SOC 490, week 6.. The end:/

      I can't believe six weeks has already come and gone. This is my last post for Soc 490 since our class is coming to an end. The question of the week is, can we cure disease through power of prayer? Well that depends on who you are talking to and what country you are in. It also depends on the religion of the person who is sick. Many Christians and Catholics believe that prayer will help heal a disease or sickness. For me, I don’t think a chronic disease can be cured solely from prayer I think there are other factors involved such as medicine and doctors. I am unsure whether prayer is a strong enough method to cure someone, but then again that is only my belief and I know others feel differently. 

Last Thursday, our class went into Rome with a survey in hand about the Italian Health Care system. Our mission was to interview ten Italians on the state of their health, the quality of their physician, if they have visited a hospital and if so the care they received, if the Italian healthcare is good, and which hospital in Rome has the best doctors. While I was interviewing, I found that some Italians didn’t want to answer my survey because they didn’t know what it was about. I also found some Italians say that they have never been to a doctor and they have excellent health. I don’t know if they were built with an awesome immune system or if they believed in the power of prayer. On the day of the interview I was nervous to approach these Italians because I have previous knowledge that Italians don’t like giving out person information. After getting passed my first couple of interviews I noticed that the people who were answering my survey were helping me out because they knew I was an American Student doing a study for my University. It probably helped that I approached them saying, “Senta Scusi, Buongiorno, mi Chiamo Katie, La studentessa di Americana...” or something to that effect. 

Over the past six weeks we have been discussing the topic of Universal healthcare. Through discussions we have talked about whether the United States should model a Universal Plan based off of the “Roman” model or the Canadian model. For this week we are looking at the steps the United States can take to achieve Universal Health Care. The biggest question is if the United States needs to create a new system or if we can repair the current system. According to Johnathon S. Ross, an extension of Medicare is the most efficient way to go. Ross says, “Low-income individuals and families who do not qualify for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) or Medicaid would receive subsidies toward the purchase of insurance through the experience” (p. 163). Ross also says how if a family doesn’t qualify for Medicare there would be a system that requires everyone to have insurance or they would have to pay a fine. 

On the other hand William Hoar asks, “Do we really want healthcare run by those who have displayed the efficiency of the DMV and Postal Service and the compassion of the IRS” (p. 170)? Hoar also says that the Government says the Medicare system that is in place now will be going bankrupt within the next ten years or so. If this is the case do we really want to mirror an entire healthcare system off of a failing Medicare system? After interviewing ten Italians and looking over everyone else’s results, I have decided that America needs to create a new healthcare system based on the Italian or Canadian models. Even though there is flaws in both of their systems, it would be better than basing our universal plan off of a failing medicare program.