One of the most pressing issues in modern realities, in which people are forced to choose one side depending on their interests, is medicine. Americans face incredibly high treatment prices in all areas of health care, from family therapists to optometrists. However, high prices are the reason for allocating most of the budget to new technologies. The development of science is of great importance for the country’s future and the health of the nation. However, the most crucial part of medicine will always be its accessibility to people and those who need medical care at the moment.
A vast amount of budget is allocated to develop technologies in America, while the technologies themselves may not be finalized yet and cannot be used in the present time. Moreover, Boostani et al. (2019) argue that due to the termination of funding, the training of specialists may be interrupted, which in the future should “improve the quality of care provided to individual patients, maximize safety, improve outcomes” (p. 175). If the funding stops for a year, all development will be frozen, and some tests will become more non-reproducible due to the interruption of the process.
However, returning to the issue of access to medicine, it is safe to say that if such costs could be reduced by a year, more people would be able to get free treatment or treatment at reasonably low prices, and this would be a wise compromise. The application of the latest methods in the patients’ treatment opens up new prospects for science. Nevertheless, given the ethical problem that people face, it is the possibility of necessary treatment. At the same time, it is significant to remember that medical care quality must meet international standards (Harpwood, 2020). Moreover, the most significant attention should be paid to the patient’s desire. They may decide that they are satisfied with the proposed treatment’s quality and want to continue it. Furthermore, I would rather pay an average price for a valid treatment than pay a very high price for the latest diagnostic and therapeutic technologies.
To sum up, it should be noted that accessibility plays a vital role in applying for medicine in practice. If patients are ready not to wait for the subsequent discovery in medicine and be treated at the average prices of currently available medications, the decision should be considered.
References
Boostani, K., Noshad, H., Farnood, F., Rezaee, H., Teimouri, S., Entezari-Maleki, T., Najafiazar, R., Hassanpouri-Olia, A., & Gharekhani, A. (2019). Detection and management of common medication errors in internal medicine wards: Impact on medication costs and patient care. Advanced Pharmaceutical Bulletin, 9(1), 174–179.
Harpwood, V. (2020). Law and ethics in medicine. Medicine, 48(10), 664–666.