Now and Then: The Development of My Views in the Health Care Debate

The process that I have gone through in gathering and analyzing information on the United States health care system has helped me to form views on the topic. Initial ideas were altered, built on, or lost in this process to help my knowledge and understanding on the topic to grow. At the end of my research the views that I now have are a result of continually seeking new information and relating back to my original thoughts. Interactions with my class mates and other bloggers who are interested in the topic of universal health care has helped me to question my way of thinking and make sure not to overlook the details of my analysis. The questions that were brought up also made me take into question the sources of my information. The product of this work is an established opinion of my thoughts on the American health care system and the adjustments that could be made to improve it.

In the twenty-first century the internet has become a valuable resource for research. It is hard to use internet research in evolving an idea; however, because of the rarity of reliable sources, the abundance of information, and the bias that writers display. My goal in formulating my own opinions was to avoid letting writer's bias affect what I think, so as to base my thoughts on the facts. Sources of bias that i found were blogs like Radical Health Care Reform, which uses sarcasm to deliberately push one side of the argument. As weak spots in my argument were pointed out I worked to reinforce them with concrete evidence. Learning about the new ideas that have developed surrounding the issue of health care in the U.S. is another interesting aspect that comes with researching a topic. While I was deciding how I think that the health care system should be altered I gathered ideas from the proposals of others like, California One Care. The spectrum of attitudes that surround the debate include those held by citizens, doctors, government officials, employers, and providers. To better understand the needs of each group and why they hold their positions I have analyzed the situations that each is faced with in the debate, and how they effect each other individually. One of the reasons that health care is capable of being a binary public issue is in the number of groups that are involved int the debate in varying ways. Change Now 4 Health provides an outline of the majority of these groups in their promotion of a "come together" attitude.

The growing amount of Americans who have concern about the health care issue shows how perspective and understanding changes over time with need. An increasing amount of Americans need health insurance and therefore the importance of finding a way to provide it is becoming more popular in the media. The recent airing of a film by Michael Moore titled Sicko has played an active role in bringing the health care debate into the media. A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows how Americans rank the importance of revamping the American health care system as of 2004. A gain of knowledge will always impact an individual's way of thinking whether it acts to enforce original beliefs or to calls for acceptance of new ones.

The knowledge that I gained about health care in America and the topics surrounding the health care debate have helped me to alter my personal opinions. I started out with the general idea that universal health care sounded good; it provides health care to everyone and it is a logical system to use based on the number of other countries that have established it. I am still in support of universal health care to an extent, but the information that I have now has helped me to make my position more specific. The right to receive health care in my opinion should be given to all Americans, regardless of economic status. In effect to pay for a system that can handle the costs of such a system I think that taxes should be raised a minimal amount with a cap that would prevent an extensive strain on wealthy citizens. This idea for tax increase I found in the California One Care site. Taking the profit market out of health care at some level would also help to decrease costs of health care for citizens. The reason that I say "some level" is that I still believe doctors and researchers will need incentive to find ways to increase productivity and quality. I think that the plan presented by John Edwards to have a government regulation on prices would be one possible way to help make the change. Truthfully the American health insurance industry could be avoided completely to increase the efficiency of health care. I realize that this would be a dramatic step in reform, but it would decrease costs and hassles of paper work and payments. As I discussed before the payments made to insurance companies that families would save as a result of universal health care would give citizens more coverage by enacting affordable costs. I don't think that such a large step of change is rational to consider so a compromise should be made. One site that takes a similar economic stance on the debate is called Execs Tout Universal Coverage. I believe that the process, which has produced my stance in this debate, was successful by taking a broad idea and narrowing it down.

The process of understanding that occurs over time allows opinions to change. I now understand the details of the health care argument through the research I have done to produce this blog. While researching aspects of health care I also found that my opinions on related issues were effected. In topics like stem cell research where many make an emotional appeal of whether it's supporting killing I find myself looking at the logistics of the situation instead. One source that helped me to become aware of this change was Potential for Life x2 .

Finding away to fix the American health care system is an important issue to me. Its outcome will affect the lives of millions of people including myself in a way that is beyond measure. The time it takes for an issue to take hold and for change to occur is arduous. For many years organizations have been trying to initiate a spark that would cause change in the health care system, and now the outcome seems to be quickly approaching as many presidential candidates are calling for reforms. With so much at stake it seems impractical not to be concerned with what will come of the universal health care debate.