User talk:Shampaign

Is  health   care   a   right   or   a   privilege? That  answer   varies   by   country. In most  of  the  world  it  is  a  right  according  to  all  residents  as  part  of  their  social  safety  net. However, in  the  United  States  it  is  a  privilege  according  to  the  more  fortunate  population  of  Americans. It has  come  to  the  point  where  you  either  have  a  job with  excellent  health care  benefits  or  you  and  your  family  are  subject  to  trying  to obtain  insurance  from  the  state. Millions  of   people   are   struggling   to   pay   health   care   cost. It comes  a  point  when  we  must  ask  yourself  is  the  government   or  the  people’s    responsibility  to  pay  for  health  care.

While most  would  consider  it  a  right,  I  consider  it  a  privilege. As Americans,  you  can  purchase  health  care  coverage  that  can  be  tailored  to  your  needs  or  you  can  receive  these  benefits  through  your  employer. However, it  is  not  a  right,  as  it  is  not  guaranteed  to  everyone. Some cannot  afford  the  coverage, while  there  are  some  who  can  afford  the  coverage. Medicaid is  a  jointly  funded  Federal-  State  health  insurance  program  for  low-income  and  needy  people. It covers  children,  the  aged,  blind,  and  disabled  and  other  people  who  are  eligible  to  receive  federally  assisted  income  maintenance  payments. People served  by  Medicaid  are  U.S  citizens  or  legal  permanent  residents. Poverty alone  does   not   necessarily   qualify   someone   for   Medicaid. A family  of  five  with  one  income  may  be  turned  down  for  Medicaid. With the  change  in  the  economy  and  with  jobs  getting  harder  to  find  this  can  put  plenty  of stress  on  a  low  income  family if they were  denied  medical  insurance. Medicaid is  the  largest  source  of  funding  for  medical  and  health-related  services  for  people  with  low  income  in  the  United  States. The Deficit  Reduction  Act  of  2005  requires  that  anyone  seeking  Medicaid  must  produce  documents  to  prove  that  he  or  she  is  a  United  States  citizen  or  resident  alien. An exception  is  made  for  emergency  Medicaid  where  payments  are  allowed  for  the  pregnant  and  disabled  regardless  of  immigration  status. Special rules  exist  for  those  living  in  a  nursing  home  and  disabled  children  living  at  home. One-third of  children  and  over  half  of  the  low-income  children  are  insured  through  Medicaid or Schip. The insurance  provides  them  with  access  to  preventive  and  primary  services  which  are  used  at  a  much  higher rate  than  for  the  un insured,   but  still  below  the  utilization  of  privately  insured  patients. Children enrolled  in  Medicaid  are  individually  entitled  under  the  law  to  comprehensive  preventive  and  restorative  dental  services,  but  dental  care  utilization  for  this  population  is  low. The reasons  for  low  use  are  many,  but  a  lack  of  dental  providers  participate  in  Medicaid  is  a  key  factor. Very few  dentist  even  participate  in  Medicaid  less  than  half  of  all  active  private  dentist  will  not  even  except  this  insurance  coverage. Low reimbursement  rates,  complex  forms  and  burdensome  administrative  requirements  are  commonly  cited by  dentists  as  reasons  for not  participation  in  Medicaid. In the  state  of   Washington  a  program known  as  Access  to  Baby  and  Child  Dentistry  has  helped  increase  access  to  dental  service  by  providing  dentists  higher  reimbursements  for  oral  health  education  preventive  and  restorative  service  for  children.

Staying  healthy   in   the   United States   is   expensive. In 2009,  the  average  annual  cost  of  health  care  was  $75,960  per  person  two  and  a  half  times  what  it  was  in  Japan  for  the  same  year. High spending  by  the U.S  on  health  must  either  be  because  the  price  of  health care  is  higher  than  in  other  countries,  or  else   because  it  provides  more  health  activities  than  other  countries. It might  be  a  combination  of  the  two  because  evidence  suggests  that  both  factors  are  important,  but  particularly  prices. The same  set  of  hospital  interventions  including  the  normal  delivery  of  a  baby,  a  Caesarean  section,  a  hip  or  knee  replacement  cost  60  percent  more  in  the  United  States  than  in  a  selection  of  other  countries. Medication also  cost  50  percent  higher  in  the  U.S  than  in  Europe. Although I do  not  see  a  problem  with this  method  seeing  how  the  U.S  uses  a  lot  of  expensive  diagnostic  tests,  such  as  MRI  and  CT  scans. No countries  have  brought  down  cost  in  health  care  cost  are  rising  everywhere  (with  the  occasional  year  to  year  variation),  so  the  real  issue  is  whether  other  countries  are  providing  good  quality  care  at  lower  cost  than  the  United  States. One topic you never hear when we discuss this topic is subsidies. Health care is subsidized all over the world but in any enterprise you can only subsidize either the supply or the demand. In the rest of the world where medicine is run by governments, the supply is the subsidized one. In America we subsidize the demand; therefore prices are higher, like with any other service where the demand is subsidized. I'm not taking a position, each has advantages/disadvantages, but that is where the discussion should start.

