Transcript Religion, Education, and Medicine

Religion, Education, and
Medicine
Discussion Outline
– Three interconnected institutions that help society
meet it’s basic needs
• I. Religion
• II. Education
• III. Medicine
– Institution?
I. Religion
• What is religion? What is the purpose of
religion?
– Why might it be hard for some sociologists to
study religion according to Max Weber?
Durkheim’s contributions to the study
of religion
–The sacred and the profane (secular)
–How can something be both sacred and
profane?
Major World Religions
• The largest Religious group in the world is Christians,
followed by Muslims
• If the worlds population was represented as an
imaginary village of 100 people there would be:
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33 Christians
21 Muslims
16 non religious individuals (Agnostic or atheist)
14 Hindus
6 Buddhists
6 Chinese Universalists
4 Believers in another religion (Judaism, Sikhism, etc)
• Are Americans religious as a whole?
Religion in Contemporary U.S. Life
• The Secularization Thesis-The debate
– Overall people have remained religious, but religion has less
influence over education and government
– Religiosity-The ways that people demonstrate their religious
beliefs
• The Religious Marketplace
– The most common reasons people change religion:
• Not believing in teachings
• Seeing religious people as hypocritical or judgmental
• Losing respect for religious leaders who focus on power and money
State-Church Issues
– The First Amendment
• Religion and Morality
– Issues?
Religion and Theory
• The Functionalist Perspective
– The importance of religion
• The Conflict Perspective
– Marx and Religion
• Religion as a weapon
• Religion is the “opiate of the people”
II. Education in America
• Thomas Jefferson, an advocate and pioneer of
the American educational system, believed
that education is important to promoting
active citizenship and a democratic selfgovernment. What did he mean?
– What is the purpose of education?
Education
• Education system
• The Bureaucratic Structure of Schools
– Characteristics of American Schools
Characteristics of Education
in the U.S.
• Education as a Conserving Force
– Schools indoctrinate students in the culturally
prescribed ways.
• Mass Education
– Many students attend school for the wrong reason.
Characteristics of Education
in the U.S.
• Preoccupation with Order and Control
• A Fragmented Education System
– Private
– Homeschooling
– Charter
– Vouchers
Characteristics of Education
in the U.S.
• Local Control of Education
– Financing of schools through local taxes
– Intrusion of religious views of the majority
• Sifting and Sorting Function of Schools
Education and Theory
• The Functionalist Perspective?
• Symbolic Interactionism?
• Educational Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
Sociological Theories of Education
• Conflict
– Educational institution solidifies class positions and allows
the elite to control the masses.
– Quality education and educational opportunities are not
equally distributed.
– Education provides indoctrination into the capitalist
ideology.
III. Medicine
• Health Care in The United States
• Is health care in the U.S. truly: “…unjust, corrupt,
inefficient, irrelevant, too expensive, and too often
harming people” As suggested by Stanford physician and
other critics (pg 376 of textbook)?
• What are some of the problems related to U.S. health
care?
– Do you have positive or negative experiences?
Problems in American Health Care
• Inadequate Health Insurance Coverage
• The High Cost of Health Care
• U.S. World Rankings
• Unequal access to health care
• The politics of Health Reform and influence of
Private Industry
Inadequate Health Insurance Coverage
• 2010: 50 Million Americans Uninsured
– 700,000 bankruptcies a year due to medical bills
– How many bankruptcies occur per year due to
med bills in France? Germany? Japan? Britain?
U.S World Rankings
• The U.S. spends 50% more per capita on health
care than any other country.
• The U.S. ranks 47th in average life expectancy.
• The U.S. ranks last among 23 wealthy countries
in its infant mortality rate.
• The U.S. ranks 54th out of 191 countries in terms
of the fairness of its health care system.
• The World Health Organization ranked the U.S.
37th out of 191 countries in Overall Health Care
• (From Eitzen and Baca, Social Problems (2012))
Unequal Access to Health Care
• Social Class
– The poor are more likely to suffer from certain types of diseases and
illnesses, receive inferior medical service, and less likely to use
preventive medicine.
• Medicaid helps, yet it is often the working poor and their families who do not
qualify
• Race
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Life expectancy
Infant mortality
Maternal mortality
Prenatal care
Low birth weight
Cancer and other diseases
U.S. Health Care Reform?
• The U.S. is the only country in the industrialized
world that does not guarantee health care to its
citizens.
– Health care is rationed in United States on the ability
to pay
– In all other industrialized nations there is a
mechanism for guaranteeing health care to all
citizens. Many industrialized nations provide national
health care, or Universal health care, which is also
known as socialized medicine
Reforming the Health Care System
• In 1912, Theodore Roosevelt proposed a
national health insurance plan, and since
then, many presidential administrations have
sought health care for all citizens
– In 2009, the majority (61%) of U.S. adults was in
favor of the government guaranteeing health
coverage to all citizens, even if it meant higher
taxes.
Application: Canada’s Health Care
System
• Federal proposal-The National Health
Insurance Act-Expand Medicare to every U.S.
resident
– Creates a single payer health care system-a tax
financed public insurance program that replaces
private insurance companies
• National health insurance card for all citizens-covers all
medical services with no co-payments or deductibles
and would see doctor of choice.
– What are the primary barriers?
• What stands in the way of reform to a broken
system?
Barriers to Reform
• The Insurance Industry is in great opposition
to reform
– Interest groups have spent hundreds of millions on
televisions ads, lobbying, and campaign
contributions to combat against reforms.
– (1.5 million recently went to the chairman of the Senate
Finance Committee)
– In 2009 there were 3,098 health-sector lobbyists.
• Reconstruction of the social problem using
misinformation and the media-Critical Constructionism
Barriers to Reform
• The Politics of Health Reform-Partisan issues
– Government should be involved in the health care
system (Democrats).
– The marketplace should dictate the health care
system (Republicans).