Resolutionism: Universal Healthcare, by Aaron Nordquist
HEALTHCARE
In Resolutionism, we want to provide Universal Healthcare to all people, for the sake of everybody’s well-being. Healthcare is a social issue as well as a biological issue. Historically, healthcare was a family concern, but it is now the responsibility of trained specialists who work in these institutions.
Through most of our human history, health has been poor by today’s standards, but improved dramatically in Western Europe and North America in the 19th Century. In the 20th Century, life expectancy the world over, raised considerably, especially in low income countries. However, in much of Latin America, Asia, and especially in Africa, hundreds of millions of people lack adequate food, water, safety, and much needed medical attention.
Poor health conditions in most low-income countries is underlined by inadequate sanitation and hunger. Average life expectancy in some of those low-income countries is still about 20 years less than people here in Canada, and in the poorest nations of the world, half of the children do not even survive to adulthood.
Before we go on, I think we should go over a few quick definitions. Health, similar to weather, fortune, or time, may be either good or bad. It refers to the general condition of the body or mind, especially in terms of the presence or absence of illnesses, injuries, or impairments, and the overall general condition of someone, in terms of completeness, vitality, and proper functioning.
Health can be hard to define, because individuals variously define their own healthiness. For example, a seemingly physically fit person, may be depressed. Let’s say a professional hockey player, for example, can seem healthy on the outside, and may be might be in great physical shape, for skating up and down the ice for an hour and a half, but may be psychologically addicted to alcohol, and this can create other problems. Some people may be in great physical and mental shape, but they have allergies, which are unusual sensitivities to a normally harmless substance that provokes a strong reaction from a person's body.
There are people who are too fat and too skinny by choice. We have people who eat unhealthy foods, and have an excess of fat on their bodies, making them unhealthy. We also have people who believe they are too fat, and they choose not to eat, so they have too little fat on their bodies, making them unhealthy as well. But they are both healthier than the people in other countries who have no food at all, and face still worse challenges like poor sanitation, and no clean water.
Health can change sporadically, such as in the case of a cold or a flu; diseases that appear in scattered or isolated instances or locations, and because of this, people can define health in terms of the presence or absence of illnesses, injuries, or impairments that may make life more difficult. So, perhaps the best definition of health would be the extent of an individual’s continuing physical, emotional, mental, and social ability to cope with their environment, and all the stresses within it. Health care refers to the provision of medical and related services, aimed at maintaining good health, especially through the prevention and treatment of disease.
HEALTHCARE IN HISTORY
Public health and safety has always been one of the first and most important objectives of governments and law. In even the most ancient of cultures, some public health initiatives were used. For example, many ancient cultures understood that it is easier to protect the healthy, by isolating or destroying the diseased. In addition to the isolation of the sick, principles of hygiene and sanitation were developed by many hunter-gatherer societies. It became a matter of public concern to control diseases without further contamination, and soon the idea was forged, to establish a system, which would keep the individuals in a society healthy, in order to keep the society healthy as a whole.
The Greeks were the first to document the relationship between environmental factors and disease, and helped sustain the theory of disease for 2000 years with the Hippocratic Collection. The Hippocratic Oath is doctor's promise to uphold medical standards, traditionally taken by newly graduated physicians, to observe the ethical standards of their profession, specifically to seek to preserve life. It was named after Hippocrates, who was the supposed author of such an oath.
The Romans, in the 2nd Century CE, instituted one of the very first public medical services. They built sewer systems, public baths, and engineered the 14 great aqueducts. They also built the first hospitals, and codified and administered health laws. The world is greatly indebted to the Greeks for principles of personal hygiene, and to the Romans for the development of public sanitation, but what you might not know, is that there are records of elaborate programs in even more ancient times. Around 4000 BCE, building codes were in effect, that used advanced sanitation engineering, in what are now the ruins of a community in the Indus Valley, in Punjab. Egyptian ruins dating from 2100-1700 BCE, included bathroom facilities and sewage systems, as did the Incas, all the way over in the new world.
Upon the disintegration of the Roman empire, there came a general decline of all urban culture, and with it went the many public health measures. Thankfully, Greco-Roman medical knowledge survived when it moved east, spreading to the Arab world, while in the west, health concerns, and many other matters and problems were still dealt with in terms of magic or religion.
During medieval times, there were a large number of plagues. Plagues are diseases that can spread rapidly through a population, killing a great many people. Some of these plagues were leprosy, small pox, measles, influenza, and of course the “Black Death.” Urban dwellers of this time period lived in constant fear of epidemics. To fight the disease, they used the old methods of isolation. When leprosy started to reach very serious proportions in the 13th and 14th Centuries, quarantine laws were rigidly enforced. The number of Leproseums (where the sick people were sent) exceeded 19,000 in all of Europe. The fight against the disease still wasn’t being won with isolation alone, and finally hospitals were built, to start treating the patients. In England, in the 15th century, 720 hospitals were established, and the fight changed, from attacking the disease, to the fight for public health.
Near the end of the middle ages, medicine and public health started falling under governmental control, so that regulations could be made to, for example, protect the water from pollution, have street cleaning, and garbage disposal, and these things started to become widespread across many parts of Europe. The industrial revolution saw a tremendous increase of urban population, and conditions again started to ebb, especially in the manufacturing areas. In the 1760’s, London tried to clean up some of the slum conditions by replacing old wooden buildings with brick, the streets were drained, paved, and lighted, and these methods were also repeated by cities throughout Europe, and later all of the western world.
By the beginning of the 18th Century, the interrelationships between poverty, and disease, and environment, and crime, had become apparent. To these rationalist people of the “Age of Reason,” a scientific approach to social problems would provide solutions. Their approach began as the gathering of statistics. Statisticians, physicians, scientists, and economists, worked together to form the first investigations into the health, safety, and the welfare of the people, and urged the need for these vital statistics. Sweden was the first country to require nation-wide gathering and reporting of vital statistics, legislation having been passed in 1748. In England, the first national census took place in 1801, and in the U.S., the first important study into public heath took place in 1845. The first state health department in the U.S., was founded in Massachusetts in 1869.
Almost all of the health, safety and welfare laws that were passed in the 19th and in the first half of the 20th Century (which were many), were based on those factual statistical reports. Soon all kinds of legislation would be passed, to make and enforce public health and safety laws. Both France and Germany became very committed to the proposition that government had a positive duty to promote health, and soon they both created a national health authority to coordinate health matters within their countries. Germany provided much inspiration, and established the model for subsequent social legislation elsewhere in Europe, which also spread to North America.
The latter half of the 20th Century saw great improvements in the technologies, medicines, and public access to health care, although it happened to take two world wars first to get it. The following map shows a global comparison of the number of doctors per 100,000 people for each nation.
In 1948, the British had been virtually devastated by WWII, they had lost more than 40,000 civilians, and they were almost completely destroyed and bankrupt in the aftermath of the terrible attacks upon their cities. To pull themselves together and make their country strong again, one of the first things they did was to provide free medical care for everyone. A leaflet was sent out in 1948, which told the people that Universal Medicare was here to help. It read: “Your new National Health Service begins on the 5th of July. What is it? How do you get it? It will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone, rich or poor, man, woman or child, can use it or any part of it. There are no charges, except for a few specialty items. There is no insurance qualifications but it is not a charity. You are paying for it mainly as tax-payers and it will relieve your money worries in times of illness.”
UNIVERSAL MEDICINE
What’s more, after WWII, the United Nations formed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, also in 1948. It declared that: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of themselves and their family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care.” This is a vision that, of course, has not yet fully been achieved, but after this declaration, many nations, particularly in Europe, were on their way to establishing their own programs of widespread or Universal Medicare.
Today, many nations in Europe have some of the best healthcare systems in the world, as we can see from this list. Many areas in the Middle East also have quite improved health care systems. Of course, this list is 10 years old, and several of these ranks have changed over the last few years, but in general, the list has remained pretty much the same. Some countries have moved up in the ranks, and some countries stayed where they are, while others have become worse.
I feel that I must go deeper into the timeline of Universal Medicine, especially in North America, because, as you can see, our systems need more work than we think. In fact, both Canada and the United States’ healthcare systems have gotten worse in the ranks since this list was made.
