HUMAN RIGHTS IN US
Among the industrial nations the United States is unique in many ways. The capitalist economics of the United States that promotes free trade, private ownership, laissez faire, consumerism, individualism and claims for welfare is the source of paradoxes. It is long that commentators are criticizing the condition on the health care. The last of them is the American documentary director, Michael Moore with his fabulous "Sicko". In it he analyzes like a physician the ill health care of his country.
Pharmaceutical products are a large part of a nation's health care. Health Care, respectively, is a major component in promoting the justice, as a Human Rights credo in a society. One of the realms in which the US should manage to make reformation, thus, is the health care provisions and policies.
Health Care in US
The present feather on the US cap regarding health care are the two programs of Medicare and Medicaid which are in their own turns under criticism.
The public health care debates began somewhere around the beginning of the 20th century. During the century of efforts that would ultimately determine the fate of the condition, all American presidents were assumed to be advocates of national health care. But, as the present conditions reveal, each time there was an obstacle in the way. FDR, for example, left it high and dry lest the Social Security plan be blocked and doomed. The advent of the cold war disreputated it as the "socialized medicine". However 40s and 50s were the summits of the movement of the public health care as a more serious program. A system then, unique among industrial nations, America, in the 1950s had a health care system that was tied with employment. Of course, there were inefficiencies in such a system to those suffering low income, women, and the agrarians and workers in the remote areas.
Kennedy and Johnson, also, were advocates of the program but they were limited by the votes of the republican congress. Finally, when the congress turned to democrats, the Medicare and Medicaid programs were passed. And most disastrous was the Watergate which abandoned the promised national health care by President Nixon for another run. Then, "instead of producing medical care and related services itself, the government chose- as it usually did in America- to rely on the market. ... Government production of medical care diminished as government funding increased and health care was outsourced to private providers."(ibid: 261) Thus began the story of the private American health care.
"From 1972, to 1994, the Medical population increased from 18 to 35 million. In the same years, the costs of the program soared from $8 billion to &144 billion... and by 1980s, Medicaid often was the largest program in state budgets, and by the 1990s it cost governors six times as much as AFDC."(ibid: 262) naturally, from this point cost cutting began. Under President Reagan, the Prospective payment system decreased the radius of the umbrella. "As in the familiar master narrative of policy reform, policy makers judged their success by the lower numbers and paid little attention to the consequences for patients or clients."(ibid: 264) this led to the 20 percent decrease of Medicare during 80s. At this very historical point, the business interests began exploiting the profitable health care as a new industry. Katz says that in the 80s, the number of investors in health services was one forth of the totals.
The New Deal of President Clinton, The President Health Security Plan, was a final attempt to rescue the health care, but it failed. He observed that almost 37 employers worked without the usual employer's coverage, because they worked for small employers who didn't carry insurance. Those with insurance worried about their situation in the case of losing their jobs. The policy of the Clinton committee on the reform was not to follow the excellent model of other industrialized nations, but to create a distinguished one for the sake of uniqueness. This is known as the managing competition which is considered as the reason for the defeat of the reform.
Intellectual Property
IP, Intellectual Property, is a kind of patent regulated as the legal protection of the technological products for the companies or individuals that are the investors and inventors of it.
The issue that is the concern of this paper is the influence of such laws, and specifically, this law on the welfare consumers, people, in the United States. Data released in 2004 by the Census Bureau show that "the number of uninsured Americans stood at 45.8 million in 2004, an increase of 800,000 people over the number uninsured in 2003 (45.0 million). The percentage of people without health insurance has been 15.7 percent in 2004.
The current stated United States policy on intellectual property, whose main focus is on preserving its unparalleled strength in economic, political and military affairs, therefore raises particular concerns. That is "the United States policy, by focusing exclusively on the rights of its export industries, may lead to very restrictive interpretations of the flexibilities contained in the international agreements, to the detriment of public health needs."(Musungu & Oh: 83) On the other hand, the domestic implications of the acts and the policy should not be ignored.
Conclusion
Pharmaceutical products, is the component of the broader concern, i.e. health care system, that is vulnerable to the implementations of IP. Obviously, those poor within the range of the aforementioned middle class are the victims of such financial patents which restrict the volume, availability and therefore the price of the products. Obviously, suffering the absence of insurance, public and private, on the other hand confronting a killing expensive drug market, is afflicting the members of the middle class. Specially when regarding adding the exertion of mafia and black markets of drug appreciated by high prices and low availability. Moore show the dramatic side of the story by presenting different cases of suffering deprivation, especially the deprivation of the 9/11 fire fighters from any kind of health care coverage.
