How to Take a Position on Health Care Issues

Health care issues have become an important part of political debate in the United States because of the debate about what to do for people who cannot afford health insurance and the debate about whether the United States needs to improve the quality of its health care system. Follow these steps to form your own analysis of the issues.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Study the debate about health care issues to become familiar with the possible problems and possible solutions. Go to the Public Agenda website (see resources, below), choose "Issue Guides" from the main menu and then "Health Care." You can also stay on top of health care current issues by reading the health section of the "Washington Post" online. Choose "Health" from the "News" menu.
2. Decide if the health care system needs improvement and, if you decide it does, what the causes of its problems are. Consider whether the causes of health care problems originate with insurance companies, underperforming hospitals or economics.
3. Determine if you think the government needs to become more involved in health care. On one side of the issue, some people say the government needs to step in to help reduce the costs of health care and help more people gain access to health insurance. People on the other side say the government can not afford to spend more money on health care and is not good at controlling people's health care.
4. Make a decision about universal health insurance and whether it would improve health care. Many people have proposed the United States either directly cover all United States citizens with health care or mandate that everyone be covered by private entities. Decide whether the costs of providing this service are warranted and whether this service would help.
5. If you decide to support universal health care, consider the two prevailing models. One type of Universal health care, called a single-payer health system, would mean the government would be the sole health care provider in the United States. The other type would allow people to choose between private insurers and government insurance.
6. Think about the competition model as an alternative to government-provided health care. Some advocate increasing competition by easing government regulations on health care. Believers in the competition solution believe more competition among health care providers would drive down costs and positively affect health care issues.