Canadians pride themselves in their healthcare system. It is as much a national symbol as the maple leaf, or the good old hockey game. But as you can see, we ranked number 30 on this list. If you are confused about why our ranking is so low on the scale, don’t worry, I will explain everything shortly. Of the United States, I need only be brief. They are the only G8 nation without universal healthcare coverage. Their system is based on HMO’s (health maintenance organizations), which are healthcare organizations, whose members pay fees and receive medical care from participating physicians, hospitals, and other providers. These payments go to health insurance companies, who are supposed to cover the costs or losses incurred if an insured person falls ill. However, many people can not afford the insurance, and therefore they receive no treatment. When desperate, some people become “health tourists” and visit other countries (Canada is one of those countries), specifically to benefit from the medical services available there, often because they are cheaper than at home. Others die. The United States also boasts that they have one of the best health care systems in the world, however, as you can see, it is ranked at number 37.
“Socialized Medicine” is a negative term in the US, used for any healthcare system which is subsidized by the government. This began after WWII, when American anti-“socialist” and anti-“commie” propaganda was employed all over the United States. The fear began to spread. They told everyone that any system of national health care, that would provide medical care to all, and is regulated and subsidized by the government would not work, does not work, and will not work, at least not as well as the private system. The “powers that be,” in the United States, do not want a system of national healthcare that would provide medical care to all, because there’s no money in it. They don’t want it, because they are making too much money off of the sick and the unhealthy.
However, as I said, because of the stigma that was put on anything “socialized,” a shame or disgrace was attached to socialized medicine, and it was regarded as socially unacceptable. That stigma carried into Canadian society, and for a time we were skeptical of socialized medicine too, even though Canada’s system of public medicare could be dated back to 1884 with the Public Health Act, which required health boards and sanitary regulations at the local medical level. In 1919, Mackenzie King introduced the idea of universal medicare, as part of his Liberal Party platform.
In 1961, the Province of Saskatchewan developed universal health coverage, and a Supreme Court Justice named Emmett Hall, implemented the first comprehensive medical law that gave universal coverage to all Canadians. 11 years later, in 1972, all provinces became part of one federal program, under the guidance of recently heralded, “Canada’s Most Important Figure,” Tommy Douglas. In Canada, we have a government health insurance system which is funded by a tax levy in each province, and the citizens can benefit from all medical emergency treatment, as well as the provision of some basic related services aimed at maintaining good health, especially through the treatment of illness.
According to Douglas, the first phase of universal healthcare is to remove the financial barrier to medicare. The second phase focused on altering the delivery system of medicare, offering preventative care and medicine, and researching and developing the determinates of health. Canada got the first phase under control in the 70’s, but phase two has struggled to get off the ground. On May 3rd, 2008, a meeting was held in Regina, which talked about the Tommy Douglas vision on the future of healthcare in Canada, and they brought up many interesting ways for us to look forward.
“SICK CARE”
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Me too. I want to be healthy. But here in Canada and in the United States, our healthcare systems are actually more like “sick care systems.” If you’re in an emergency, you can receive medical treatment. If you’re sick you can go see a doctor. If you break a bone, you can get a cast to heal the break, and so on…but, this is a sick care system. You only get looked at, if something is wrong. In the States, of course it’s much worse, you only get looked at, if you can afford it.
Being 30th on the list, it seems that Canada has a lot of improvements to make if they are to have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, or even to be in the running. Right now, as I said before, our healthcare system is getting worse. In a 2005 survey, it was concluded that Canada’s doctor/patient ratio is the worst of all the G8 countries. In fact, a documentary called Desperately Seeking Doctors outlined that we need about 26,000 doctors to be considered average. It is estimated that over 5 million Canadians have no family doctor, partly because of the current problem of doctors moving away from Canada. 1 out of 9 Canadian doctors move to the U.S. to become wealthier doctors. And it’s not all that hard to imagine, since the average physician right out of university can easily owe over $150,000 in student loans.
PRIVATIZATION
On top of that, some politicians and economists talk of privatization of the healthcare system, which would take public heath out of governmental control, transferring it to the private realm, where health can become an economic enterprise. They say that this will help speed up wait times, which in Canada, has developed a stigma as well. A lot of people think that Canada’s wait times are really terrible, although studies can now prove that Canada‘s wait times are as long as any other nation, even the United States, which boasts the shortest time waiting for treatment. The fact is, wait times are variable, and every country is vulnerable to long wait times.
Another part of the reasoning behind the support for privatization, is that people who can afford faster treatment, should be able to access it. The argument is that someone with a lot of money, shouldn’t have to wait for treatment behind a person with little money. Well, in a private system, such as the American way, a person with a lot of money might still have to wait for treatment behind another person with even more money, and the people with little money do not receive any treatment at all. So, the idea of a two tier system has come into play. This means that we would employ the use of a public, and a private healthcare system. This basically boils down to a system in which we would have a private hospital, that should be able to admit the wealthy patient, and a public hospital that should be able to admit the underprivileged patient.
Well, my answer to this argument is this: We already have a two tier system. Any Canadian can go to the United States to receive medical treatment if they can afford it. Do we see a lot of that happening? No, not a lot. Why not? Most of the population of Canada lives within a short driving distance to the United States, and the wealthy could easily afford the trip, and perhaps they can even afford to get the treatment, so why don’t we just do that? The answer is, because Canadians don’t want a two tier or a private system looking after their health. Canadians, rich or poor, do not want to pay hundreds of dollars, or hundreds of thousands of dollars, for medical treatment.
The idea of privatization comes from the capitalist side of the debate, which suggests that healthcare should be part of a free market economy, where companies and organizations are not owned or controlled by the government. All that we have just talked about in the last few pages, was about governmental departments that are responsible for protecting the health and safety of the people. Privatization is a step backwards.
Now, just to reiterate my point here, which is obviously, that more governmental management over healthcare is what we need; I’ll try to make a clear point, that everyone should recognize. Even all of you privatization supporters should recognize this as well. To make this point clear, we need to take a quick look at the military. The military has offered free healthcare services for their soldiers for centuries. In fact, almost every single military unit has always had some kind of medical section. This is not so difficult to understand. These healthcare services are available to the soldiers, to patch up their wounds, keeping them healthy, so that they can go back out there and keep fighting. Most would see that this logical.
Well, since that logic is clear, the same should be true for all members of society. If we can keep some members of the society healthy, for our protection, couldn’t we keep other members of society healthy for other reasons? For our economy to be strong, we need consumers. If people are sick, they can’t go out and buy things. Sick people are going to stay at home, or they get put in a hospital where they are isolated. If we can keep some members of society healthy, to go overseas and fight wars, can’t we keep members of society healthy at home? Don’t we want our citizens to be healthy, so that they can be productive members of the community?
Furthermore, the military also uses a strategy of mass recruitment of soldiers in a time of need. Well, if we can do that for the military; if we can draft people to go off to some other country to kill people; why can’t we get everyone together to stay home, to save people in their own country. If we can recruit soldiers in time of need, then why can’t we recruit doctors, or nurses, in the same way? Why can’t we do the same for teachers, or plumbers, or electricians, or whatever? Well, we can. These are the things we need.
PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE
Some of the other places in the world, that are higher up in the ranks on the list, have much more coverage than simply “sick care.” They have a great deal of preventative medicine, which is anything that stops something undesirable from happening, especially something that protects against illnesses before they become a bigger problem. These countries offer other free or subsidized services, such as dental care, and pharmacare. In France, to make sure that you are not over-worked, people work only 35 hr. weeks, and any more hours than that are logged so that you can take extra time off when you want to. They also get 5 weeks of paid vacation a year. 2 more weeks for a wedding and honeymoon if you get married that year! New mothers can get a nanny service to help with the cooking, cleaning, and laundry etc. to help them relieve parents’ tensions. If you are moving, you can get a paid day off to do so! …The list goes on, all to help relieve the money worries that people might have during those stressful times. Well, if they can do it over there, why can’t we have those things here in Canada? Why not all over the world? It’s not impossible if it’s being done. It’s not some crazy out of this world idea if it is being done. It’s not reaching for the stars, if other post industrial nations of comparable wealth and status are doing it. We can make those things happen here, and everywhere else on Earth.
