George Orwell's Animal: The US Healthcare Policymaking Process as Defined by Longest - Essay Example

George Orwell's Animal: The US Healthcare Policymaking Process as Defined by Longest “It is better to have a world united than a world divided but it is better to have a world divided than a world destroyed.” said Sir Winston Churchill at the time of Second World War. The outcome of the US healthcare policy making process seems to fall on similar lines. Health policymaking is a complicated process. Apart from the noticeable share that it demands from the national budget allocations, it is a subject that appeals and concerns the sentiments of every citizen in America.

Health policy takes shape not only in the medical environment but mostly in the political environment. The contending parties and the vested interests, the drug manufacturers, influence the policy making process. Congressional testimony, news stories, letters to the editors, representations to the government from the interested organizations, and executive orders go to influence the final shape of the complex policies. Many political leaders have the hidden agenda, apart from the concern they show about providing the actual medical care to the people.

Amidst all these technicalities of the process, Beaufort B. Longest Jr. makes a stunning revelation. He writes, “The Institute of Medicine (IOM) landmark report Unequal Treatment Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in care provides compelling evidence that racial/ethnic disparities persist in medical care for a number of health conditions and services. These disparities exist even when comparing individuals of similar income and insurance. Evidence of racial/ethnic disparities among patients with comparable insurance and the same illness has been the most troubling since health insurance coverage is considered the “great equalizer” in the health system.”(p.5) What is the remedy for this situation?

Shall we toe the line of action as propounded by Churchill ‘to let the world remain divided?’ No, the collective American conscience will not permit it-morally and legally! Animal Farm (1945) is a satirical novella by George Orwell. A group of animals decide to seek emancipation from human tyranny, oust the humans from the farm (power). The promised equality for all the animals is not forthcoming and eventually some ‘more equal’ animals perfect a system of tyranny of their own. The novella is a stinging critique of the Russian Revolution.

It allegorizes the rise to power of the dictator Joseph Stalin. . In this novella, the human oppressor Mr. Jones is overthrown by a democratic coalition of animals but soon the pigs occupy the centre stage of animal politics and usurp power. They establish themselves as the ruling class. Once the pigs as a class take over power, they create such a situation, wherein the other animals had to submit to their commands….and soon, the events take a new turn. The struggle for supremacy between two pigs—Snowball and Napoleon gives another twist to the story.

Compare it to the struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin! False confessions and executions take place in the animal kingdom. The novella describes in depth, how the founding principles of the Russian Revolution are given a go…pigs take to violence and adopt human traits and behaviors, they equal the original oppressors of animals, the human beings! America swears by freedom and equality day in and day out. Though racism is abolished legally, Longest elucidates in his book, how the white race still dominates the political scene in various forums and tries to establish it’s pre-eminence.

He writes, “About 1 in 3 residents of the United States self-identify as African American, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian/Pacific American, or Latino. Few would disagree that for most of this nation’s history, race was a major factor in determining if you got care, where that care was obtained, and the quality of medical care.”(p.5) Longest cautions people about the hypocrisy of the American system. How unprincipled approach influences the process of health-care policy formation and implementation, for the sake of getting political mileage!

Similarly, Animal Farm provides the detailed analysis on the development class tyranny and the human tendency to establish supremacy under the guise of class/race etc even when the legal position is equality for all on all counts! Works Cited:Longest, Beaufort B. Health Policymaking in the United States: Health Administration Press; 4 edition, November 1, 2005.