Dawit Zena
Soc 125
Professor Uros Petrovic
02 Dec, 2014
Health Inequalities in US and Universal Health Care as a Solution
Health inequality is one of the social inequalities that may cost the lives of people unless backed by corrective policies. Universal health care is one of those tools by which we correct disparities in health care utilization and insure the health of the fellow citizens. World health Organization (WHO) defined Universal health care, also universal health coverage as “a specific type of health care coverage of all people regardless of their income, age, race pre-existing illness, gender or wealth”. In other terms, it is ensuring health care utilization of all legal residents (World Health Organization, 2013).
I am a premed student at the University of Kansas and it has always been my passion to care about ill people, especially to those people who cannot afford their own treatment or cannot afford to have a health insurance. I love contributing to the team effort in bringing out the best of myself and my teammates for fulfilling equality in the healthcare provision. This high interest of me to resolve the healthcare inequality problems that is seen explicitly in the US health care system inspired me to choose this specific topic. One potential bias that may affect the paper could be the fact that I am one of those people who doesn’t have insurance and think that the health care insurance system in the United States is just another way of ripping the poor
obese, 25 % of social class V are obese. This is the same level as in
This is a paper about the issues involving uninsured Americans and what we can do to improve healthcare in America.
. Addressing health inequalities and health care is not only important from the point of view of social justice, but also to improving the health of all Americans by improving the quality of care and health of their children. People. Moreover, the difference in health is expensive. An analysis estimates that about 30% of total direct medical expenses for blacks, Hispanics and Asians are excessive costs due to inequalities in health. The difference also leads to economic losses due to indirect costs related to loss of productivity and premature mortality. (Artiga,
The united states have a unique health care system of delivery that pursues to target some specific areas. The health reform, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also called the Obama care (2010), which holds the promise of universal health coverage under government mandates. With a predominant role that is play from the government the Health Care Reform is said to be, one of the most important pieces of legislation today. Universal health care is the pourpose that all citizens should have access to affordable, high-quality medical care and acces to primary care. Health care reform will provide every American with the ability to obtain, health insurance regardless of race, ethnicity, or income. With universal health care, everyone’s
The question of Universal Healthcare in the United States has valid and non valid arguments with supporters on both sides of the issue. Millions of Americans do not have affordable health care insurance. The main question is who is responsible to provide this? Is it feasible for government to pay for the lack of health care by taxpayer’s dollars? Should you be responsible for yourselves or should you be compensated by the government? Unemployment is at record high making health insurance less attainable or affordable than ever. In most cases, additional restrictions or
Universal Healthcare will increase accessibility, by eliminating the ability of major insurance companies to discriminate, based on pre-existing conditions and other exclusions to care. A key debated issue with Universal Healthcare is whether healthcare is a basic right under life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, or a privilege. Universal Healthcare is built on the idea of healthcare being a basic human right. As a basic right, all citizens regardless of pre-existing conditions or disabilities would have the right to necessary healthcare. According to Jerry Levinson,
During my fourth year in college, I enrolled in a course called Psychology of Health Disparities. My decision to enroll in this course stemmed from my experience as a medical assistant, and my duty involved working in clinical settings low socioeconomic status individuals (SES). Even though this class met only once a week, it deeply impacted the way I viewed the public health care system. Health disparities are particularly evident in the United States health care system, mostly because of factors like SES, race, and education as well. Not only did we explore the causes of these disparities, we focused on how individuals with lower incomes were affected. In the private clinic where I worked, most individuals were under health insurance by
Harrods presumably lacked an open culture and not everyone was being treated equally in that the part time workers were not included and informed adequately, considering the use of active listening and feedback/dialogue. There was a communication and collaboration server which had only full time staff inclusive in it, until recently when the part time staff got added, which is likely a case of unequal treatment. There is also a possibility that the full time staff were rewarded differently from the part time staff which can be related to Atkinson’s Inequality measure which is a measure of income inequality used to determine which end of the distribution contributed most to the observed inequality (Atkinson, 1970). This measure is actually criticized
Universal healthcare is a type of health care where everyone is provided coverage regardless of their income, race, age, pre-existing conditions, gender, or wealth 1. What this means is that as long as you are a legal resident of the region that is being covered, (i.e., the United States), you are eligible for universal health care. The goal of universal health coverage is to ensure that all people obtain the health services they need, without suffering financial hardship when paying for them 2. The United States (U.S.) does not have a uniform health system, has no universal health care coverage, and only recently enacted legislation mandating healthcare coverage for almost everyone 3. In March, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law, one important component of this act, is that all Americans are required to have some form of health insurance from either their employer, an individual plan, or through a public program such as Medicaid or Medicare 3.
Universal healthcare seems like a good thing at face value . Liberal politicians can quote statistics all day, but these can be misleading. One way to find the truth is to examine the diseases instead of the statistics. One must also evaluate the ease of access to medical treatment. You can evaluate the amount of finances socialized countries spend on insurance programs. There is also a biblical argument involved. If you really look at the full picture, universal health care will negatively impact the lives of the citizens of the United States of America.
Widening economic inequality in the United States is being accompanied by increasing health care disparity. While the health care system seeks to provide health care as a human right, it fails to do so often worsening the disparities (Dickman, Himmelstein, & Woolhandler, 2017). While health care today has made major strides, there are many people who are still suffering from health care system injustices. Of the people who are still uninsured a majority of them are in the middle-working class or those living in poverty. Poor Americans have less access to health care than wealthy Americans. The life expectancy gap between the rich and poor continues to widen. Health care in poor communities is too often neglected. This issue has been a trend in the United States for many years. In Abraham’s book, Mama might be better off dead these very same inequalities are evident for the Banes family. Because of these inequalities, preventive illness becomes life threatening causing care to then become extensive and even more expensive.
Health care is not a privilege. In fact, a good level and quality on healthcare should be an inalienable right for all people. Social class, status or economic situation shouldn’t dictate who live and enjoy of good health or who doesn’t. Healthcare in America should be universal, continuous, and affordable to all individuals and families. Although some of the states in the US are taking unilateral measures not to focus exclusively on the poor, but seeks to guarantee health access to any uninsured people, achieving universal coverage will require federal leadership and support, regardless of which strategy is adopted to achieve this
Explain patterned inequalities in health and illness. Evaluate sources of evidence with regards to class, gender, ethnicity and age
The United States is world renowned for having the best health care if not the most accessible. Citizens have at their disposal a plethora of hospitals, physicians, and therapists to improve their well-being. Statistical data was taken back in 2010 under the Central Texas Region and studied health care coverage and income in regards to the community. The data displayed in the surveys heavily suggest that income/ health in general have a high correlation. The issue that arose with the given data imply that those who are on the lower end of the income spectrum subsequently have no health care coverage and poorer health than those with higher income. In any case with high correlation there are a number of factors influencing the statistical evidence, and in this case sociological barriers are present in regards of inequality and health care.
“Health care is an essential requirement for well being” (Maruthappu). All over the world, health care is a constant concern because of the difficulty maintaining quality and affordability. In the United States, health care reform has been a huge debate topic. The purpose of health care is to satisfy the medical needs of an individual. However, many Americans consider health care a “luxury,”because millions of low-income families cannot afford the same care as the middle or high class. In this case, the right to quality and affordable health care is not extended to all Americans. Universal health care will ensure a higher life expectancy, reduce the cost of medical treatment through a single-payer method, and improve medical treatments.