Although some conditions may have gotten worse for us here in Canada, we are still much better off than people in other countries. In the past half century, the number of physicians in the primary health field has increased, and become nearly widespread. However, there is much work needed to be done relating to, affecting, or accepted by the whole world. More than 60 years ago, the world’s governments declared that health was a fundamental human right “without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.” The World Health Organization was formed as a specialized agency of the United Nations that helps countries to improve their health services and coordinates international action against diseases. 30 years ago in Alma Ata, the world’s governments called for “health for all” by 2000. Obviously, we didn’t reach either target yet, but through the expansion of access to primary health facilities and services, and the construction of access to secondary and tertiary healthcare, all over the globe, then we could have Universal Healthcare for the whole world.
THE SOLUTION
Global Healthcare can be achieved, and we can do so at relatively low cost. Here I will show you how. There are 3 sectors of this Global Healthcare system, and within it are many separate and individual parts which collaborate and synchronize their efforts to form a more perfect healthcare system that all citizens of Earth will be able to use. First let’s look at some definitions.
Primary health care is the level of care service at which essential, emergency, or basic treatment is available to a patient who is evaluated and treated by health professionals, such as doctors or nurses, or, if necessary, a number of different kinds of specialists. Primary health also includes any emergency response systems such as police, fire, and ambulance, and includes any hospitals, clinics, family doctors or general practitioners. Many countries employ the primary healthcare system as we could see from the previous map. Resolutionism will expand Primary health care coverage to all nations on Earth.
Secondary health care is the level of care at which follow-on or additional treatment is available to a patient who is evaluated and treated by a number of different specialists who continue or resume a course of action directed at prolonging or extending a person’s health. This level of healthcare coverage is used in only a few nations, and includes preventative medicine, pharmaceutical care, optometry, dental, and other kinds of physical therapies that are beneficial such as physiotherapy, massage therapy, and chiropractics. Secondary medicine also covers many goods and services such as crutches, wheel chairs, etc.. Resolutionism will extend Secondary health care coverage to all nations which currently have Primary status, and all nations will soon have this kind of care available to them as well.
Tertiary health care is the level of care at which care or treatment is provided by many different social service specialists who continue or resume a course of action directed at prolonging or extending a person’s health in an institution specializing in a particular branch or part of a large area of study that is related to health and medicine. Tertiary health includes social services such as welfare, education, life insurance, and pension plans. As we mentioned earlier, this area of healthcare coverage also includes psychiatry, a field of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of disorders that have primarily mental or behavioural symptoms. All people will be able to see a psychiatrist. In Resolutionism Tertiary health care coverage will be granted to every one of the citizens of the nations of the world.
20 Simple steps to accomplish Global Healthcare
Primary
1.) High-income countries should honour their commitments to world-wide health, by devoting at least 0.1% of their gross domestic product (GDP) to low-income countries to boost their systems of primary health coverage. This percentage is virtually indiscernible, in terms of cost, to the high-income countries, but this could be monolithic in proportion to those who receive it. Some of these rich countries, with a GDP of over $35 trillion, could easily do without a couple of billion a year, for a few years, and combined, that money would help build primary health facilities, and deliver medical services, to the over one billion people around the world who are in critical need of them.
2.) Low-income countries should devote as much as they can, but the numbers should be at least 15% of their own national budgets, towards their own national health systems. This amount is attainable for most of these countries, especially if they were to shift their spending habits from war to health. Keep in mind though, that the average income of a person living in these countries is about $300 per year, which means that they have a very low GDP, but with the extra funding from high-income countries, they too can have a top-notch health system. Most importantly though, is that these countries learn how to build and maintain these systems for themselves.
3.) High and middle-income countries that want to open their hearts a little more, those who feel they can spend a little more than the bare minimum of 0.1% on global healthcare, can donate more money if they wish, and their help will be highly praised and welcomed. This money will go into Global Fund, to lend a hand, and keep saving millions of people, as they have done before.
Secondary
4.) AIDS: Rich nations should follow through on their long-standing commitment to the fight against AIDS, and in particular, they should ensure access to anti retroviral treatment for all HIV infected individuals by 2015. AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), is a disease of the immune system which is caused by infection with the retrovirus HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which destroys some types of white blood cells, and is transmitted through blood or bodily secretions such as semen. Patients lose the ability to fight other infections, and may show signs of greater symptoms, such as severe cognitive impairment, degeneration of motor nerves and the spinal cord, reduced intestinal strength, extreme involuntary weight loss, dehydration, fever, and severe irreparable memory loss and disorientation resulting from widespread damage to brain cells, especially in people affected by untreated AIDS during its late stages. The common misconception that most people have, is that nothing can be done about it. However, anti retroviral treatment is effective against retroviruses such as HIV, and can, in fact, do a great deal for patients. It is the closest thing we have to a cure, so far.
5.) Malaria: To bring malaria mortality rates nearly to zero by 2015, the world will have to develop a comprehensive plan to deliver the appropriate amounts of effective medicines for when malaria illness arises, to all areas of the world, but first and most importantly, to those places which need it the most. Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite, that is transmitted by mosquitoes. It causes disease in approximately 500 million people every year, and is the cause of between one and three million deaths annually, mostly young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Africa, it is the largest single cause of death of children less than 5 years of age. Pregnant women are also especially vulnerable. They say that every 30 seconds another child dies of malaria. Without much needed action, the death rate is expected to double in the next 20 years. Global fund has already sent out 30 million anti-malaria bet-nets, which has saved many lives. To continue saving lives, we must offer more access to better anti-malaria bed nets all around the world, and we must be able to provide both outdoor and indoor spraying where appropriate.
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes bite at night while people are sleeping. A bed-net is a simple way to prevent malaria infection, providing a physical barrier for mosquitoes. It reduces the chances of being bitten by mosquitoes. These nets are often coated with a mild insecticide, so that mosquitoes are killed on contact. Insecticide-treated mosquito bed-nets have proven to cut the death rate of malaria by up to 50%. 1 net can save the life of a child. 1 net costs only $10. “Spread the Net” is a Canadian partnership with UNICEF to provide these bed-nets for many people that need them. Their goal was to send 500,000 bed nets by 2010. To purchase a bed-net, or to learn more, visit http://www.spreadthenet.org/
6.) Tuberculosis: TB is an infectious disease that causes small rounded swellings, called tubercles, to form on mucous membranes. Especially dangerous is a pulmonary tuberculosis that affects the lungs. This is another area of medicine where known and long-proved interventions are highly effective, but chronically under funded. Antituberculosis medicines are very successful against tuberculosis, and Global Fund has already cured over 2 million people. The world needs to fill in the financing gap of an easily affordable $2 billion a year. Think of all the lives we could save.
Tertiary
7.) Reproductive Services: For only $1 billion a year, the world could and should provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services to the poorest of the poor. These services include family planning, which is an approach of using of various birth control methods to help people choose the number and timing of children born into a family. This can be done with contraception, which is the prevention of pregnancy using artificial methods, such as condoms and birth-control pills, or natural methods, such as avoiding sex during the woman's known fertile periods. These measures would also slow, rather than accelerate population growth, thereby easing economic and environmental strains on those regions. Furthermore, we need to make sure that there is better obstetrical care, or the branch of medicine that deals with the care of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and for some six weeks following delivery. This will help reduce the number of deaths in children during the first year of life, otherwise known as the infant mortality rate, and families will be able to decrease their size.
Primary
8.) Tropical Diseases: For roughly $500 million a year, the world could and should effectively control several tropical diseases. For example, we can treat people in order to prevent or remove infestations of parasitic worm infections, which occur virtually in the same zones where malaria is raging.
9.) Construction and Training: The world could easily afford $500 million a year to help bolster primary health care, by, most importantly, opening up a new economic mechanism called “Building Blocks,” which would essentially set up a fund that would allow for more construction of hospitals, clinics, and other health facilities, and the hiring and training of doctors, nurses, and community health workers, to be made available all over the world. As we discussed earlier, there is a shortage of doctors here in Canada, and elsewhere around the world. To help with this problem, communities, nations, and the world as a whole, needs to offer better incentives, so that more people decide to be doctors, and so that more doctors will move to your community to practice medicine.
The following are few tips to help recruit physicians.
1.) We have to start being more persuasive to students, as young as people in junior high-schools, to join a medical profession. Many children want to be doctors or nurses when they grow up, but they soon start to become wary of any occupation which requires such extensive education or specialized training. We must do all that we can to offer assistance to those children who are interested in becoming a trained health professional, and encourage others to become interested as well.
