History and Overview

Imagine you are a soldier in the 16^th century. While on the battlefield, you are shot in the leg and carried to a wooden bench. Your surgeon has the same educational background as your barber, and he is attempting to remove the bullet from your leg. The pain is unbearable and there are no anesthetics available, so the nurse offers you some whiskey to drown the pain. The surgeon pours boiling water over your wound in an effort to remove any infection, unaware that this process does more harm than good. After a few unsuccessful tries to remove the bullet, he decides amputation is the only option, and in a few gruesome minuets later your right leg is completely gone.

Now imagine you are solider in Iraq in 2010 with the same gunshot injury. You are carried to a chemical and biologic protective shelter and immediately given anesthesia. Your trained and licensed doctor takes a radiograph of your leg to see where the bullet is, and it is quickly and painlessly removed using a bacteria-free technique. Because of the technology that was available to you, in just a few months you are walking again.¹

The growth of medical advancements in the last couple hundred years is astounding. Mostly because of new technological advancements, the life expectancy in America has grown from 41 in 1900 to 77 in 2010.² This had been made possible by improvements in drugs that can stabilize chronic conditions, vaccines that can eliminate potential epidemics, and machines that can provide doctors with valuable information on how to cure a disease. We feel that when it comes to health care reform, advancements in health care technology should not be compromised in order to reduce health care costs.

Improvements in health care technology definitely do come with a large cost. According to Delivering Healthcare in America: A Systems Approach, technological innovations are the leading cause of medical cost inflation in the 2^nd half of the 20^th century.³ In 20 years, the total cost of our nation’s medical care has increased from less than $50 billion to over $500 billion.⁴ Much of this cost increase is due to advancements in technology. When new technology is implemented in a hospital, many costs come along with this including trained professionals, new facilities, and an increased demand from both consumer and providers to use the technology.

We feel that instead of concentrating only on the huge price tag that comes along with new technology, one must also consider the value of medical advancements. The impact on quality of care that comes along with a better diagnosis, faster cures, and preventative care is astounding.⁵ Many American’s agree with us that the quality of care received because of advancements in technology is worth the cost. According to a random telephone pole, 63 percent of Americans agreed that they are willing to pay a modest tax increase in order to fund medical research.³

Although technology has opened many doors in the medical field, millions of people do not have access to the improved quality of care. This may be because they live in a geographically remote area or simply because they lack health insurance.³ According to an article written at Santa Clare University, over 37 million Americans, including 12 million children, do not have any health insurance at all and therefore are at a disadvantage to take advantage of technological advancements that could improve the quality or even save their life.⁴ This article brings up a lot of examples of the ethical dilemmas that come along with the fact that not all Americans have access to health care.

Certainly, high-tech health care is an inflator of health care costs. At the same time, we feel that providers can make investment decisions based on their community’s best interest by using technology appropriately. The quality of health care that is possible because of technological growths is something that should be of value to all Americans, and going along with this we want to ensure that all American’s have access to any technology that will improve their quality of life. When considering options for health care reform, it is essential that enough money is allocated to cover technology in the medical field.

Works Cited

1. 1. Peoples, George. The New England Journal of Medicine. “Caring for the Wounded in Iraq.” 2004.

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/351/24/2476

2.2 2. Life Expectancy. World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2010. http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wbwdi&met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=life+expectancy+trends

3. 3. Shi, Leiyu, and Douglas A. Singh. Delivering Health Care in America A Systems Approach. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett, 2007. Print.

4. 4. Unhealthy Delimas. The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics. 2008.

5. 5. Frank, Ryan. “Medical Technology and 5 Significant Advancements.” http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=1717059

Beliefs & Values

According to a white house affiliated website, the United States spent approximately $2.2 trillion on health care in the year of 2007, which comes out to $7,421 per person¹. This is nearly twice the average of other developing nations across the globe. The Congressional Budget office estimates that at this rate, by 2025 one of every four dollars of our economy will be “tied up” in the health care system. Obviously, there needs to be a change. We feel that the democrat views are most similar to our own. We value the quality of technology available, equality among everyone who wants to use it, and accessibility for everyone as well.

We, along with many other Americans have high expectations about what medical technology can do for curing diseases and other sicknesses. According to Shi and Singh’s textbook, “Delivering Health Care in America”, 35 percent of Americans believe it is essential to have access to the most advanced tests, drugs, and medical procedures². We believe that our nation needs to focus more on primary care and preventive services rather than specialty care. The nation’s expectations of doctors and patients are very high when it comes to use and availability of all technology. We are against supply-side rationing, and we believe that this would not be the correct solution to the problems our nation is facing with health care. This would only lead to longer waits and lower level of access among everyone. In some countries, people have to wait ten weeks for an MRI or four weeks for a CT scan. These tests are sometimes crucial for diagnosis and essential to know the results immediately. The long waits would result in more deaths.

The quality of our technology needs to continue. Technology continues to offer “improved remedies that are more effective, less invasive, or safer². It was estimated that $2.5 trillion are wasted each year on the duplication of tests and unnecessary procedures. That statistic is absurd and should not even be a concern. We believe that records for all patients across the nation should be networked electronically. This would make health care more proficient and “provide valuable insights about costs and care”³. It would save tens of billions of dollars each year from reduced paper work and much quicker communication.

Access is also an issue. We value equality and accessibility. Our third and final belief is that everyone should be able to use the best technology if it is out there, despite any financial circumstances. Geographic access can be further improved by providing mobile equipment for communities that lack the necessary tools allowing new technology to be available to more people².

Some believe that the topic of technology is being over relied on as a solution to health care problems. They believe that if we focus too much on the technology aspect it would affect the quality of care that patients receive. “Efforts to find a quick technological fix will likely run up against cultural challenges”³. However, we believe that if the technology is effectively used, it will enhance the present health care system and will lead to substantial savings and improvements in the quality of care that one can receive. Robert O’Harrow Jr., a Washington Post staff writer has done an incredible job at analyzing how technology can be used to enhance our nation’s health care system from all points of view.

Advancements in technology have the potential to save billions of dollars; however, if not controlled correctly it could possibly drive health care costs higher. Technology has huge impact on the delivery of health care. It has influenced the quality of care that people receive and access of new technology in remote areas has been improved as well.

REFERENCES

1. “Health Care”. The White House. Accessed February 13, 2009. http://www.whitehouse.gov/Issues/health-Care

2. Shi, Leiyu, and Douglas A. Singh. Delivering Health Care in America A Systems Approach. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett, 2007. Print.

3. O’Harrow Jr., Robert. “The Machinery Behind Health-Care Reform”. Washington Post. Accessed February 13, 2009.
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