Prescription for America’s Health Care System

Introduction

For along time now, the medical fraternity in America has been riddled with a lot of challenges. The blame is not on any particular individual but on each one of us. This includes the government, private sector and business on one hand and doctors, patients, physicians and medical students on the other. This was the major subject of Dr. Wilson in his Inaugural speech at AMA annual meeting in Chicago.

Private sector, business and government

Dr. Wilson has a feeling that private sector and business in general has not done enough in their part to reform the medical sector. The private sector is riddled with greed, inefficiency, half-hearted efforts and not targeting to foster healthier lifestyles. This he fills is not the kind of reform we want. To this end Dr. Wilson offers his prescription as follows. The sector needs to be more involved, transparent in its activities and put interests of patients and employees first before anything else. This way they will be able to develop products and services which address the plight of customers as opposed to their own selfish motives of making money (Wilson, 2010)!

To the government, Dr. Wilson cites political bickering, disunity, poor representation and insensitivity to common man’s woes as the major problems. Dr. Wilson’s sentiments are shared by Edwards et al, (2010). He says that whereas citizens are languishing in poverty, poor health and education services, our elected leaders are disunited, bickering and fighting for supremacy. They have ended up being insensitive to real issues like health, education and economic prosperity which affecting the common man. In this regard Dr. Wilson’s prescription to the elected leaders is to move away from partisan politics, end useless debates on differences in opinions and enact sound legislations. They should try to accommodate each other across the political divide and concentrate more of their resources to execute the mandate for which they were elected (Ferrell & Coyle, 2001). 

Patients, medical students and physicians

To his fellow physicians Dr. Wilson feels that they have played their role well even though more needs to be done. He feels that the physicians are divided over some small issues. The president’s prescription is for the physician is not to allow their difference of opinions (or anything else for that matter) divide them. They should remain united especially by joining AMA and focus on reforming the medical sector. To the medical students Dr. Wilson starts by congratulating them for choosing a good career in medical since American physicians are respected globally. They should uphold this reputation. His prescription to the students is to genuinely listen to their patients and also join AMA. Wilson feels that this is a good way for them to start off their career (Wilson, 2010).

Now turning to the patients, Dr. Wilson sees the following as possible prescriptions. First they should take responsibility of the kind of health care they receive. Secondly they should take their time to make good health care decisions well in time and lastly patients should strive to lead a healthy life style (Devettere, 2009). He believes that most diseases are preventable and if everyone took responsibility of his health we can achieve a lot. The best health systems, physicians and medicine will be of no use if we lead unhealthy lives which expose us to diseases (Lynch, 2008). This includes smoking, taking poor diets, lack of exercise, unsafe sexual practices and etc.

Conclusion

In conclusion I can confidently say that I fully concur with this prescription and support Dr. Wilson’s sentiments and prescriptions of what we can do to reform the medical sector. This is because all the prescriptions he gave are practical, specific and workable. He admits that no one has all the answers and as such promised to work with all the stakeholders. With such right attitude from the president of AMA himself we can rest assured that our medical sector is headed for serious reforms.

References

Devettere, R.J., (2009). Practical Decision Making in Health Care Ethics: Cases and Concepts. 3rd Ed. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.

Dr. Wilson Cecil (AMA President, 2010) Inaugural speech at AMA annual meeting in Chicago. Retrieved on February 22, 2012 at:

HYPERLINK “http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/speeches/wilson-inaugural-speech.page” http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/speeches/wilson-inaugural-speech.page

Edwards, George C., Martin P. Wattenberg, and Robert L. Lineberry. (2010) Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy (15th Edition). New York pp. 77.

Ferrell, B. & Coyle, N., (2001). Complementary Therapies. Textbook of Palliative Nursing. Oxford University Press.

Lynch, H.F., (2008). Conflicts of Conscience in Health Care: An Institutional Compromise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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