Conflict Theory Of Health And Medicine

Health & Medicine Health is considerably one of the most important things an individual should worry about. Health is essential for day to day activities and can determine how long a person has have to live. However, there are many problems with the current health system today such as drug companies taking advantage of numerous individuals. It seems that health is not prioritised for the right reasons. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, Medical Sociology is defined as “concerns with the relationship between social factors and health.” By this definition medical sociology classifies under Conflict Theory. Conflict theory “suggests that issues with the healthcare system… [is] rooted in capitalist society” (Openstax 2013: 444).

There are many different brands of drugs that have the same chemical components to help with certain biological needs and problems. However, the main problem is that there is an overdose amount of drugs on the market that do relatively the same thing but with a different brand name. Many companies are re-using drugs with the same chemical components, renaming it, and claiming that it will help with certain physical or mental pain. This is also known as “me too drugs” (Ridberg 2006). They are drugs that do the same thing and contain the same chemicals but are differently priced because of marketing. The reason why companies do it is not for the good of the people, in fact the majority of these “me too drugs” do not accomplish what they are suppose to. The reason companies do this is to gain a profit when one of their drugs is out of patent. This ensures that they will still make a profit later on. Not only are

It is not just in small towns or in the U.S. where this problem is happening. Many places around the world is experiencing the same problems with health issues. A BMJ investigation has been taking place in Britain, where they discovered that “cheap drugs… [are] being blocked by pharmaceutical companies” (Donnelly 2015). Rather than having a more efficient way for everyone to have the treatment they need, capitalist companies are only selling the expensive products to have more money in their pockets. This provides inequality within our system because the people who can afford it are the only ones to get the treatment while the ones who cannot are left struggling. The structure that our society has is controlled by capitalism and the greed for money. There are things citizens and individuals can do such as protest and join different types of movements in order to get their voices heard. The only issue with the movements is that since our society is root deep into capitalism, change for the better of society is not