NR502 Module 8 Discussion 2018
Please reflect upon this dilemma: How should this country
address the problem of the approximately 47 million uninsured or underinsured
Americans?
What is society’s obligation to ensure access to a basic
level of health care for all its citizens and how can it be accomplished?
Should health care be a basic individual right just as is
education, police protection, and legal counsel? Why does the United States
consider health care an open market commodity when all other developed
countries guarantee their citizens some basic level of health care?
OR
The wisdom of depending on International Medical School
Graduates (IMGs) to fill gaps in physician supply, while US medical schools
hold class size constant, is questionable. In addition, the aging of the
physician workforce, the decreasing hours worked by both physicians in practice
and physicians in residency, and a 20 percent reduction in the effort of the
increasing proportion of female physicians, will result in a significant
decrease in the “effective” supply of physicians. Should the gap be filled by a
major substitution of nurse practitioners, physician assistants, chiropractors,
acupuncturists, and others, or are there alternatives?