Commodified Health Care and Access of the Poor: Sociological-Ethical Analysis
摘要
This chapter broadly provides a sociological-ethical analysis of the current commodification of health care in the contemporary world and its negative impact on the access of the poor to affordable and quality health care, applying sociological perspectives and Catholic social doctrines on health care, preferential option for the poor, and structural sin as a conceptual framework. It sociologically investigates how the processes of privatization, financialization of Big Pharma, and the rise of private equity firms have contributed to the commodification process in health care currently, and how this has greatly impacted the access of the poor to inexpensive and prime health services, contrary to Catholic social teaching on universal health care. It also clarifies the Catholic Church’s social doctrines on health care as a basic human right as well as the role of the state in protecting the rights of the poor in public health.