Healthcare as a Commodity, Essay Example

Healthcare is a general need of the human society. It is then important that they [the people] be given the chance to have full access to the provisions of healthcare facilities that could improve the status of their health. Notably though, the current situation in the society indicates that healthcare is not considered as a commodity. This means that the control on the pricing of medicines and other medical elements still belong to the administrators owning the companies who are producing the said products for the society to consume. There are some entities in the healthcare industry controlled by the government, however a large part of the said industry still belongs to privately owned companies that are of course most often than not dependent on the desire to acquire profit. In fact, it could be realized that the pharmaceutical industries belong to the top five highest grossing industries around the globe at present.

This is the reason why some individuals belonging to the lower tier of economy cannot afford to gain the healthcare attention they need nor buy the necessary medicines they need to improve their health and practically recover from particular health issues they are dealing with. This is the reason why the indication of the need for healthcare to be classified as a commodity is being suggested. When this is pursued, it is expected that a higher degree of control on the products released by all the entities enjoined in the healthcare industries would belong to the government. This means that when times of natural calamities arise, and medications are expected to be needed by the communities, controlling the price range of common medicines could be controlled allowing the society to acquire medications they need. Nevertheless, the agreement on whether or not this should be pursued could be affected by the opinion of big companies involved in the industry such as private entities that are now making huge profit from the market. Relatively, they would need to accept that if healthcare would be classified as a commodity, then the rate of their profit would likely decrease during particular seasons of the year. This is the reason why agreement between the government and company operators in the healthcare industry should be acquired before any decision on making healthcare as a commodity is agreed upon.

Reference:

Wildes and Kaveney. Healthcare as Commodity. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1076/jmep.24.3.207.2528?journalCode=njmp20. (Retrieved June 11, 2013).