2.) We also have to make sure that the physicians are well looked after. First of all, these people are medically qualified and licensed to give people medical treatment. It takes a long time to earn this title, and they should be rewarded for doing so. Secondly, these people are skilled practitioners of fixing or improving people. You do not want the doctor; this person digging around inside of you, the person trying to put you back together again, to be distracted, or worried about money issues. You want them to be well off, so that they can be clear minded in those situations. This means, you have to pay doctors well. All people who work in the medical field should be paid a higher wage.
3.) Make sure that their families are well looked after. If they have a spouse, make sure that they can get a job in the community if they wish. If they have children, make sure that their children have a place to go to school, and so on.
4.) Make your community all it can be. Clean it up, fix it up, and offer more programs and activities. A community with nothing to do for older people, such as golf courses, etc., is less likely to attract an older physician. A community with nothing to do for younger people, such as schools or libraries, is less likely to attract a physician with children. A clean, healthy, and vibrant community, with lots of things going on, is more likely to attract health professionals.
5.) Offer group practices within your community. A family health team is more efficient than just a family doctor. Doctors, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists, kinesiologists, nurse practitioners, and so on, can all work together to get the best results for the patient. This will also reduce the stress put on the individual health specialist.
Secondary
10.) Cancers: $250 million a year is only a minuscule amount of money to many of the worlds governments, but that is all that it would take to effectively help fight cancers, and save hundreds of thousands of lives per year. There are many types of cancers which develop or spread, slowly or quickly, and usually destructively. The illness is usually caused by the presence of malignant tumors or growths, caused when cells multiply uncontrollably, destroying healthy tissue. The different forms are sarcomas, carcinomas, leukemias, and lymphomas. There are some cures out there, and there are also many types of treatments that we can offer in the fight against cancers. More money into research would certainly bring about more remedies.
11.) More Common (to us) Cures: The previously mentioned breakthroughs in medicine and public health would make it easier for low-income countries to fend off some of the other familiar diseases or illnesses, with inexpensive cures or treatments for things that most of the rest of the world already enjoys the benefit of. For just a few examples, we can offer extraordinary help in areas such as pulled or torn muscles, broken bones, cataracts and other eye problems, stomach and digestive problems such as ulcers, lung problems such as asthma, and psychological problems such as depression.
Tertiary
12.) Standardized Emergency Response System: The world should create a standardized emergency number system that would provide rapid citizen access to emergency services, no matter where you are on Earth. Most income countries operate their own national emergency number systems. In more than seventy years since Britain introduced the first such system, "999", in 1937, national emergency number systems have saved millions of lives. Over the years those systems have improved, now providing highly sophisticated automated caller identification and caller location information, thereby reducing the dispatch delay.
Despite the advancements of emergency number systems in the past 20 years or so, new challenges lay ahead. Rapidly advancing technologies, and the public’s desire for more personal and mobile communications, demands creative new ways of providing automatic location information. In the past, phoning 9-1-1 was done from a land line, and that meant that the location of where the call was made, was automatically known, and units could be dispatched immediately. In 2001, however, 40% of all calls made to 9-1-1 were from cell phones, so location information was not automatically given. 145 million calls were made that year. 500,000 of those calls were for cardiac arrest. That year, 2000 of those cardiac arrest victims did not survive, as a result of not being attended to fast enough. Many of these victims came from rural or sub-urban communities.
It’s important that you know, 9-1-1 is not an international emergency phone number. If you use it in another country, it’s not going to work. In fact, only 23 countries have one single number for ambulance, fire, and police, and 9-1-1 is the uniform emergency phone number for only 4 countries. For now, if you are going to be doing some traveling, remember to be informed of the countries national emergency numbers.
Standardization of emergency numbers, such as those efforts in the European Union to standardize on the number “112,” will become more popular, and will require careful planning and design. In the interest of safety and protection for all of the citizens of Earth, we could and should create a new system, connecting a global telecommunications network to all countries, so that there is only 1 number to dial to receive emergency assistance. We will create this new system as an essential public service, to provide fast access to medical treatment which would respond to all emergencies. No matter where you are on Earth, if an emergency arises, someone will be there to help in no time.
Primary
13.) House-Call System: The world could and should create a branch of the New Emergency Response System which would be used especially for pregnant women, younger children, or the elderly, who may not necessarily need an ambulance, but do need medical attention. This new House-Call System can take care of many non-life threatening cases, so that we don’t need to tie up phone lines, or police, ambulances, and fire trucks, and so on. We will create a system where professional visits can made by a doctor or other health professional, to a patient or client, at their own homes. The House-Call doctors can be dispatched to the location, to assess the situation, and see what can be done to remedy the problem. If the problem requires more serious treatment, the doctor can call for whatever is needed.
Secondary
14.) Pharmacare: While some nations of the world have a comprehensive Pharma plan, many countries do not. The world could and should create a new global plan that would subsidize the price of drugs. All medication will be dispensed upon presentation of a legally valid prescription for medication, as a course of treatment for a patient. Anyone who needs special assistance or care will receive medication for free. All prescription medication shall be subsidized, so that no matter what drug you need, or how much of it you need, no one under the age of 18 or over the age of 55 has to pay for it, and the prices shall be regulated so that the cost for any drug, and any amount of that drug, can be no more than $15.
15.) Dental: Dentistry is the medical science concerned with the prevention and treatment of tooth and gum disorders and diseases. Again, some nations offer dental coverage in their national health service, but the world could and should come up with a way to make sure that all people of the world have access to dental health. We could create an all-inclusive global plan that provides various treatments relating or belonging to the teeth, all over the world. For example, we could offer basic dentistry to many places of the world which would greatly gain from the benefits of healthy teeth, including rudimentary treatments such as teeth cleaning, X-rays, fillings, extractions, and root canal surgeries.
16.) Optometry: This is the medical practice of examining a persons eyes in order to determine levels of sight and vision, and then prescribing and supplying any necessary corrective lenses, such as a pair of sight-correcting glasses that fit over the ears and sit on the bridge of the nose, or contact lenses which are small plastic lenses placed directly onto the front of the eye to correct vision. We could and should create a global optometry plan so that all people of the world can get their eyes examined, and if they need corrective lenses to help them see, they shall get them, as an essential public good.
17.) Physical Therapies: The world could and should provide universal treatment of injuries or physical conditions, by a trained specialist in physical medicine. This includes any system of muscle testing and correcting, that reveals and corrects musculo-skeletal imbalances, such as physiotherapy, the study of the mechanics of motion with respect to human anatomy which corrects muscle development and movement, chiropractics, a medical system based on the theory that disease and disorders are caused by a misalignment of the bones, especially in the spine, that obstructs proper nerve functions, and massage therapy, which is used as a treatment for medical or psychiatric conditions, a treatment that involves rubbing or kneading the muscles, either for medical or therapeutic purposes, or simply as an aid to relaxation.
Tertiary
18.) Sanitation and Cleanliness: We could and should increase funds and create institutions for the study and maintenance of public health and hygiene all over the world. We especially need to improve the provisions of water supply, sewage systems, the collection and disposal of garbage, and the conditions and procedures related to each. In addition, we will provide more access to cleaning supplies, and teach techniques and procedures that can help people be more safe, in terms of disinfecting, sterilizing, and being free from agents that cause disease or infection.
19.) Stress Relief: We could and should also help relieve the strain felt by people; be that mental, emotional, or physical strain, caused for example, by anxiety or overwork. This kind of stress may cause physical or mental problems, with such symptoms as raised blood pressure or depression. Freeing the world from its anxieties, is important in healthcare. To help release people from anxiety or tension, and to help give people the feeling of release, lightness, and cheerfulness that accompanies stress relief, we will create legislation, so that, for a few examples, people will only work 35 hours a week, with any over-time going towards extra paid days off. We will offer 6 weeks of paid vacation, every year, which can be taken all at once, or in division.
20.) College Education Subsidization: As part of the new Global Healthcare system, the world could and should create an educational fund that would help reduce the cost of education, by providing a subsidy, or contribution, to help people pay the expenses for college education. An educated people are more likely to be a healthier people.
If any of these 20 steps are followed, the world will have a better health care system. These are my recommendations for a more perfect Universal Healthcare System which can be achieved within a short period time, at relatively unnoticeable cost to the nations of the world.
In Resolutionism, with the United Earth funding all of this, you could omit where the money comes from in these recommendations, because they would be coming from the UE instead.
The United Earth and Resolutionism offers free Universal Healthcare to all people.
