Healthcare Costs

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that an extremely aggressive medical care system has created a cost prohibitive demand for heroic measures rather than a system that takes the whole of the community into account and allows the consumer preventative care and reasonable end-of-life care. The author stresses that the middle class is most significantly feeling the strangling effects of this out-of-control medical system and ethic. The paper concludes that the bottom line of this multivariate situation is that there seems to be very little real accountability. The paper includes many quotations.

From the Paper:

"For example, in a logical capitalistic situation, the price to utilize a particular piece of equipment should go down as demand goes up to offset the initial cost of producing and or acquiring the product. Yet, the costs seem to continue to rise regardless of how many other people have been charged $2,000 to use the equipment costing about 50 cents per minute to run the equipment for a test period of no longer than 30 minutes in most cases, or how long the equipment has been used. Though this is a far simplified analogy, sustainability should still be at the forefront of thought on the issue of equipment and supplies."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bix, Amy Sue. "Engendering Alternatives." The Politics of Healing: Histories of Alternative Medicine in Twentieth-Century North America. Ed. Robert D. Johnston. New York: Routledge, 2004. 153-180.
• Dranove, David. The Economic Evolution of American Health Care: From Marcus Welby to Managed Care. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.
• Epstein, Jeffrey H. "Technologies Converge in New Products." The Futurist Nov. 1998: 12.
• Epstein, Richard A. Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Right to Health Care?. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 1999.
• Frosch, Dan. "Your Money or Your Life: When Getting Sick Means Going Broke." The Nation 21 Feb. 2005: 11.

More papers on Healthcare Costs:

• Persuasive Essay # 108575 : "Healthcare Costs"
• Term Paper # 103922 : "Healthcare Costs"
• Research Paper # 30272 : "Healthcare Costs"
• Analytical Essay # 135813 : "French Policy on Healthcare Costs"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: