Duquesne student intern Neal Caldwell has written a poignant essay about his experience working in the PUSH office. He sounds like another who would make a good blogger.
Neal Caldwell
Social Justice
Paper 3
3/27/12
Social Justice & Injustice in the Field of
Healthcare
Throughout
the course of the service-learning portion of the Social Justice course I have
gained considerable insight into the problems of justice and injustice in the
field of healthcare. As with so many
other issues I have explored in my short twenty years, I fear I have vehemently
sought after but have failed to find any answers. I will discuss, however, what I have found.
Healthcare is certainly of most
prominent social concern, and for good reason.
True also, as with so many other things, it has become a commodity in
this country. Medicine is a booming
business and one of the most profitable in the nation. With no concern other than the dollar, health
care providers have no incentive to lower costs for those in need. Rather, the incentive is to raise costs for
those who already can, and will continue to be able to, afford this
commodity.
I have seen and heard firsthand both
sides of the argument regarding healthcare.
The first premise to be considered is this: is healthcare an inherent
right of every citizen of the United States?
This question is often posed somewhat idealistically, and most are
inclined to answer “Why yes, of course.
This is the United States! Every citizen should be entitled to the
proper medical care needed to live a healthy and fulfilling life!” This answer, however, must be considered
carefully. If every citizen is entitled
to healthcare, is every citizen then, too, entitled to a house? A car?
One can see the slippery slope that is approached by such questions of
inherent rights.
Some
argue further that should healthcare be provided to every citizen that the
incentive to work is removed. I argue
the opposite– that citizens will be more inclined to work when they are free
from worry about medical care. Perhaps
this is an idealistic and lofty notion, so we must examine another question. Are the majority of the underprivileged
citizens of this country trying to make something for themselves, so to speak,
or are they simply trying to get over on the system? I have spent the current semester working in
the office of Healthcare4AllPA and have heard the horror stories of the
injured, crippled and disabled who are unable to work and therefore unable to
receive medical care. These are the people who must be placed
at the very front of consideration regarding the healthcare issue in our
country. Have we become so lost in our
quest for the dollar that we have forgotten our responsibility to our fellow
men? When did our sense of community and
compassion become replaced with greed and callousness?
Of all
things instilled in me by this service-learning project, fear is the most
ubiquitous. I fear that men have been
made insensitive in the name of business and profit. I fear what will happen when man’s
responsibility to and concern for the common good of others is not dwindling,
as it is now, but completely gone. In a
society as fruitful, free and pioneering as ours, it is unjust for so many to
go without healthcare. I do not have an
answer for those of immoral persuasions who wish to dishonestly use a system
aimed at providing for those in need, but I
believe the majority of the underserved and underprivileged are not
immoral. I believe in the good of all
men.
**Relevant Posts**
No comments:
Post a Comment