DISCUSSION
QUESTION 1:
As maternity care coverage falls out of reach for more American women, how should the U.S. health care system deal with the twenty-five percent of working-age women who do not have maternity care coverage or who do not qualify for Medicaid insurance?
How would you respond to the following argument? If women cannot afford to have babies, they should not get pregnant.
Does this problem simply illustrate the need for fundamental reform of the U.S. health care system? Should the system be revised to provide basic health care, including maternity care, for all women?
In the event the U.S. system is not revised to provide universal care, should the costs, both economic and social, of failing to care for mothers and children in a large number of births be used to expand programs such as Medicaid to provide coverage? The long term, even the medium term, costs would be far lower.
QUESTION 2:
The text for our course was written before the COVID-19 pandemic. As the global community races to find a vaccine for COVID-19, what and who should be the priority of vaccination?
While U.S. health care professionals and some members of the military seem to be likely candidates to be vaccinated in the event of a pandemic, who should receive the second round of vaccines?
Should those most likely to be infected and suffer long term consequences or death if not protected receive the second round of vaccines? Why or why not?
Realistically, after the first responders, those with economic resources will get the second round regardless of ethical discussions; some will probably get treatment in the first round. Is this unavoidable?
