1. What ethical theories apply to the use of scarce resources in a disaster situation? 2. How can individual healthcare professionals prepare themselves to deal with potential disaster situations? 3. Do you think the funds spent on disaster drills and exercises are worth the expenditure? How can you defend your answer from an ethics standpoint? 4. Who should be responsible for what happens during a disaster: the individual or the government? 5. Review a disaster plan for a healthcare facility. What is the focus of this disaster plan? On what type of ethical principles is this disaster plan based? 6. When a major disaster happens, can one expect others to demonstrate ethical decision-making abilities? Why or why not? Chapter 22. A new Era of Health Care: The Ethics of Healthcare Reform 1. The history of health care is very different in the United States than it is in Europe. What ethical principles apply to reform efforts in the United States prior to Medicare/Medicaid? 2. What principles of ethics are evident in the Medicare/Medicaid laws? 3. Justice is often viewed differently by different groups of people. Consider PPACA. How is justice defined by the following: physicians, insurance companies, the currently uninsured, well-insured Americans, and those who are in poor health? Chapter 23. Healthcare Reform: What About Those Left Behind? 1. Who are the populations of concern (i.e., those without access to health care)? 2. What are the ethical arguments for advocacy of health care for all? 3. How does a professional association’s ethical code obligate the clinical and advocacy practices of a health professional? 4. What are current case studies in the student’s geographic area that have parallel concerns to the case studies discussed in this chapter? 5. What policy advocacy behaviors do students envision themselves taking for patients without access to health care?
