The budget show down the United States saw firsthand the week of April 8th. While congress members and members of the White House were fighting over various bullet points, over a million people were waiting anxiously to see what would happen. The shutdown of the government of course meant the furlough of non-essential federal government employees, but it also meant that the many business designed to serve the federal government would also be shut down for the time being. This includes anything from government contractors to the local deli that serves a federal agency. The ripple effect of a shutdown would have been very broad, and many people believed it would truly slow down the economic growth of this country. The momentum of the economy is very fragile at this time, and a small negative effect could throw the balance right off.

One program that was in the hot seat for debate was Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a program designed to help low income women with health services related to birth control, mammograms, and various women related health check-ups. The two parties of congress were in gridlock over how abortion was being sponsored by this program.

Even though this program was only valued at just over 300 million dollars, it tied into other medical programs. Many companies were keeping a close on this particular program, because they wanted to see if its outcome could affect other government sponsored programs. The pulse oximeter industry was one of those industries that were paying attention. The oximetry industry has nothing to do with Planned Parenthood or the abortion debate, but as a whole they do provide oximeters to the medical field as a whole. The government purchases thousands of pulse oximeters every year for both research and medical supply uses. A pulse oximeter, sometimes known as a pulse ox by some medical professionals, is a medical device which is used to get both the blood oxygen saturation and pulse rate of a patient.

A pulse oximeter might not be a device that people first think about, but it is a crucial tool to the medical field. A pulse oximeter comes in various forms from a fingertip unit, a hand held unit, and a tabletop unit. Each type serves the same function though. Most clinical settings will use a tabletop unit because it can store more information within the unit, while people on the go will stick to either the fingertip or hand held pulse oximeter.

A government shutdown affects various industries that are not all federal.