In Sickness and in Health
Ambulance cartoon. Published by “Nemo” on pixabay. Public Domain (CC0 1.0)
The Future Challenges team works together to choose each topic that we discuss. We gather proposals from our network, select a general topic from these proposals, draft several important questions, and then vote together on the final question.
This content package deals with healthcare – both the burdens of poor health and the burdens of an increasingly expensive healthcare system – and its impact on economic success. Our team voted for the following question:
From Uganda to the United States and from China to Chile, access to healthcare is an enormous issue for citizens and governments. The economic burdens of many countries’ healthcare systems can seem trivial when compared with the persistent health crises that continue to trouble other countries. Access to healthcare differs not just between countries, but between regions, genders and classes. What role does healthcare play in determining economic success or failure? How can we bring better health to more people without bankrupting ourselves?
Future Challenges authors are in 65 countries in the developed and the developing world. Take your pick from the Local Views on the right, and explore the ways in which writers from around the world think about this critical issue.
Tags: economic crisis, health sector, Healthcare, public spending, welfare state
Tom Fries
Most recent Local Views on ‘In sickness and in health’
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Operation Cybercrime: The digital war on the U.S. healthcare industry
Written by Samuel Chapman
on July 9, 2014. Part 2 of a 2-Part Series on Healthcare in the U.S. In the first part of this series, I introduced the growing problem of fraud in the United States healthcare system. From Medicaid scams to fraudulent prescriptions, often involving everyone from patient to physician and on up to businesses […]
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Health Care Fraud in a Broken System
Written by Samuel Chapman
on June 29, 2014. Part 1 in a 2 Part Series The news is awash with headlines that paint a grim picture of healthcare in the United States. From the politicizing of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) to the Veteran Affairs scandal, and now new reports that rank the US dead last in […]
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Necessary Responsibility: Understanding Uterine Prolapse in Nepal
Written by Slok
on April 1, 2014. Reports exposing the lack of human rights in Nepal are furiously common. The ubiquitous nature of deprivation of human dignity makes immune the anger, the indignation. Reports are made, read, talked about for a week and discarded. None but a select few keep the conversation alive; and those who pin […]
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Bangladesh fights malnutrition … with zinc!
Written by Danish Aziz
on September 5, 2013. While its much affluent neighbour, India, is busy squabbling over a Right to Food Bill, Bangladesh has been busy. Bangladesh has just launched the world’s first zinc-enriched rice variety. With a country that’s fighting acute malnourishment, and which has one of the highest rates in the world with 41% of children […]
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Sick of the Cost of Healthcare
Written by Stephanie
on September 4, 2013. Australians’ out-of-pocket healthcare expenses are the fifth highest in the world and amount to twice the sum paid by those in the United Kingdom and France. Almost two decades ago, the Australian government established Medicare, a publicly funded universal health care system, to provide Australians with equitable and affordable medical care, […]
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Come and Take It: Preventative Care In Texas
Written by Samuel Chapman
on September 3, 2013. The state of Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people in the United States – 26 percent of a population of 26 million. Of the uninsured, 58 percent are Latino, including 1.3 million children under the age of 18. Under the Affordable Care Act, the Medicaid program would […]
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Insurance for a Brighter Future? Healthcare Provisions in Curaçao
Written by Neelam J. Melwani
on July 1, 2013. When I was in high school, a family member was admitted to St. Elizabeth Hospital (SEHOS) in Curaçao. I’d been there before but this time while visiting I realized just how neglected the place was. Then one day, a nurse told me that the hospital had run out of oxygen, […]
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Industria alimenticia y obesidad infantil en Brasil
Written by Mayxué Ospina Posse
on May 7, 2013. Abstract: Today, only in Brazil, one in every three children between 5 and 9 years is obese. Despite the campaigns undertaken by the public health ministry, nothing indicates a decrease of these figures. On the contrary, recent researchs show that the common Brazilian diet is increasingly rich in sugars and saturated […]
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Healthy Food is an Economic Issue
Written by Maria Farooq
on April 24, 2013. My recurring stomach issues got me thinking that there are serious problems with the food available on the market. Whenever I’ve had the chance to eat out, the usual after effects were either diarrhea or stomach cramps. The stomach covers more than 80 % of our immune system so you […]
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Cambodia: chronic ailments of the healthcare system
Written by Chak Sopheap
on April 3, 2013. I can hardly find a hospital or clinic to go to if I fall sick, especially in the late hours of the night. I don’t have a family doctor, nor do I have a trusted hospital or a clinic, not to even mention the financial side. My parents often advise […]
