After preparing presentation two, and witnessing your classmates presentations, what would you like to be your debate question? Why? Remember that the debate topic must be in the form of a question that has a debatable answer, rather than a statement of fact, and that the answer to that question must necessitate argument like a thesis statement.

Debate Topic: Does the health care industry value profits over their patients well-being?

While researching for our group project, the corrupt health care system stayed in my head – and I still can’t get it out. The health care industry didn’t become so corrupt overnight. It took years of unethical, money-hungry employees pushing the sales of pharmaceutical drugs. Managers of pharmaceutical companies created quotas for employees under them to fill. More drugs sold equals nice bonuses and recognition. Money drives a lot of people to do work, ethical and unethical. Family practices and doctors are funded by pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Cleggett from The Pharmacists is just one example of a corrupt doctor prescribing medication for monetary gain. Since everyone is money-oriented, a lot of problems arise.

The pharmaceutical industry is expected to reach $1170 billion in 2021. Do you believe they care about who is taking what medication? No. The industry marketing strategies normalize the usage of prescription drugs. They spend $30 billion into their advertisements every year. All of these numbers are so crazy to me. They know that their medications are highly addictive, and don’t spend near as much on addiction. They make so much money that they just don’t even care!

I think that some people will have a different point of view. Some could say well, look at other countries, it’s not that bad or that this is America and they care about us. They value their patients more than profits. (If you do believe this, you won’t after my debate.) This could be true; however, it all comes back to the health care system. I would like to look into WHY the U.S. sucks so bad compared to other nations. I think corruption in the health care and monetary incentives to sell are huge parts of this problem. Do other countries deal with this as well? What makes the U.S. stand out?

When I was in the Dominican Republic, I had to purchase some medication. The medication that I needed costed $3.99. In America, that same pill usually starts around $40. Is this because in America, we are so money-hungry that we up-charge medication way more than the cost it takes to make?

I think this would be a very fun topic to debate, and I already have 6 articles bookmarked. 😉