Health care is the maintenance and improvement of physical and mental health such as the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, with the help of medical services. Many Americans have an ample amount of access to health care that allows them to fully benefit from the Nation's health care system. Others face obstacles that make it difficult to receive basic health care services such as lack of availability, lack of insurance coverage, and high costs. “As shown by extensive research and confirmed in previous National Healthcare Disparities Reports (NHDRs), racial and ethnic minorities and people of low socioeconomic status (SES) are disproportionately represented among those with access problems”. One problem in health …show more content…
For example there are plenty of people with disabilities who feel that they are not funded properly for the things needed to treat their diagnosis. Disabled people also compare their complicated disabilities to disabilities requiring less medical treatments. People varying for young children to the elderly with disabilities use a lot of assistive technology and personal assistance. These are not covered by many health care plans. A shockingly truthful fact of HMO plan is that HMO's avoid bringing disabled people into their systems because they believe that these people will regularly use pricey medical services. Majority of the people who wanted a great deal of medical treatment were healthy when they joined, but became disabled …show more content…
More specifically the HCFA administers the Medicare, Medicaid and Child Health Insurance Programs and also regulates all laboratories testing in the U.S. through the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments program. The NIA supports and conducts in Alzheimer's disease research and the AoA provides services and programs designed to help them live independently in their homes and communities. The Act also empowers the federal government to distribute funds to the states for supportive services for individuals over the age of 60. A more familiar plan of action to improve health care is the Patient Protection Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obamacare. The ACA was created with the intent of increasing the quality and making health insurance affordable, lowering the uninsured rate by having various public and private insurance coverages, and decreasing the costs of healthcare for individuals and the government. The law also requires insurance companies to cover all applicants within new minimum standards and offer the same rates regardless of pre-existing conditions or
The public needs to address racial disparities in health which is achievable by changing policy addressing the major components of socioeconomic status (income, education, and occupation) as well as the pathways by which these affect health. To modify these risk factors, one needs to look even further to consider the factors. Socioeconomic status is a key underlying factor. Several components need to be identified to offer more options for those working on policy making. Because the issue is so big, I believe that not a single policy can eliminate health disparities in the United States. One possible pathway can be education, like the campaign to decrease tobacco usage, which is still a big problem, but the health issue has decreased in severity. The other pathway can be by addressing the income, by giving low-income individuals the same quality of care as an individual who has a high
Health Disparities and Racism is an ongoing problem that is reflected among society. Health is when an individual is physically, mentally and social well being is complete. However health disparities seems to be a social injustice within various ethnicities. Health disparities range from age, race, income, education and many other things. Even though we realize health disparities are more noticeable depending on the region of country where they live in. Racism is one of the most popular factors, for why it’s known that people struggle with health.
The individual mandate and the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare”, is the idea that citizens should be required to have health insurance or otherwise pay a certain penalty. The Affordable Care Act essentially is the ability for all Americans to be able to afford health insurance. “One goal of the ACA, often referred to as the Affordable Care Act…is to bring down the costs of health care and make it available to more people.” (Will the Affordable Care Act improve health care in the United States?). The ACA was signed into law in March 2010 and currently ongoing. Although the Affordable Care Act does potentially have some positive effects to it, like bringing affordable health insurance to uninsured Americans; the Act does also have
In 2010, President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act in order to bring reform to the current healthcare system. The law was designed to provide healthcare coverage for people that did not have access to healthcare, improve the quality of the types of healthcare provided, and contain costs (HHS, 2014). Some of the features of the law are:
Health disparity is one of the major concerns in the provision of quality care and access to healthcare which directly the life expectancy of the nation as about ethnicity and race. However, describing the health outcomes or status of an ethnic group in the population would help in a better evaluation of the disparities that occur within minority groups in our society. “Racial/ethnic disparities in health and quality of and access to health care are a well-documented and persistent problem. Across many indicators of health, access to care, and health care quality, racial/ethnic minorities fare worse than whites, and each population faces specific challenges”(James et al., 2017, p. 1).