HEALTHCARE
In Resolutionism, we want to provide Universal Healthcare to all people, for the sake of everybody’s well-being. Healthcare is a social issue as well as a biological issue. Historically, healthcare was a family concern, but it is now the responsibility of trained specialists who work in these institutions.
Through most of our human history, health has been poor by today’s standards, but improved dramatically in Western Europe and North America in the 19th Century. In the 20th Century, life expectancy the world over, raised considerably, especially in low income countries. However, in much of Latin America, Asia, and especially in Africa, hundreds of millions of people lack adequate food, water, safety, and much needed medical attention.
Poor health conditions in most low-income countries is underlined by inadequate sanitation and hunger. Average life expectancy in some of those low-income countries is still about 20 years less than people here in Canada, and in the poorest nations of the world, half of the children do not even survive to adulthood.
Before we go on, I think we should go over a few quick definitions. Health, similar to weather, fortune, or time, may be either good or bad. It refers to the general condition of the body or mind, especially in terms of the presence or absence of illnesses, injuries, or impairments, and the overall general condition of someone, in terms of completeness, vitality, and proper functioning.
Health can be hard to define, because individuals variously define their own healthiness. For example, a seemingly physically fit person, may be depressed. Let’s say a professional hockey player, for example, can seem healthy on the outside, and may be might be in great physical shape, for skating up and down the ice for an hour and a half, but may be psychologically addicted to alcohol, and this can create other problems. Some people may be in great physical and mental shape, but they have allergies, which are unusual sensitivities to a normally harmless substance that provokes a strong reaction from a person's body.
There are people who are too fat and too skinny by choice. We have people who eat unhealthy foods, and have an excess of fat on their bodies, making them unhealthy. We also have people who believe they are too fat, and they choose not to eat, so they have too little fat on their bodies, making them unhealthy as well. But they are both healthier than the people in other countries who have no food at all, and face still worse challenges like poor sanitation, and no clean water.
Health can change sporadically, such as in the case of a cold or a flu; diseases that appear in scattered or isolated instances or locations, and because of this, people can define health in terms of the presence or absence of illnesses, injuries, or impairments that may make life more difficult. So, perhaps the best definition of health would be the extent of an individual’s continuing physical, emotional, mental, and social ability to cope with their environment, and all the stresses within it. Health care refers to the provision of medical and related services, aimed at maintaining good health, especially through the prevention and treatment of disease.
HEALTHCARE IN HISTORY
Public health and safety has always been one of the first and most important objectives of governments and law. In even the most ancient of cultures, some public health initiatives were used. For example, many ancient cultures understood that it is easier to protect the healthy, by isolating or destroying the diseased. In addition to the isolation of the sick, principles of hygiene and sanitation were developed by many hunter-gatherer societies. It became a matter of public concern to control diseases without further contamination, and soon the idea was forged, to establish a system, which would keep the individuals in a society healthy, in order to keep the society healthy as a whole.
The Greeks were the first to document the relationship between environmental factors and disease, and helped sustain the theory of disease for 2000 years with the Hippocratic Collection. The Hippocratic Oath is doctor's promise to uphold medical standards, traditionally taken by newly graduated physicians, to observe the ethical standards of their profession, specifically to seek to preserve life. It was named after Hippocrates, who was the supposed author of such an oath.
The Romans, in the 2nd Century CE, instituted one of the very first public medical services. They built sewer systems, public baths, and engineered the 14 great aqueducts. They also built the first hospitals, and codified and administered health laws. The world is greatly indebted to the Greeks for principles of personal hygiene, and to the Romans for the development of public sanitation, but what you might not know, is that there are records of elaborate programs in even more ancient times. Around 4000 BCE, building codes were in effect, that used advanced sanitation engineering, in what are now the ruins of a community in the Indus Valley, in Punjab. Egyptian ruins dating from 2100-1700 BCE, included bathroom facilities and sewage systems, as did the Incas, all the way over in the new world.
Upon the disintegration of the Roman empire, there came a general decline of all urban culture, and with it went the many public health measures. Thankfully, Greco-Roman medical knowledge survived when it moved east, spreading to the Arab world, while in the west, health concerns, and many other matters and problems were still dealt with in terms of magic or religion.
During medieval times, there were a large number of plagues. Plagues are diseases that can spread rapidly through a population, killing a great many people. Some of these plagues were leprosy, small pox, measles, influenza, and of course the “Black Death.” Urban dwellers of this time period lived in constant fear of epidemics. To fight the disease, they used the old methods of isolation. When leprosy started to reach very serious proportions in the 13th and 14th Centuries, quarantine laws were rigidly enforced. The number of Leproseums (where the sick people were sent) exceeded 19,000 in all of Europe. The fight against the disease still wasn’t being won with isolation alone, and finally hospitals were built, to start treating the patients. In England, in the 15th century, 720 hospitals were established, and the fight changed, from attacking the disease, to the fight for public health.
Near the end of the middle ages, medicine and public health started falling under governmental control, so that regulations could be made to, for example, protect the water from pollution, have street cleaning, and garbage disposal, and these things started to become widespread across many parts of Europe. The industrial revolution saw a tremendous increase of urban population, and conditions again started to ebb, especially in the manufacturing areas. In the 1760’s, London tried to clean up some of the slum conditions by replacing old wooden buildings with brick, the streets were drained, paved, and lighted, and these methods were also repeated by cities throughout Europe, and later all of the western world.
By the beginning of the 18th Century, the interrelationships between poverty, and disease, and environment, and crime, had become apparent. To these rationalist people of the “Age of Reason,” a scientific approach to social problems would provide solutions. Their approach began as the gathering of statistics. Statisticians, physicians, scientists, and economists, worked together to form the first investigations into the health, safety, and the welfare of the people, and urged the need for these vital statistics. Sweden was the first country to require nation-wide gathering and reporting of vital statistics, legislation having been passed in 1748. In England, the first national census took place in 1801, and in the U.S., the first important study into public heath took place in 1845. The first state health department in the U.S., was founded in Massachusetts in 1869.
Almost all of the health, safety and welfare laws that were passed in the 19th and in the first half of the 20th Century (which were many), were based on those factual statistical reports. Soon all kinds of legislation would be passed, to make and enforce public health and safety laws. Both France and Germany became very committed to the proposition that government had a positive duty to promote health, and soon they both created a national health authority to coordinate health matters within their countries. Germany provided much inspiration, and established the model for subsequent social legislation elsewhere in Europe, which also spread to North America.
The latter half of the 20th Century saw great improvements in the technologies, medicines, and public access to health care, although it happened to take two world wars first to get it. The following map shows a global comparison of the number of doctors per 100,000 people for each nation.
In 1948, the British had been virtually devastated by WWII, they had lost more than 40,000 civilians, and they were almost completely destroyed and bankrupt in the aftermath of the terrible attacks upon their cities. To pull themselves together and make their country strong again, one of the first things they did was to provide free medical care for everyone. A leaflet was sent out in 1948, which told the people that Universal Medicare was here to help. It read: “Your new National Health Service begins on the 5th of July. What is it? How do you get it? It will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone, rich or poor, man, woman or child, can use it or any part of it. There are no charges, except for a few specialty items. There is no insurance qualifications but it is not a charity. You are paying for it mainly as tax-payers and it will relieve your money worries in times of illness.”
UNIVERSAL MEDICINE
What’s more, after WWII, the United Nations formed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, also in 1948. It declared that: "Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of themselves and their family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care.” This is a vision that, of course, has not yet fully been achieved, but after this declaration, many nations, particularly in Europe, were on their way to establishing their own programs of widespread or Universal Medicare.
Today, many nations in Europe have some of the best healthcare systems in the world, as we can see from this list. Many areas in the Middle East also have quite improved health care systems. Of course, this list is 10 years old, and several of these ranks have changed over the last few years, but in general, the list has remained pretty much the same. Some countries have moved up in the ranks, and some countries stayed where they are, while others have become worse.
I feel that I must go deeper into the timeline of Universal Medicine, especially in North America, because, as you can see, our systems need more work than we think. In fact, both Canada and the United States’ healthcare systems have gotten worse in the ranks since this list was made.
