Yep, Capitalism Still Sucks

I’ve taken a bunch of sociology classes before, so I came into this class with a fair understanding of inequalities – race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, geographic location, education level, etc. But it had never really occurred to me before this class that these inequalities would affect health and illness in the way that they do. For one thing, I had never really thought about “non-Western” approaches to healthcare. All I knew was the biomedical model, so of course had assumed that that was the only approach to healthcare. One of the biggest takeaways from this class for me was that there is no one right way to approach healthcare. This came out especially with the class on childbirth. I knew about midwifery, but had no idea the negative impacts that the biomedical model of health had on childbirth. And I think that this is just one example. Another example is the way that we view death. I wrote my last blog post about the connection between capitalism and fear of death. And in class, when we were talking about rebirth and the afterlife, students were more likely to be suspicious of ideas about the afterlife, which is so different from so many other cultures. But when I thought further about that, it made sense. The biomedical model, and the culture in which it is used, doesn’t leave much room for alternatives.

The paradigm of biomedicine sees health as a completely scientific area. So if we as a society run enough tests and conduct enough research and do enough experiments, we’ll be able to cure illnesses. And as we’ve learned, that’s not the only way to look at health. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of holistic medicine, and the idea of curing the person and not the illness. I like thinking about spiritual and emotional health, and not just physical well-being. But those ideas just aren’t marketable. We, as a culture, are suspicious of methods of healing that come without the endorsement of scientists and people with fancy letters after their names. And, I’m sorry to say, I’m linking this back to capitalism.

My peers (and professor) may be tired of hearing me beat the “capitalism is bad” drum, but the more I think about it, the more evidence there is that capitalism is bad, and the biomedical model fits in with that. The biomedical model is based on the idea that there are certain “scientifically-proven” medicines/services/products that will improve our health. We’ve been studying them all semester – organic food; drugs/services to make childbirth easier; drugs for our mental health; surgeries for bad shoulders (lookin’ at you, T.R. Reid). And here’s where capitalism comes in: those things have to be bought. They cost money, and many of them cost a lot of money. So the biomedical model is inherently part of the capitalist system. There are those who profit from our desire to be healthy (doctors, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, insurance companies), and there are those who pay (either the government, health insurance companies, or individuals). And, thanks to my good friend capitalism, some people have more access to those medicines/products/services, and some have not enough access at all.

I lament about capitalism a lot. I think it’s a fundamentally flawed system built on structural inequalities. And this class has really just solidified that view for me. Because structural inequalities affect a person’s access to healthcare, and not in a minor way. Someone’s social position can potentially influence their life span. And this goes back to something we learned in the very beginning of the semester: there are distal causes of illnesses. Some people are more likely to get certain illnesses, not for any biological reason, but because of inequalities that deeply impact their level of access. And so we spent a good chunk of time discussing healthcare policy, and how best to fix that. And while I’m all for a single-payer, medicare-for-all system of healthcare, I’m not sure that that will entirely fix the problem. Changing our healthcare policy won’t change those distal causes; they’ll help us adapt easier and will hopefully provide better access to healthcare, but they won’t stop us from getting sick.

So, what are the major takeaways from this class?? Well, for one, our healthcare structure is depressing. I hope I never find myself without insurance, because healthcare is expensive. But I also learned that we don’t need to be confined by the biomedical model of health. We should feel comfortable exploring “non-Western” cures and remedies and see how other people experience health. We don’t need to believe that there is only one correct pathway to health, because there isn’t. Although, full disclosure: if I ever break a bone or have a heart attack, I sure as hell am calling 911 and rushing to the nearest hospital for some MD-approved healthcare. So, maybe adopting a different view of healthcare is harder than it looks….