subject: Who Should Be Required To Contribute Toward The Costs Of Providing Health Care In A Society [print this page] Your medical practice management is at risk these days, by standardized healthcare requirements, encroaching healthcare reform, and insurance mandates. It brings up important ethical, moral and legal questions for the average practitioner. Starting a medical practice, for instance, makes one have to consider the question: Who should be required to contribute toward the costs of providing health care in society? Your medical practice marketing, advertising and operation can depend on your answers. Try to stay neutral before you do serious research. There are many good points to be made on either side of the debate, and it would behoove you to familiarize yourself with as many opinions as possible before you commit your medical practice management to either side. Do your research, stay open-minded, and when it is time to commit to a marketing and advertising budget for your healthcare practice, stay Switzerland as far as your personal opinion goes.
Employing over 14 million people, todays medical practice is comprised of 77% of Americans who consider health care as a right. The rest argue that it is not the responsibility of the American government to guarantee heath coverage for its citizens. With more than 47 million people not covered by insurance, opening a medical practice can seem like a risky proposition at best. Your healthcare advertising and healthcare marketing budgets cannot display any ambivalence towards this topic, and you probably have strong feelings in either direction, but decide upon a position of neutrality before you commit serious dollars towards your medical practice management, healthcare advertising, and healthcare marketing budgets. Opening a medical practice with the attitude that people should carry their own water with regards to medical expenses, and the aggressive healthcare plan can leave you vulnerable.
The pros and cons are strong. One side says that Americans have the Constitutional right to life and that the Constitution clearly states, promote the general welfare. Cons say that while the Constitution guarantees the right to pursue happiness, and it promote(s) the general welfare, it is not incumbent upon United States medical practices to provide it. There are the proponents of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights which promotes the idea that "everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of oneself and one's family, including... medical care."
There are many sides to this argument, all of which are worth considering. What it means to your bottom line however, is that you may have to seriously think about how you will spend your healthcare advertising dollars, and your medical marketing money. Will you promote quality care despite healthcare coverage or lack thereof? Will you spend a large portion of your medical practice management time in how much you are willing to risk your bottom line in order to give continual high levels of care despite potential cutbacks in insurance coverage? Will you even go as far as to reconsider even opening a medical practice given the changes looming on the horizon? Only you can decide.
