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Functionalism In Health Care

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Functionalism In Health Care
Alyssa Bursott
Dr. Stephanie Spars
SOC 100 - Introduction to Sociology
March 8, 2016
Health and Medicine Society experiences health and wellness in many different perspectives. Sociologically speaking, there are two major theoretical aspects to healthcare. Functionalism demonstrates illness as an inhibitor on society’s functions. Conflict theory describes issues within the healthcare system, rather than focusing on individual illness affecting society. All in all, both approaches share the same ideology on the source of overall health. These two perspectives illustrate a sociological root for issues within health and medicine. Functionalism explains health and medicine by looking at how each individual who is ill affects the flow and function …show more content…
As global stratification has resulted in different levels of industrious nations, healthcare has been impacted as well. Wealthy nations that are industrialized are capable of creating an excellent healthcare system that provides for themselves, whereas the least industrialized nations “have neither the trained surgeons nor the money to buy the technology (Henslin 549).” Also, capitalism tends to support the wealthier individuals because they “are the ones who make decisions about how the health care system will be run (OpenStax 2016).” The poor do not have the power or the money to use the commodity of capitalistic healthcare. This is not the only aspect of the conflict perspective on healthcare. Monopolizing U.S. health care has become a way of controlling who can be doctors, and how doctors will be paid. The American Medical Association, or AMA, gained a monopoly that allowed them to pass laws to prohibit certain individuals from attaining a medical license. “A sort of priesthood of medicine (Henslin 552)” developed, creating an elite group who have complete control over the medical field. Only these members have the power to diagnose and treat ill individuals. These two ideas collide to create conflict within society. If only a select group of individuals are allowed to practice medicine, and the poor are unable to afford to support these specialized individuals, then the health care for the less fortunate will be minimal, if not nonexistent. Conflict theorists emphasize that this conflict, rather than the individual, causes a social problem within
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