Canadians pride themselves in their healthcare system. It is as much a national symbol as the maple leaf, or the good old hockey game. But as you can see, we ranked number 30 on this list. If you are confused about why our ranking is so low on the scale, don’t worry, I will explain everything shortly. Of the United States, I need only be brief. They are the only G8 nation without universal healthcare coverage. Their system is based on HMO’s (health maintenance organizations), which are healthcare organizations, whose members pay fees and receive medical care from participating physicians, hospitals, and other providers. These payments go to health insurance companies, who are supposed to cover the costs or losses incurred if an insured person falls ill. However, many people can not afford the insurance, and therefore they receive no treatment. When desperate, some people become “health tourists” and visit other countries (Canada is one of those countries), specifically to benefit from the medical services available there, often because they are cheaper than at home. Others die. The United States also boasts that they have one of the best health care systems in the world, however, as you can see, it is ranked at number 37.
“Socialized Medicine” is a negative term in the US, used for any healthcare system which is subsidized by the government. This began after WWII, when American anti-“socialist” and anti-“commie” propaganda was employed all over the United States. The fear began to spread. They told everyone that any system of national health care, that would provide medical care to all, and is regulated and subsidized by the government would not work, does not work, and will not work, at least not as well as the private system. The “powers that be,” in the United States, do not want a system of national healthcare that would provide medical care to all, because there’s no money in it. They don’t want it, because they are making too much money off of the sick and the unhealthy.
However, as I said, because of the stigma that was put on anything “socialized,” a shame or disgrace was attached to socialized medicine, and it was regarded as socially unacceptable. That stigma carried into Canadian society, and for a time we were skeptical of socialized medicine too, even though Canada’s system of public medicare could be dated back to 1884 with the Public Health Act, which required health boards and sanitary regulations at the local medical level. In 1919, Mackenzie King introduced the idea of universal medicare, as part of his Liberal Party platform.
In 1961, the Province of Saskatchewan developed universal health coverage, and a Supreme Court Justice named Emmett Hall, implemented the first comprehensive medical law that gave universal coverage to all Canadians. 11 years later, in 1972, all provinces became part of one federal program, under the guidance of recently heralded, “Canada’s Most Important Figure,” Tommy Douglas. In Canada, we have a government health insurance system which is funded by a tax levy in each province, and the citizens can benefit from all medical emergency treatment, as well as the provision of some basic related services aimed at maintaining good health, especially through the treatment of illness.
According to Douglas, the first phase of universal healthcare is to remove the financial barrier to medicare. The second phase focused on altering the delivery system of medicare, offering preventative care and medicine, and researching and developing the determinates of health. Canada got the first phase under control in the 70’s, but phase two has struggled to get off the ground. On May 3rd, 2008, a meeting was held in Regina, which talked about the Tommy Douglas vision on the future of healthcare in Canada, and they brought up many interesting ways for us to look forward.
“SICK CARE”
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Me too. I want to be healthy. But here in Canada and in the United States, our healthcare systems are actually more like “sick care systems.” If you’re in an emergency, you can receive medical treatment. If you’re sick you can go see a doctor. If you break a bone, you can get a cast to heal the break, and so on…but, this is a sick care system. You only get looked at, if something is wrong. In the States, of course it’s much worse, you only get looked at, if you can afford it.
Being 30th on the list, it seems that Canada has a lot of improvements to make if they are to have one of the best healthcare systems in the world, or even to be in the running. Right now, as I said before, our healthcare system is getting worse. In a 2005 survey, it was concluded that Canada’s doctor/patient ratio is the worst of all the G8 countries. In fact, a documentary called Desperately Seeking Doctors outlined that we need about 26,000 doctors to be considered average. It is estimated that over 5 million Canadians have no family doctor, partly because of the current problem of doctors moving away from Canada. 1 out of 9 Canadian doctors move to the U.S. to become wealthier doctors. And it’s not all that hard to imagine, since the average physician right out of university can easily owe over $150,000 in student loans.
PRIVATIZATION
On top of that, some politicians and economists talk of privatization of the healthcare system, which would take public heath out of governmental control, transferring it to the private realm, where health can become an economic enterprise. They say that this will help speed up wait times, which in Canada, has developed a stigma as well. A lot of people think that Canada’s wait times are really terrible, although studies can now prove that Canada‘s wait times are as long as any other nation, even the United States, which boasts the shortest time waiting for treatment. The fact is, wait times are variable, and every country is vulnerable to long wait times.
Another part of the reasoning behind the support for privatization, is that people who can afford faster treatment, should be able to access it. The argument is that someone with a lot of money, shouldn’t have to wait for treatment behind a person with little money. Well, in a private system, such as the American way, a person with a lot of money might still have to wait for treatment behind another person with even more money, and the people with little money do not receive any treatment at all. So, the idea of a two tier system has come into play. This means that we would employ the use of a public, and a private healthcare system. This basically boils down to a system in which we would have a private hospital, that should be able to admit the wealthy patient, and a public hospital that should be able to admit the underprivileged patient.
Well, my answer to this argument is this: We already have a two tier system. Any Canadian can go to the United States to receive medical treatment if they can afford it. Do we see a lot of that happening? No, not a lot. Why not? Most of the population of Canada lives within a short driving distance to the United States, and the wealthy could easily afford the trip, and perhaps they can even afford to get the treatment, so why don’t we just do that? The answer is, because Canadians don’t want a two tier or a private system looking after their health. Canadians, rich or poor, do not want to pay hundreds of dollars, or hundreds of thousands of dollars, for medical treatment.
The idea of privatization comes from the capitalist side of the debate, which suggests that healthcare should be part of a free market economy, where companies and organizations are not owned or controlled by the government. All that we have just talked about in the last few pages, was about governmental departments that are responsible for protecting the health and safety of the people. Privatization is a step backwards.
Now, just to reiterate my point here, which is obviously, that more governmental management over healthcare is what we need; I’ll try to make a clear point, that everyone should recognize. Even all of you privatization supporters should recognize this as well. To make this point clear, we need to take a quick look at the military. The military has offered free healthcare services for their soldiers for centuries. In fact, almost every single military unit has always had some kind of medical section. This is not so difficult to understand. These healthcare services are available to the soldiers, to patch up their wounds, keeping them healthy, so that they can go back out there and keep fighting. Most would see that this logical.
Well, since that logic is clear, the same should be true for all members of society. If we can keep some members of the society healthy, for our protection, couldn’t we keep other members of society healthy for other reasons? For our economy to be strong, we need consumers. If people are sick, they can’t go out and buy things. Sick people are going to stay at home, or they get put in a hospital where they are isolated. If we can keep some members of society healthy, to go overseas and fight wars, can’t we keep members of society healthy at home? Don’t we want our citizens to be healthy, so that they can be productive members of the community?
Furthermore, the military also uses a strategy of mass recruitment of soldiers in a time of need. Well, if we can do that for the military; if we can draft people to go off to some other country to kill people; why can’t we get everyone together to stay home, to save people in their own country. If we can recruit soldiers in time of need, then why can’t we recruit doctors, or nurses, in the same way? Why can’t we do the same for teachers, or plumbers, or electricians, or whatever? Well, we can. These are the things we need.
PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE
Some of the other places in the world, that are higher up in the ranks on the list, have much more coverage than simply “sick care.” They have a great deal of preventative medicine, which is anything that stops something undesirable from happening, especially something that protects against illnesses before they become a bigger problem. These countries offer other free or subsidized services, such as dental care, and pharmacare. In France, to make sure that you are not over-worked, people work only 35 hr. weeks, and any more hours than that are logged so that you can take extra time off when you want to. They also get 5 weeks of paid vacation a year. 2 more weeks for a wedding and honeymoon if you get married that year! New mothers can get a nanny service to help with the cooking, cleaning, and laundry etc. to help them relieve parents’ tensions. If you are moving, you can get a paid day off to do so! …The list goes on, all to help relieve the money worries that people might have during those stressful times. Well, if they can do it over there, why can’t we have those things here in Canada? Why not all over the world? It’s not impossible if it’s being done. It’s not some crazy out of this world idea if it is being done. It’s not reaching for the stars, if other post industrial nations of comparable wealth and status are doing it. We can make those things happen here, and everywhere else on Earth.
Although some conditions may have gotten worse for us here in Canada, we are still much better off than people in other countries. In the past half century, the number of physicians in the primary health field has increased, and become nearly widespread. However, there is much work needed to be done relating to, affecting, or accepted by the whole world. More than 60 years ago, the world’s governments declared that health was a fundamental human right “without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.” The World Health Organization was formed as a specialized agency of the United Nations that helps countries to improve their health services and coordinates international action against diseases. 30 years ago in Alma Ata, the world’s governments called for “health for all” by 2000. Obviously, we didn’t reach either target yet, but through the expansion of access to primary health facilities and services, and the construction of access to secondary and tertiary healthcare, all over the globe, then we could have Universal Healthcare for the whole world.
