Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Nov 12 Kitcher – Ch 6 (The New Pariahs); Pennock – Pre-existing conditions

The question of health insurance is quite difficult when it comes to genetic testing. This is because I feel health insurance should be provided to all people, not just those who can afford to pay for it. In this way, I suppose I agree with Pennock that we will need to completely re-vamp the structure of the current health care system. Also, I feel you should not be able to charge higher premiums for people whose genetic test results indicate greater risk for disease. I think the CaSE model clearly indicates this would be imprudent in that simply having the genes for a disease may not result in phenotypic expression of that disease unless certain environmental conditions allow for that expression. I would also say that we cannot relate health care to gambling as we currently do, but must instead relate it to a more socialist care for one another. I cannot afford my own roads or police force, nor can most of my peers; yet we all pool our money and pay for these as a social act for the good of our society. I think this should be a better model for health care.

No comments: