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Essay / The Pros and Cons of Health Inequalities - 1718
Good health is arbitrary and means different things to different people. In reality, people make behavioral choices that can harm their good health. The new approach should focus on the availability and variety of goods and resources so that people can make and adapt their choices for themselves. Good health is the result of a just society and the distribution of primary social goods can serve as an indicator of health equity (Asada, 2005). This begins with the abolition of the biomedical model and the adoption of a model based on social medicine. The biomedical model is based on the biological treatment of disease and not on prevention. The social model differs from the biomedical model by including psychological and social factors. This will influence providers, policy makers, and more effective ways people communicate about their health. Economics need not be ignored to properly address health inequalities, but it must be formally evaluated using cost-effectiveness analysis (Woodward and Kawachi, 2000). A social model is less expensive than the biomedical model because it does not rely on expensive technology. The biomedical model is profit-driven. It has allowed pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer to sell their generic drugs like fluconazole, an antifungal that AIDS patents use every week, in Africa at an inflated price of $20.00 per pill, when the average income is of $120.00 (MacDonald, 2007, p.87). . The social-based model is open to alternative methods and practices of medicine, making it more affordable for developing countries and those in need. The desired outcome will be that medicine is gender neutral and health care is not subject to social constraints..