THE SOLUTION
Global Healthcare can be achieved, and we can do so at relatively low cost. Here I will show you how. There are 3 sectors of this Global Healthcare system, and within it are many separate and individual parts which collaborate and synchronize their efforts to form a more perfect healthcare system that all citizens of Earth will be able to use. First let’s look at some definitions.
Primary health care is the level of care service at which essential, emergency, or basic treatment is available to a patient who is evaluated and treated by health professionals, such as doctors or nurses, or, if necessary, a number of different kinds of specialists. Primary health also includes any emergency response systems such as police, fire, and ambulance, and includes any hospitals, clinics, family doctors or general practitioners. Many countries employ the primary healthcare system as we could see from the previous map. Resolutionism will expand Primary health care coverage to all nations on Earth.
Secondary health care is the level of care at which follow-on or additional treatment is available to a patient who is evaluated and treated by a number of different specialists who continue or resume a course of action directed at prolonging or extending a person’s health. This level of healthcare coverage is used in only a few nations, and includes preventative medicine, pharmaceutical care, optometry, dental, and other kinds of physical therapies that are beneficial such as physiotherapy, massage therapy, and chiropractics. Secondary medicine also covers many goods and services such as crutches, wheel chairs, etc.. Resolutionism will extend Secondary health care coverage to all nations which currently have Primary status, and all nations will soon have this kind of care available to them as well.
Tertiary health care is the level of care at which care or treatment is provided by many different social service specialists who continue or resume a course of action directed at prolonging or extending a person’s health in an institution specializing in a particular branch or part of a large area of study that is related to health and medicine. Tertiary health includes social services such as welfare, education, life insurance, and pension plans. As we mentioned earlier, this area of healthcare coverage also includes psychiatry, a field of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of disorders that have primarily mental or behavioural symptoms. All people will be able to see a psychiatrist. In Resolutionism Tertiary health care coverage will be granted to every one of the citizens of the nations of the world.
20 Simple steps to accomplish Global Healthcare
Primary
1.) High-income countries should honour their commitments to world-wide health, by devoting at least 0.1% of their gross domestic product (GDP) to low-income countries to boost their systems of primary health coverage. This percentage is virtually indiscernible, in terms of cost, to the high-income countries, but this could be monolithic in proportion to those who receive it. Some of these rich countries, with a GDP of over $35 trillion, could easily do without a couple of billion a year, for a few years, and combined, that money would help build primary health facilities, and deliver medical services, to the over one billion people around the world who are in critical need of them.
2.) Low-income countries should devote as much as they can, but the numbers should be at least 15% of their own national budgets, towards their own national health systems. This amount is attainable for most of these countries, especially if they were to shift their spending habits from war to health. Keep in mind though, that the average income of a person living in these countries is about $300 per year, which means that they have a very low GDP, but with the extra funding from high-income countries, they too can have a top-notch health system. Most importantly though, is that these countries learn how to build and maintain these systems for themselves.
3.) High and middle-income countries that want to open their hearts a little more, those who feel they can spend a little more than the bare minimum of 0.1% on global healthcare, can donate more money if they wish, and their help will be highly praised and welcomed. This money will go into Global Fund, to lend a hand, and keep saving millions of people, as they have done before.
Secondary
4.) AIDS: Rich nations should follow through on their long-standing commitment to the fight against AIDS, and in particular, they should ensure access to anti retroviral treatment for all HIV infected individuals by 2015. AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), is a disease of the immune system which is caused by infection with the retrovirus HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), which destroys some types of white blood cells, and is transmitted through blood or bodily secretions such as semen. Patients lose the ability to fight other infections, and may show signs of greater symptoms, such as severe cognitive impairment, degeneration of motor nerves and the spinal cord, reduced intestinal strength, extreme involuntary weight loss, dehydration, fever, and severe irreparable memory loss and disorientation resulting from widespread damage to brain cells, especially in people affected by untreated AIDS during its late stages. The common misconception that most people have, is that nothing can be done about it. However, anti retroviral treatment is effective against retroviruses such as HIV, and can, in fact, do a great deal for patients. It is the closest thing we have to a cure, so far.
5.) Malaria: To bring malaria mortality rates nearly to zero by 2015, the world will have to develop a comprehensive plan to deliver the appropriate amounts of effective medicines for when malaria illness arises, to all areas of the world, but first and most importantly, to those places which need it the most. Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite, that is transmitted by mosquitoes. It causes disease in approximately 500 million people every year, and is the cause of between one and three million deaths annually, mostly young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Africa, it is the largest single cause of death of children less than 5 years of age. Pregnant women are also especially vulnerable. They say that every 30 seconds another child dies of malaria. Without much needed action, the death rate is expected to double in the next 20 years. Global fund has already sent out 30 million anti-malaria bet-nets, which has saved many lives. To continue saving lives, we must offer more access to better anti-malaria bed nets all around the world, and we must be able to provide both outdoor and indoor spraying where appropriate.
Malaria-carrying mosquitoes bite at night while people are sleeping. A bed-net is a simple way to prevent malaria infection, providing a physical barrier for mosquitoes. It reduces the chances of being bitten by mosquitoes. These nets are often coated with a mild insecticide, so that mosquitoes are killed on contact. Insecticide-treated mosquito bed-nets have proven to cut the death rate of malaria by up to 50%. 1 net can save the life of a child. 1 net costs only $10. “Spread the Net” is a Canadian partnership with UNICEF to provide these bed-nets for many people that need them. Their goal was to send 500,000 bed nets by 2010. To purchase a bed-net, or to learn more, visit http://www.spreadthenet.org/
6.) Tuberculosis: TB is an infectious disease that causes small rounded swellings, called tubercles, to form on mucous membranes. Especially dangerous is a pulmonary tuberculosis that affects the lungs. This is another area of medicine where known and long-proved interventions are highly effective, but chronically under funded. Antituberculosis medicines are very successful against tuberculosis, and Global Fund has already cured over 2 million people. The world needs to fill in the financing gap of an easily affordable $2 billion a year. Think of all the lives we could save.
Tertiary
7.) Reproductive Services: For only $1 billion a year, the world could and should provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services to the poorest of the poor. These services include family planning, which is an approach of using of various birth control methods to help people choose the number and timing of children born into a family. This can be done with contraception, which is the prevention of pregnancy using artificial methods, such as condoms and birth-control pills, or natural methods, such as avoiding sex during the woman's known fertile periods. These measures would also slow, rather than accelerate population growth, thereby easing economic and environmental strains on those regions. Furthermore, we need to make sure that there is better obstetrical care, or the branch of medicine that deals with the care of women during pregnancy, childbirth, and for some six weeks following delivery. This will help reduce the number of deaths in children during the first year of life, otherwise known as the infant mortality rate, and families will be able to decrease their size.
Primary
8.) Tropical Diseases: For roughly $500 million a year, the world could and should effectively control several tropical diseases. For example, we can treat people in order to prevent or remove infestations of parasitic worm infections, which occur virtually in the same zones where malaria is raging.
9.) Construction and Training: The world could easily afford $500 million a year to help bolster primary health care, by, most importantly, opening up a new economic mechanism called “Building Blocks,” which would essentially set up a fund that would allow for more construction of hospitals, clinics, and other health facilities, and the hiring and training of doctors, nurses, and community health workers, to be made available all over the world. As we discussed earlier, there is a shortage of doctors here in Canada, and elsewhere around the world. To help with this problem, communities, nations, and the world as a whole, needs to offer better incentives, so that more people decide to be doctors, and so that more doctors will move to your community to practice medicine.
The following are few tips to help recruit physicians.
1.) We have to start being more persuasive to students, as young as people in junior high-schools, to join a medical profession. Many children want to be doctors or nurses when they grow up, but they soon start to become wary of any occupation which requires such extensive education or specialized training. We must do all that we can to offer assistance to those children who are interested in becoming a trained health professional, and encourage others to become interested as well.