Pharmaceutical products are a large part of a nation's health care. Health Care, respectively, is a major component in promoting the justice, as a Human Rights credo in a society. One of the realms in which the US should manage to make reformation, thus, is the health care provisions and policies.
Health Care in US
The present feather on the US cap regarding health care are the two programs of Medicare and Medicaid which are in their own turns under criticism.
The public health care debates began somewhere around the beginning of the 20th century. During the century of efforts that would ultimately determine the fate of the condition, all American presidents were assumed to be advocates of national health care. But, as the present conditions reveal, each time there was an obstacle in the way. FDR, for example, left it high and dry lest the Social Security plan be blocked and doomed. The advent of the cold war disreputated it as the "socialized medicine". However 40s and 50s were the summits of the movement of the public health care as a more serious program. A system then, unique among industrial nations, America, in the 1950s had a health care system that was tied with employment. Of course, there were inefficiencies in such a system to those suffering low income, women, and the agrarians and workers in the remote areas.
Kennedy and Johnson, also, were advocates of the program but they were limited by the votes of the republican congress. Finally, when the congress turned to democrats, the Medicare and Medicaid programs were passed. And most disastrous was the Watergate which abandoned the promised national health care by President Nixon for another run. Then, "instead of producing medical care and related services itself, the government chose- as it usually did in America- to rely on the market. ... Government production of medical care diminished as government funding increased and health care was outsourced to private providers."(ibid: 261) Thus began the story of the private American health care.
"From 1972, to 1994, the Medical population increased from 18 to 35 million. In the same years, the costs of the program soared from $8 billion to &144 billion... and by 1980s, Medicaid often was the largest program in state budgets, and by the 1990s it cost governors six times as much as AFDC."(ibid: 262) naturally, from this point cost cutting began. Under President Reagan, the Prospective payment system decreased the radius of the umbrella. "As in the familiar master narrative of policy reform, policy makers judged their success by the lower numbers and paid little attention to the consequences for patients or clients."(ibid: 264) this led to the 20 percent decrease of Medicare during 80s. At this very historical point, the business interests began exploiting the profitable health care as a new industry. Katz says that in the 80s, the number of investors in health services was one forth of the totals.
The New Deal of President Clinton, The President Health Security Plan, was a final attempt to rescue the health care, but it failed. He observed that almost 37 employers worked without the usual employer's coverage, because they worked for small employers who didn't carry insurance. Those with insurance worried about their situation in the case of losing their jobs. The policy of the Clinton committee on the reform was not to follow the excellent model of other industrialized nations, but to create a distinguished one for the sake of uniqueness. This is known as the managing competition which is considered as the reason for the defeat of the reform.
Intellectual Property
IP, Intellectual Property, is a kind of patent regulated as the legal protection of the technological products for the companies or individuals that are the investors and inventors of it.
The issue that is the concern of this paper is the influence of such laws, and specifically, this law on the welfare consumers, people, in the United States. Data released in 2004 by the Census Bureau show that "the number of uninsured Americans stood at 45.8 million in 2004, an increase of 800,000 people over the number uninsured in 2003 (45.0 million). The percentage of people without health insurance has been 15.7 percent in 2004.
The current stated United States policy on intellectual property, whose main focus is on preserving its unparalleled strength in economic, political and military affairs, therefore raises particular concerns. That is "the United States policy, by focusing exclusively on the rights of its export industries, may lead to very restrictive interpretations of the flexibilities contained in the international agreements, to the detriment of public health needs."(Musungu & Oh: 83) On the other hand, the domestic implications of the acts and the policy should not be ignored.
Conclusion
Pharmaceutical products, is the component of the broader concern, i.e. health care system, that is vulnerable to the implementations of IP. Obviously, those poor within the range of the aforementioned middle class are the victims of such financial patents which restrict the volume, availability and therefore the price of the products. Obviously, suffering the absence of insurance, public and private, on the other hand confronting a killing expensive drug market, is afflicting the members of the middle class. Specially when regarding adding the exertion of mafia and black markets of drug appreciated by high prices and low availability. Moore show the dramatic side of the story by presenting different cases of suffering deprivation, especially the deprivation of the 9/11 fire fighters from any kind of health care coverage.
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