Inequalities In The Social Institute Of Medicine
Institutions meet the needs of society. It makes up and supports our society. For this essay, I chose the health and medicine institution. The social institute of medicine refers to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of illness. To be more specific, the pharmaceutical companies. There are massive inequalities in terms of access. The elderly are taken care of through Medicaid and Medicare, and the children through child health insurance programs. But what about the people in between? They seem to get left behind. These people are the ones who populate the working force. And when they get sick, it has a big effect on society.
We spend a lot of money on healthcare, but we will don’t get the outcome we desire. This happens because the money goes towards helping the people who are already sick, instead of spending money on developing preventative medicine. Being diagnosed with a serious illness can take over your life, controlling all your decisions from then on. Thus, this intuition is very critical to society. The article to catch my attention was about the Trump Administration forcing pharmaceutical companies to disclose the list price of medicines in their television ads. Under the proposed rule, companies would have to post the list price in legible text at the end of the ad. To enforce the change, CMS said it would take legal action against noncompliant companies and publish a list of their names. Those commercials have always angered me as a human being because it’s about marketing and making money. When it should be about helping the sick.
Functionalist perspective: Society’s inequities along social class, race and ethnicity, and gender lines are reproduced in our health and health care. The real harm is done to people from disadvantaged social backgrounds. Those individuals are more likely to become ill, and once they are ill, inadequate medicine prices make it very difficult for them to afford it. I may not agree with Trump most of the time, but I think this was long due. People should have the right to know how much the medication is going to cost them before talking to their doctors about taking it.
Interdependency: Good health and effective medical care are essential for the smooth functioning of society. Being ill impairs our ability to perform our roles in society. If too many individuals are unhealthy, society’s functioning and balance suffer. These absurd prices of medications are defective for our society. The prices make it harder for the ill to become healthy. In order for society to run smoothly, we need healthy individuals and sometimes whose sick individuals just need a type of medication, and whola; they are better again. But if they can’t afford it, than they don’t get better.
Functions: Recent years have witnessed an upsurge of interest in pharmaceuticals and society, a trend which in part reflects the growing power and influence of the pharmaceutical industry over all our lives, as patients, consumers and citizens.
Manifest Functions: Keep people healthy to permit other social functioning. Increase the capacity for more preventative research. Offer comfort and alleviate pain when the cure is as simple as pill. Latent Functions: Opportunities for social and economic advancement. Health institutions seen as a symbol of and practice of community values. The development of alternative innovation models that do not depend on high prices, such as patent buy outs, direct financing and not-for-profit drug development.
Consensus and Cooperation: Governments must lead the process towards a global R&D policy framework and agreements, which include new financing mechanisms to ensure that missing essential medicines are developed and made affordable. These companies get away with asking whatever price they like, but this will no longer is tolerated. As a society, we need to establish different business image. If public money is being used for the addition of new medications, there should be a genuine agreement about how the money is being invested and what the final price will be. Companies must administer full clarity regarding the costs of the research and development of these medications. With study after study demonstrating how seriously these changes are needed, there is a unique opportunity for our society to create new models to finance needed pharmaceutical innovation and allow affordable access to those innovations.
Equilibrium is the price at which the quantity demanded by consumers is equal to the quantity that's supplied by suppliers. Many brand-name originators actually increase their prices in response to generic entry. There should be a restriction of price level for brand-name drugs. Reduce the approval time and information for marketing generic drugs. I think giving information about generic drugs versus brand-name drugs could expand society’s knowledge. If the price information was given to the public, it would potentially decrease price competition and make these companies embarrassed of the price costs compared to the development and research costs.