2.) We also have to make sure that the physicians are well looked after. First of all, these people are medically qualified and licensed to give people medical treatment. It takes a long time to earn this title, and they should be rewarded for doing so. Secondly, these people are skilled practitioners of fixing or improving people. You do not want the doctor; this person digging around inside of you, the person trying to put you back together again, to be distracted, or worried about money issues. You want them to be well off, so that they can be clear minded in those situations. This means, you have to pay doctors well. All people who work in the medical field should be paid a higher wage.
3.) Make sure that their families are well looked after. If they have a spouse, make sure that they can get a job in the community if they wish. If they have children, make sure that their children have a place to go to school, and so on.
4.) Make your community all it can be. Clean it up, fix it up, and offer more programs and activities. A community with nothing to do for older people, such as golf courses, etc., is less likely to attract an older physician. A community with nothing to do for younger people, such as schools or libraries, is less likely to attract a physician with children. A clean, healthy, and vibrant community, with lots of things going on, is more likely to attract health professionals.
5.) Offer group practices within your community. A family health team is more efficient than just a family doctor. Doctors, surgeons, nurses, pharmacists, kinesiologists, nurse practitioners, and so on, can all work together to get the best results for the patient. This will also reduce the stress put on the individual health specialist.
Secondary
10.) Cancers: $250 million a year is only a minuscule amount of money to many of the worlds governments, but that is all that it would take to effectively help fight cancers, and save hundreds of thousands of lives per year. There are many types of cancers which develop or spread, slowly or quickly, and usually destructively. The illness is usually caused by the presence of malignant tumors or growths, caused when cells multiply uncontrollably, destroying healthy tissue. The different forms are sarcomas, carcinomas, leukemias, and lymphomas. There are some cures out there, and there are also many types of treatments that we can offer in the fight against cancers. More money into research would certainly bring about more remedies.
11.) More Common (to us) Cures: The previously mentioned breakthroughs in medicine and public health would make it easier for low-income countries to fend off some of the other familiar diseases or illnesses, with inexpensive cures or treatments for things that most of the rest of the world already enjoys the benefit of. For just a few examples, we can offer extraordinary help in areas such as pulled or torn muscles, broken bones, cataracts and other eye problems, stomach and digestive problems such as ulcers, lung problems such as asthma, and psychological problems such as depression.
Tertiary
12.) Standardized Emergency Response System: The world should create a standardized emergency number system that would provide rapid citizen access to emergency services, no matter where you are on Earth. Most income countries operate their own national emergency number systems. In more than seventy years since Britain introduced the first such system, "999", in 1937, national emergency number systems have saved millions of lives. Over the years those systems have improved, now providing highly sophisticated automated caller identification and caller location information, thereby reducing the dispatch delay.
Despite the advancements of emergency number systems in the past 20 years or so, new challenges lay ahead. Rapidly advancing technologies, and the public’s desire for more personal and mobile communications, demands creative new ways of providing automatic location information. In the past, phoning 9-1-1 was done from a land line, and that meant that the location of where the call was made, was automatically known, and units could be dispatched immediately. In 2001, however, 40% of all calls made to 9-1-1 were from cell phones, so location information was not automatically given. 145 million calls were made that year. 500,000 of those calls were for cardiac arrest. That year, 2000 of those cardiac arrest victims did not survive, as a result of not being attended to fast enough. Many of these victims came from rural or sub-urban communities.
It’s important that you know, 9-1-1 is not an international emergency phone number. If you use it in another country, it’s not going to work. In fact, only 23 countries have one single number for ambulance, fire, and police, and 9-1-1 is the uniform emergency phone number for only 4 countries. For now, if you are going to be doing some traveling, remember to be informed of the countries national emergency numbers.
Standardization of emergency numbers, such as those efforts in the European Union to standardize on the number “112,” will become more popular, and will require careful planning and design. In the interest of safety and protection for all of the citizens of Earth, we could and should create a new system, connecting a global telecommunications network to all countries, so that there is only 1 number to dial to receive emergency assistance. We will create this new system as an essential public service, to provide fast access to medical treatment which would respond to all emergencies. No matter where you are on Earth, if an emergency arises, someone will be there to help in no time.
Primary
13.) House-Call System: The world could and should create a branch of the New Emergency Response System which would be used especially for pregnant women, younger children, or the elderly, who may not necessarily need an ambulance, but do need medical attention. This new House-Call System can take care of many non-life threatening cases, so that we don’t need to tie up phone lines, or police, ambulances, and fire trucks, and so on. We will create a system where professional visits can made by a doctor or other health professional, to a patient or client, at their own homes. The House-Call doctors can be dispatched to the location, to assess the situation, and see what can be done to remedy the problem. If the problem requires more serious treatment, the doctor can call for whatever is needed.
Secondary
14.) Pharmacare: While some nations of the world have a comprehensive Pharma plan, many countries do not. The world could and should create a new global plan that would subsidize the price of drugs. All medication will be dispensed upon presentation of a legally valid prescription for medication, as a course of treatment for a patient. Anyone who needs special assistance or care will receive medication for free. All prescription medication shall be subsidized, so that no matter what drug you need, or how much of it you need, no one under the age of 18 or over the age of 55 has to pay for it, and the prices shall be regulated so that the cost for any drug, and any amount of that drug, can be no more than $15.
15.) Dental: Dentistry is the medical science concerned with the prevention and treatment of tooth and gum disorders and diseases. Again, some nations offer dental coverage in their national health service, but the world could and should come up with a way to make sure that all people of the world have access to dental health. We could create an all-inclusive global plan that provides various treatments relating or belonging to the teeth, all over the world. For example, we could offer basic dentistry to many places of the world which would greatly gain from the benefits of healthy teeth, including rudimentary treatments such as teeth cleaning, X-rays, fillings, extractions, and root canal surgeries.
16.) Optometry: This is the medical practice of examining a persons eyes in order to determine levels of sight and vision, and then prescribing and supplying any necessary corrective lenses, such as a pair of sight-correcting glasses that fit over the ears and sit on the bridge of the nose, or contact lenses which are small plastic lenses placed directly onto the front of the eye to correct vision. We could and should create a global optometry plan so that all people of the world can get their eyes examined, and if they need corrective lenses to help them see, they shall get them, as an essential public good.
17.) Physical Therapies: The world could and should provide universal treatment of injuries or physical conditions, by a trained specialist in physical medicine. This includes any system of muscle testing and correcting, that reveals and corrects musculo-skeletal imbalances, such as physiotherapy, the study of the mechanics of motion with respect to human anatomy which corrects muscle development and movement, chiropractics, a medical system based on the theory that disease and disorders are caused by a misalignment of the bones, especially in the spine, that obstructs proper nerve functions, and massage therapy, which is used as a treatment for medical or psychiatric conditions, a treatment that involves rubbing or kneading the muscles, either for medical or therapeutic purposes, or simply as an aid to relaxation.
Tertiary
18.) Sanitation and Cleanliness: We could and should increase funds and create institutions for the study and maintenance of public health and hygiene all over the world. We especially need to improve the provisions of water supply, sewage systems, the collection and disposal of garbage, and the conditions and procedures related to each. In addition, we will provide more access to cleaning supplies, and teach techniques and procedures that can help people be more safe, in terms of disinfecting, sterilizing, and being free from agents that cause disease or infection.
19.) Stress Relief: We could and should also help relieve the strain felt by people; be that mental, emotional, or physical strain, caused for example, by anxiety or overwork. This kind of stress may cause physical or mental problems, with such symptoms as raised blood pressure or depression. Freeing the world from its anxieties, is important in healthcare. To help release people from anxiety or tension, and to help give people the feeling of release, lightness, and cheerfulness that accompanies stress relief, we will create legislation, so that, for a few examples, people will only work 35 hours a week, with any over-time going towards extra paid days off. We will offer 6 weeks of paid vacation, every year, which can be taken all at once, or in division.
20.) College Education Subsidization: As part of the new Global Healthcare system, the world could and should create an educational fund that would help reduce the cost of education, by providing a subsidy, or contribution, to help people pay the expenses for college education. An educated people are more likely to be a healthier people.
If any of these 20 steps are followed, the world will have a better health care system. These are my recommendations for a more perfect Universal Healthcare System which can be achieved within a short period time, at relatively unnoticeable cost to the nations of the world.
In Resolutionism, with the United Earth funding all of this, you could omit where the money comes from in these recommendations, because they would be coming from the UE instead.
The United Earth and Resolutionism offers free Universal Healthcare to all people.