PROVIDING HEALTH CARE TO ALL PATIENTS

ASSESSMENT OF THE CONCEPT WITHIN THE

The health care issue addressed in this research is framed by the following question: "Should health care professionals be required to provide care to all patients without exception?" The growing diversity in the structure of the American population, an increase in the incidence of both incurable and highly communicable diseases among this population, and an evolving social milieu that to some people causes the unthinkable to be considered work together to create moral, ethical, and practical dilemmas for many in the healing professions. These dilemmas frequently are associated with the concept of an obligation of the health care professional to provide care to whomever needs it; a concept that is questioned by some when considering contemporary societal conditions. The issue of providing health to all patients is addressed in this research within the context of providing health care to undocumented aliens within the American population.

Georg Simmel's sociological theory incorporates both subjective and objective elements (Quigley, 1994, pp. 43-55). The theory provides a basis for non-deductive historical explanation of social phenomena. Simmel emphasized an interactionist approach to sociological inquiry (Waiter, 1993, pp. 69-75). Forms of interaction play are significant in

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services to undocumented aliens within the United States may be assessed most effectively within a Simmelian schema of social forms through application of the relational forms of enmity and host/stranger. With respect to access to health care services by undocumented aliens within the United States, the issue does not center on the denial of such access on the basis that an individual is an undocumented alien, but rather on the denial of free or subsidized access to health care services for undocumented aliens (Nickel, 1986, pp. 19-23). Within the relational form of enmity, thus, a process of conflict characterizes the relationship between the bulk of American society and the undocumented aliens within this society. Moralists within American society contend that anyone in the country requiring health care services should have access to such services, regardless of whether such an individual can pay for the required services and regardless of whether such an individual is in the United States under legal circumstances (Blankenau, 1993, pp. 36-39). Moralist, thus, view undocumented aliens in the role of strangers in the United States through the functioning of a sojourning process within the host/stranger relational form. Oppo
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1418
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)

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