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is a federal that was signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010 to systematically improve, reform, and structure the healthcare system. The ACA’s ultimate goal is to promote the health outcomes of an individual by reducing costs. Previously known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the ACA was established in order to increase the superiority, accessibility, and affordability of health insurance. President Obama has indicated the ACA is fully paid for and by staying under the original $900 billion dollar budget; it will be able to provide around 94% of Americans with coverage. In addition, the ACA has implemented that implemented that insurance companies can no longer deny c...
Lee, S. &. (2009). Disparities in access to health care among non-citizens in the United States. Health Sociology Review , 18 (3), 307-317.
The growing number of uninsured and underinsured is on the rise. In 1979, 11 million African americans were uninsured (Jaffe 10). Today, the number is 15 million and it is increasing every year (Jaffe 11). According to the Department of Health and Human Services, thirteen million blacks in America have health care and fourteen million do not (Fitzgerald 31). Also, those who are insured today may be at risk tomorrow if their employer drops coverage, or the head of the household changes or loses their job. Most blacks in the United States who are uninsured simply cannot receive health care at an affordable price because their employer does not offer it and self-insurance cost much more. The lack of adequate insurance can be devastating to families both in financial terms and in terms of timely access to needed health care (Jaffe 12). Altogether, collection agencies report every year that most blacks are in debt due to unpaid medical bills, because they are not insured or they are underinsured.
As defined by World Health Organization (WHO), health is a "state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." (WHO, 2016). However, this statement can vary among people’s perspective of what consider healthy or unhealthy. In the minority group of Hispanics or Latino, health issues have taken a big toll due to fact they are the largest uninsured rates of any racial and ethnic groups in the United States (OMH, 2015). Besides not having health insurance, there are many barriers that this minority group encounters that create a big impact on what enables them to promote health. This paper will analyze the health status of the Hispanic or Latino groups by comparing and contrasting it to the national average, and also will highlight the health disparities in the group and the best approach to health using the three levels of health promotion and prevention.
An issue that is widely discussed and debated concerning the United States’ economy is our health care system. The health care system in the United States is not public, meaning that the states does not offer free or affordable health care service. In Canada, France and Great Britain, for example, the government funds health care through taxes. The United States, on the other hand, opted for another direction and passed the burden of health care spending on individual consumers as well as employers and insurers. In July 2006, the issue was transparency: should the American people know the price of the health care service they use and the results doctors and hospitals achieve? The Wall Street Journal article revealed that “U.S. hospitals, most of them nonprofit, charged un-insured patients prices that vastly exceeded those they charged their insured patients. Driving their un-insured patients into bankruptcy." (p. B1) The most expensive health care system in the world is that of America. I will talk about the health insurance in U.S., the health care in other countries, Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill, and my solution to this problem.
Sicko, a film by Michael Moore was released in 2007. The film investigates health care system in the United States. One would definitely get amazed by the facts and figures explained in this documentary. The movie explains failing health care system in the United States. America has advance medical technology, big hospitals, and educated health care professionals, but these facilities are not universal. The film starts by talking about true American stories; what some people have experienced from current health care system, those who had and did not had health insurances. The story starts by Adam, one of 50 million people in America who does not have health insurance. Due to an accident Adam required a medical treatment, but for the reason of not having any insurance he puts stitches on his leg by himself. The second story was about Rick, who accidentally cut the top of his two fingers, middle and the ring while working on the table saw. As a result of not having health insurance, Rick could not put the top of his middle finger back because it was costing 60,000 dollars and he did not had the money. So, he decided to put his ring finger back because it cost 12,000 dollars which he could afford. The movie does not go into the detail of 50 million people who do not have health insurance, but it’s about 250 million Americans who do have health insurance.
What Seems To Be The Problem? A discussion of the current problems in the U.S. healthcare system.
According to healthypeople.gov, a person’s ability to access health services has a profound effect on every aspect of his or her health, almost 1 in 4 Americans do not have a primary care provider or a health center where they can receive regular medical services. Approximately 1 in 5 A...
With the United Nations listing health care as natural born right and the escalating cost of health care America has reached a debatable crisis. Even if you do have insurance it's a finical strain on most families.
The purpose of ACA implementation is because many people are uninsured due of various reasons, some of the reasons are financial hardship, pre-existing conditions, and work status. The most effective solution to these issues was to formulate