According to  a  report  by  Johns  Hopkins  university  ethnic  racial  minority  Americans  (African,  Latino,  and  Asian)  do  not  receive  the  same  level  of  quality  healthcare  as  non-  minority  Americans. To me  this  is  not  a  surprise,  since  minorities  have  an  average  household  income  less  than  that  of  non-  minorities. It seems  that  the  minorities  are  less  likely  to  be  able  to  afford  the  same  level  of  healthcare  or  have  it  provided  for  them  by  their  employer. What I  find  alarming  is  the  disparity  that  exists  even  when  comparing  conditions  when  there  is  a  level  playing  field. If both  classes  of  people  had  the  same  insurance  status  and  income  you  would  think  that  they  should  receive  the  same  quality   of  healthcare. The Hopkins  study  confirmed  with  previous  studies  indicated  that  this  is  clearly  not  the  case. Studies have  shown  that  minorities  are  far  less  likely  to  receive  a  routine  medical  procedure,  appropriate  cardiac  medication,  coronary  artery  by-pass  surgery,  and  kidney  transplants  or  hemodialysis. The healthcare  field  is  suppose  to  help  people  no  matter  the  race,  religion,  or  sex. How are  minorities  suppose  to  feel  safe  with  taking  their  children  to  the  doctor  knowing  that  right  off  start  because  of  your  race  your  child  will  not  get  the  same  care  as  a  non-  minority. Ethnic minorities  are  far  more  likely  to  be  uninsured  than  the  American  population  as  a  whole. While just  13.9  percent  of  Caucasians  don’t  have  insurance  coverage,  the  same  is  true  for  33  percent  of  Hispanics,  22  percent  of  blacks  and  18  percent  of  Asians. Blacks and  Hispanic  children  are  almost  three  times  as  likely  to  be  in  poor  or  only  fair  health  as  white  children. Not only  are  minority  population  more  likely  to  develop  chronic  diseases,  they  are  also  more  likely  to  get   sicker  and  die  from  them. Poverty is  strongly  correlated  with  poor  health  and,  in  the  United  States,  minority  poverty  rates  are  more  than  double  white  poverty  rates. Because minorities  are  more  likely  to  work  low-wage,  more  physical  jobs  and  less  likely  to  have  health  insurance. If you  don’t  have  insurance  it  is  pretty  much  game  over  for  you. A lot  of  minority  jobs  don’t  offer  health  insurance  and  when  you  don’t  have  insurance  it’s  almost  impossible  to  get  the  care  that  you  and  your  family  need. What are  the  poor  family’s  suppose  to  do  not  get  sick?

There is  always  a  program  that  low  income  people  can  apply  to  help  with  expenses. Medicaid is  the  United  States  program  for  families  and  individuals  with  low  income  and  resources. It is  a  program  that  is  jointly  funded  by  the  state  and  federal  government,  and  is  managed  by  the  state. People who  are  eligible  for  this  program  are  U.S  citizens  or  legal  permanent  residents,  including  low-income  adults,  their  children,  and  people  with  certain  disabilities. Although poverty  alone  does  not  necessarily  qualify  someone  for  Medicaid,  it  is  good  to  apply  just  to  insure  that  your  family  has  some  sort  of  coverage. Medicaid is  the  largest  source  of  funding  for  medical  and  health  related  services  for  people  with  low  income  in  the  United  States.

I strongly feel  that  health  care  is  a  right  as  American  citizens. The fact  that  it  is  being  asked  if  it  is  a  right or  a  privilege  just  shows  me  that  classism  and  racisms  will play  a  big  part  in  that  discussion. A humans  life  should  not  have  a  price  tag  on  it. But in  order  to  keep  the  way  of  life  divided  between  people  is  to  look  at  their  finances. There are  plenty  of  ways  the  rich  people  can  feel  soupier  to  the  poor. But  health   care   should   not   be   one   of   them. It is  not  fair  that  still  in  2013  a  person  of  color  has  to  be  subjected  to  lesser  treatment  even  if  that  colored  person  had  insurance  and  has  work  their  way  up  In  the  corporate  world. I find  this  topic  to  be  ever  ending  because  people  will  always  look at  race  and  finances  as  being  one.

References:

www.healthpaconline.net/health-care-statistics-in-the-united.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid

https://dhcfp.nv.gov www.ethnicmajority.com/Healthcare.htm‎ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid‎

August 2013
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