Health care law - Coursework Example

Health Care Law Video line Offer Real Life Medical Drama The line NBC medical documentary covering 3 specific cases simultaneously happening at the University of University of Chicago Medical Center opened my eyes to the harsh realities of our current medical treatment and health care laws. All three stories, an 8 year old child in need of a liver transplant, a homeless woman in a coma, a premature baby with brain hemorrhage, share one common denominator. That denominator is the value, the dollar sign cost of what it takes to get well once one falls severely ill.

Who has the right to make end of life decisions when, as in the case of the homeless woman, there are no relatives around to sign a waver? Do the doctors play god and decide for her? Or should the facility allow her medical bills to pile up knowing that they may never get that money back? When is it logical to spend money do not have in the quest of saving a life that medical science cannot be saved? For the hospitals, they are willing to save the patients lives, thats their job after all. But this documentary begs us to ask the question, when is it ethical to end the medical care of a person?

In the case of the 24 week child and the woman found in a coma, both will live the life of a vegetable, that would not be any kind of life for either of them. For the child, it is a painful acceptance of the truth by his family members. For the homeless woman, it is sad that nobody even truly cares if she lives or dies. The 8 year old in need of a kidney? She has a fighting chance, so her family should give it a shot. The documentary showed us that end of life decisions have to be made without any real constitutional guidelines governing it due to varying state legislatures.

Times have changed and life ending illnesses and situations are now becoming more common place .It is time for Congress to enact EOL guiding laws for medical professionals and family members in order to have a definitive course of action in EOL cases. Video 2: A System in Crisis: Finding a Solution for Health Care in America This video introduces us to Dr. Robert Perl, executive director and CEO of the Permanente Medical Group. In his video which can only be viewed if you purchase the DVD from his website, he discusses the problems that beset our healthcare system and offers an explanation as to why our kind of healthcare is not applicable to the 21st century.

With over 50 million Americans uninsured, I learned that if we can just manage to set aside partisan politics and truly have our government leaders working towards creating a workable healthcare package, then everyone who needs coverage need not fret, for they too can be covered by the system. By explaining the ways that costs of healthcare can truly be achieved, we find that the broken system can actually be fixed. It is doable like he said, but it is going to be a slow, divisive, and painful change because it would mean altering a mindset that has been around since the 19th century.

I truly believe in what he discusses in the video. If only our leaders can come up with a legislative and economic climate that would truly spur medical reforms instead of hinder it, then there is no reason that our advances in information technology and scientific practices cannot produce a collaborative healthcare system that will be the envy of the world. But such a change would require our government leaders to commit to true leadership and share a vision of a future where the health of the people comes before the interests of lobbyists, special interest groups, and partisan politics.

It wont be hard to achieve the kind of healthcare that he envisions and presents to us in the video. But the problem is that laws our current healthcare laws do not allow for such hopeful and idealistic changes to take place.