The objective of this paper is to provide a concrete overview, and demonstrate how privatization of public services agencies is taking place in the area of health and human services. T ill also look at the rationales behind privatization and the evidences of how effective or problematic this could be for many government agencies. We must agree that privatization is not a new concept and this has been around for a many decades. What is privatization? What are the pros and cons? These questions have been discussed among many import people in society without reaching most of the times an agreeable conclusion.
As we all know privatization can be define or refer to the act of transferring ownership of specified property or business operations from a government organization to a private owned entity. Historically the real meaning of privatization has been to increase the role of private sectors and to diminish the government’s role as the propitiator of assets or any other activity in our society. We must be vigilant because every year privatization initiatives are being implemented across the United States to save money and also to provide better service to the public according to many elected fficials.
If we allowed the government to privatized health and human services we must take into consideration that many of the stake holders are people of low income that are dependable of such benefits. We have to understand that health and human services historically have been considered to be one of the greatest achievements in many countries because it provides security and health coverage in our society. We must mention that one the disadvantage when the government provides health and human services for many of us is quality.
For the most part the treatment that many people gets under tate health insurance or government funded health care system is designed to fit the standard usually approved by the state or government regulations without taking into consideration the real needs of the people. One the most controversial policy is the privatization of public education in our society to a certain degree because it allows parents and low income communities with the chance to send their children to a better funded school.
The privatization of some of the school has come under fire because education reform like “NCLB, and Race to the Top” believe that if children do not perform at chool, is the school fault. We the public must be open minded and decide what is best for our children. As we ask ourselves the simple question, what are the pro and cons of privatization? Who will be affected the most? Who will benefit the most? These are the questions that we must answer before we can come to concrete conclusion.
If we look historically the trends and issues of privatization in State Government we will find that privatization has it pros and cons in our society. People in government positions agreed that the rational for private sector o take over public agencies is difficult to generalize. Many of them believe that the private sector is better in getting the job done than the government. The competition that the private sector provides is more cost effectively. Subsequently the private sector can help the government save and make the job faster and way much cheaper than the public sector.
The accountability that the private sector offers helps and provides better services to the public. Many studies have showed that the private sector excels in using better technology to solve problems. On the other hand many of the government gencies for the most part rely on outdated technology and do not like to take risks to address those problems. Furthermore, for many people in the public sector such as health care workers privatization come with a high price, it threatens jobs security, pay, benefits, working conditions as well as career opportunities.
Privatization also affects the public when it comes to public services, it means less quality, less access to health care and accountability. We must agree that privatization is growing and spreading rapidly across the glove and this trend is no going to stop anytime soon. Privatization as we know is a complicated and for the most part is politically and socially motivated in our society. Concrete evidence has shown that privatization in the human services is highly controversial.
One of the major concerns to the opposition of privatization of human services area has to do with the quality of service render to the public and the impact on public jobs. Nevertheless, we know that the main objective for the private company is to make a profit when they take over any public institution. The other strong opposition to privatization of human services orkers is the unions representing public employees from fear that the public sector jobs will be lost.
As a future social worker I must be well aware of the different social policy that government has in place and the ones that eventually will be implemented in our society. Clearly the debate was an eyes opener for me because I learned how the government implements different policies that could be beneficial as well as detrimental to others. I also learned that most of the policies that are implemented by our elected officials are for the most part to address social issues, ranging from poverty to racism. I as social workers it is clear that most of these policies are here to benefits human welfare for the most part.
Many of these social policies that are in place are the remedy to many of the problems created by our own political system. To mention a few of these social policies such as welfare for the poor, food stamps, affordable housing, health care, unemployment benefits were created to cope with the current trend of poverty that exists in our society among the low income class. I was very surprised to find out how the government allows the rivate sector to also implement social policies to remedy a problem sometimes created by the government.
A good example is when a private company donates to a cause to improve any social issues. As a future social worker I see privatization as a new opportunity for innovation to take place, to address the problematic and the red tapes that many of our health and human services agencies are facing now a day. However, we have to closely monitor privatization as a treat to job security, benefits, working conditions as well career opportunities for social workers. Keep in mind that rivatization for the most part is nonunion.
I have asked many of my colleagues at work how do they feel about this trend of privatization and for the most part they fell that in most case is beneficial to the workers as well as to the public. They said that idea of privatization of public agencies to the private sector in many occasions make sense to cut costs and provide a better service. Many of them agree that privatization in a way deliver greater efficiency to needs of the public with new technology. They also said that the government most of the time do not ffers the same quality of service due to budget restrictions.
Consequently, as I finally this paper I must state that privatization involves risks and require a careful scrutiny from both the government as well as the public sector because the private sector must develop and determine the appropriate cots and services to the populations that they will serve. At the present time there is not enough studies that indicates which is best or effective when it comes to the privatization of some of our public agencies. We must let time be the judge to see the results.
