of Economics and of Health Research and Policy. He works at the Center for Health Policy at Stanford.
New England Journal of Medicine, peer-reviewed academic journal
Niccoló Machiavelli, philosopher, writer and politician during the 16th century
Victor R. Fuchs is the author of “Health Care Reform- Why so Much Talk and so Little Action?“The article is published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which is one of the most widely-read and respected peer-reviewed medical journals in the world. The New England Journal of Medicine was founded in 1812 by Dr. John Collins Warren. In the article Dr. Fuchs quotes the famous Italian philosopher Niccolo Machiavelli, who established the “Law of Reform.” Dr. Fuchs uses the Machiavelli’s law to illustrate the overwhelmingly challenges that will accompany a new system of health care.

Audience and Agenda:
The New England Journal of Medicine reaches an audience of 419,000 people, and the journal is read in large part by a wealthy audience consisting of doctors and others in the health care field. Readers of the journal visit the website to update themselves on information circulating the health care field. The author, Victor R. Fuchs, has spent a great deal of his career researching Universal Health Care, and he has written for the New England Journal of Medicine on a number of occasions. Dr. Fuchs did receive a grant from Blue Shield of California Foundation to write this particular article, which means that the insurance company believed it would somehow benefit from the article.

Usefulness:
Dr. Fuchs discusses the reasons why there is so much talk about health care reform but actual action is non-existent. He believes that reform will not take place until the vast majority of the country can unite under one system because there are currently too many ideologies for reform. Dr. Fuchs does address a single-payer system as a reform contender but he neither praises nor condemns the system. However, one of the chief arguments against single-payer is that it is not politically feasible, but Dr. Fuchs gives several examples of historical decisions that were not considered feasible in their time. “Examples include the emancipation of slaves, the creation of a strong and independent central bank, the establishment of Social Security, the fluctuation of foreign exchange rates, and most recently, more than $1 trillion devoted to bailing out large financial institutions.” So, even though a single-payer system does not seem like it is the most feasible form of reform at present, it does not mean that it is the wrong decision for the country.

Works cited:
New England Journal of Medicine
Google Scholar
CHP/PCOR
quantcast.com
wikipedia.org
Ulrichs

For other Academic Research posts, check out…
16) National Health Insurance
18) The Argument of Justice
22) Is Single-Payer Not the Answer?
25) The Netherlands Could be a Model for the U.S.

Advertisement