Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

Ministry of Popular Power for Higher Education

Experimental National University Romulo Gallegos

Maturín-State-Monagas

Mutual Aid and Health care

Teacher Student C.I Secction

Patrick Gonzales Christian 28429302 12
Amodio

Maturín, July 4 of the 2021

While the health public sector do a approach in logistical terms, this science tends to weigh in state
terms, and not in a long-term thinking, I mean, if we are guided by the economic cause, it tells us
that poverty and the lack of social mobility, are the determinants that can be the origin of many of
these diseases that specifically affect poor communities. The public health perspective on this
problem is clear: To carry out health promotion programs and prevention, to provide tools for the
treatment of diseases...but that does not solve the origin of the problem, it does not solve poverty,
the cause for which these communities find themselves in a constant endless need of these public
resources.

Hence my thought about it weigh the importance of increasing prosperity, and in a secondary
matter, to increase access to the health system, allowing the individual and the community to
create their own local alternatives within the market, this type of solutions have been especially
important for developing countries, and just to give you an example, I could talk about the system
called: Mutual health.

Mutual societies are entities providing services, supported by the contribution of their associates,
usually in the form of micro-enterprises, where a group of freely associated persons, under a
specific legal form, meets to solve common problems, guided by solidarity and for the purpose of
contributing to the achievement of the material and spiritual well-being of their members.

In Africa and Latin America, microenterprise employment is growing four times faster than formal
employment. In medium and large enterprises; in countries where it is difficult for women to access
the formal labour market, self-employment or business creation is often the only route to
employment and income. So women now form the majority of microentrepreneurs in the informal
sector in many countries. For example, in Indonesia, they account for 72 per cent and 65 per cent
respectively of employees in the informal sector.

Micro-entrepreneurs join trade associations for pragmatic reasons, usually related to their
immediate work environment. As a group, entrepreneurs can offer lower prices, access larger
markets or share equipment and tools that are too expensive for a single individual or micro-
enterprise. In some cases, this situation leads to the creation of a common Infrastructure where
members can access specific and cheaper services.

A mutual can be responsible for the payment, in whole or in part, of the expenses incurred by its
members. The main mechanisms used to allocate a share of health expenses to its members are the
following: The co-payment represents the part of health expenses that is not covered by the mutual
and that is borne by the member. It is expressed as a percentage. Its main purpose is to limit the
trend towards to excessive consumption of health services.

Generally, the costs of health services are shared between the patient and the mutual. This
establishes a tripartite relationship between members, mutual and health service providers. The
main modalities for the granting of benefits are described below:
The mutual can ask its members to pay for the services, which will be reimbursed later. In this case,
the member pays according to the modality adopted by the medical care provider (payment for
treatment, illness or consultation) and according to the rates agreed with the mutual.

For microentrepreneurs, the disadvantages of this form of payment are, on the one hand, the
obligation to have the full amount necessary for the payment of the treatment and, on the other
hand, the need to carry out additional procedures to obtain reimbursement.

For the mutual the advantage of this system is in controlling excessive consumption and the
tendency to abuse.

Despite the convenience of the system, it has had some opposition, i will give a example in the USA
history:

The endorsement of the New York Conference Law did not signal a complete change of heart about
the role of government.

The leading fraternal publications, such as the Fraternal Monitor and the Western Review, provide
ample evidence of a continuing aversion to intrusive bureaucracy and paternalism. This hostility
greatly intensified when the some fraternal organizations launched a vigorous and ultimately
successful campaign against proposals for compulsory health insurance.

Before 1916 the main opponents to compulsory insurance were the comercial casualty and life
companies, labor unions, and fraternal societies. The commercial companies drew the hardest line,
especially after the proudly (and as events proved, foolishly) announced that they would not have
any role in the system. Organized labor was more divided. Although several state labor federations
endorsed compulsory insurance, the American Federation of Labor was emphatically opposed. Like
fraternalists, labor opponents condemned the plan as paternalistic and destructive to self-help.
They also voiced fears that such a plan would be used as precedent to undermine the
independence of unions.

The Fraternal Monitor condemned state-provided health, accident, and life insurance and predicted
that it would sap “that spirit of self-reliance so essential for continued progress and prosperity. We
become a people of learners instead of workers.” Two years later the Ladies Review featured an
editorial about a pension law recently enacted in Great Britain. According to the writer, most
Americans regarded such plans “as savoring too strongly of the paternal in government and putting
a premium on improvidence.” Any government scheme would fail, she warned, if it ignored the
moral of the old story about the race between the “ant and the sluggard.”

Fraternal hostility hardened and intensified after Great Britain took steps to enact compulsory old-
age insurance. “No thoughtful person who has studied history,” the Fraternal Monitor commented,
“and who realizes that governments are consumers not creators of wealth, can watch the drift of
things without a growing feeling of apprehension.”
The way to get a better health is, from my humble point of view, dont make the community be in
relationship of dependence on public programs, is to make it independent of such programs.

The higher this Independence is, the greater degree of social mobility will have the poor.