Health Politics and Political Action

In the healthcare industry, pharmaceutical firms primarily deal with the development, manufacture, improvement and marketing of drugs and medical devices used for medical purposes. The industry is governed by rules and regulations that control the testing, marketing and general safety of products.

Some of the major impacts of pharmaceutical extravagant expenditures on American doctors and consumer advertising include:

• A bias in clinical decisions: it occurs when a company offers doctors gifts or donations, influencing their decision-making process, which later on affects healthcare costs with victims of such malpractices being unsuspecting patients.
• Implicit expectation: in exchange for gifts from pharmaceutical industries most physicians market drugs through lectures and public speaking to the community in an effort to convince them of benefits of using certain medications. On the other hand, researchers are offered the authorship of journals and booklets on drug trials to be deemed as original authors. However, researches are done by industry’s employees. On their part, drug representatives show their gratitude by increasing prescription and at times determine prices for medications.
• Conflict of interest: the increasing public awareness of these forms of malpractices has resulted in the publication of journals discouraging free drug samples, banning pharmaceutical industry’s donations to practitioners, as well as limiting research funding from donors (Haffar et al., 2016).

As for advertising, some companies mislead and manipulate consumers by directing them to buy their products through overstated advertisements rather than offering facts and real information for people to make informed choices. In this light, such misplaced adverts have led to increased incidences of self-medication among patients. However, there are benefits arising from objective, genuine advertising since it serves to create awareness of the public and demystify stereotypes about some chronic illnesses such as cancer leading to better health.

The three major components of the national health policy are as follows. First, structural determinants of good health can be political, social or cultural. They represent the current state of health, unanswered questions, and the future inventions for the health care provision among communities. Lifestyle determinants encourage the improved quality of life among patients through a proper diet, nutrition, exercise and health management, being noticeable factors influencing public inventions. Socializing and empowering determinants focus on the change in behaviors or interventions. It links both the structural and lifestyle determinants creating a broader understanding of collective and individual healthcare (Lukens, 2014).

Influential health programs that target these determinants include the control of communicable and non-communicable diseases. There is a need for interventions to create awareness of a positive behavioral change and reduce risk factors through community mobilization programs and education. Environmental health programs improve sanitation and curb mortality and morbidity among people, addressing the social, lifestyle and structural determinants of good health. Lastly, health and nutrition programs address quality health care services and a proper diet, as well as foster initiatives aiming to create a healthy society (Haffar et al., 2016).

According to the conflict theory, society is a place characterized by unending conflicts as construed by Karl Marx (as cited in Haffar et al., 2016). In the same way, American society is characterized by numerous perpetual human conflicts, and it has formed the basis for inequality with the healthcare sector being no exception. The quality of health care differs around the globe. Within America, there are many cases of inequities based on race, social class, gender or ethnicity (Haffar et al., 2016). The recent research has illustrated that low-class citizens living below the poverty line suffer from racial tension, discrimination and consequently get inferior treatment, while those from higher social classes live in areas with better opportunities, good hygienic conditions and housing (Skinner, 2016). It shows a clear disparity among social classes and an absolute influence of high-class groups. However, struggles for the limited resources depict that conflicts can arise from cultural, political or economic issues in society as established in the conflict theory (Skinner, 2016)..

In conclusion, health politics and political action play an important role in mainstreaming healthcare services, especially concerning the pharmaceutical industry. With the enactment of rules and regulations to protect consumers against exploitation, governmental policies serve to control aspects of testing, marketing and general safety of products. The three components of the national health policy equally offer effective interventions with the aim of creating a healthy society.