Benefits Of Being An American Citizen Essay

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

Being a minority in the United States has and will possibly always been a struggle. With the economy being in shams and minimum wage becoming career, minorities have multiple issues that society is unaware especially in health care. A large percent of minorities are the majority of workers of America, in which requires the most of the health care distribution. But are they receiving the proper access to health care and prescription access based on their ethnicity/race? Discrimination and racism continue to be a part of the unbalancing inequality in society and have adversely affected minority populations, and the health care system in general. Analyzing some of the racial disparities in health care among Americans are modifications in both need and access. Minorities are most likely to need health care but are less likely to receive health care services, including proper drug access.

Financial barriers to access health care are common in a low-income family when they are uninsured or underinsured. Many uninsured and undocumented immigrant received federal and state health care coverage. Latinos and African American are the ethnicities that are disproportionally get affected. Limited access to a doctor when they are sick, taking non-prescribed medication and holding off recommended treatment is only some of the problems they encountered (Carrillo et al., 2011).

With this increased research and effort, Americans would be able to intervene and make positive impacts with the state, tribal, and local levels to best address health disparities and inequalities. In efforts to thwart ethnic and minority disparities, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) passed the HHS Disparities Action Plan in order to establish “a nation free of disparities in health and health care, (Cooper 97)” and to implement a series of priorities, strategies, actions, and goals to achieve this vision. States, local communities, private organizations, and providers have additionally engaged in efforts to reduce health disparities. With the HHS Disparities Action Plan, the Department continuously assess policies and programs on racial and ethnic health disparities, watching to see which policies make an impact on the level of health care received by minorities. Similarly, The Affordable Care Act (ACA) health coverage expansions significantly increase coverage options for low and moderate income populations and particularly benefit the “vulnerable populations.” The ACA also includes provisions to strengthen the safety-net delivery system, improve

Recently the Untied States top priority has been to provide accessible and affordable health care to every American. Those that lack access to coverage find it much more difficult to seek proper treatment and when they do they maybe left with astronomical medical bills. The CommanWealth Fund found that one-third or thirty three percent of Americans forgo health care because of costs and one-fifth or twenty percent are thus left with medical bills that have problems being able to pay. The federal government, through the Affordable Care Act (2010), has mandated that every person have health coverage in order

The disparities are around us every day and unless we educate ourselves and our communities these disparities will continue to wreak havoc on our neighborhoods and in the future, we will just be putting our kids and their kids in a continuing cycle of ignorance when we could have done more if it’s just educating the community we leave in, that alone could be enough to turn the tides in our people favor. In turn, I would hope this paper enlighten you on what is going on in our neighborhood and what we can do to correct this issue to preserve our autonomy. Racial and ethnic health disparities undermine what a healthcare system should stand for. Although the top three causes and seven of the 10 leading causes of death are the same for African Americans and whites, the risk factors and incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates for these diseases and injuries often are greater among blacks than whites (MMWR, 2005). Health disparities refer to differences in disease risks, incidence, morbidity, and mortality but most of all for the sake of this paper unequal access to quality health insurance amongst African American in the United States, which will also go hand and hand with the social and economic disadvantages. The disadvantages of health disparities usually affect people of African American descent who have systemically experienced a greater social and economic obstacle to health care.

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify the healthcare crisis of African Americans within the broader context of American healthcare reform. In order for one to appreciate the depth of necessity for healthcare reform in the African American community, he or she must have a general understanding of the history of healthcare for African Americans. As stated by the institute of medicine in a study assessing the health and mental health disparities of African Americans, “The sources of these disparities are complex, are rooted in historic and contemporary inequities, and involve many participants at several levels, including health systems, their administrative and bureaucratic processes, utilization managers, healthcare professionals, and

Being an American means to have opportunities that are available to us that others don’t get in other parts of the world. The United States of America is a country that is based on being a free country for citizens to have more freedom than anywhere else. It is one of the only countries that give rights to people of different diversities and genders. To be an American means to have opportunities, rights, and freedom.

In 2009, during the “Obamacare” debate that was dominating the news, Atul Gawande wrote an article in the New Yorker that was widely praised and cited, including by president Obama himself. The article is a thought-provoking discussion of why some communities in the US have much higher health care costs than other regions. I took two main conclusions from the article.

Mason, Gardner, Outlaw, & OGrady, (2016) explains cost, quality, access and racial disparity complications persist throughout the health care system. Healthcare policies work to alleviate these problems associated with the healthcare system. The purpose of this discussion is to identify healthcare policies related to access, equity, quality, and cost. Next, I'll explain what the healthcare reform means to uninsured and underinsured individuals. Following I will identify the implication of limited access to the vulnerable population. Finally, I will describe what nurses can do to help increase awareness of the civil rights in healthcare.

The United States health care system has attempted to bring its health care structure into a position fitting of the richest nation in the world. Yet, evidence suggests that socioeconomic disparities still exist, and access to care is still an issue even for citizens who have enrolled in health care plans (Delgado, 2015). Access to health care should be considered a basic right, a natural right for everyone. In 2008 T.R. Reid traveled to 5 countries that were among the richest in the world and provided universal health care access in some fashion. Here we will use Ried’s (2008) findings to discuss distributive justice, vulnerabilities and the human right to health care.

One might acknowledge the advantages or the benefits of the current health care system to address health disparities begins with the intent to extend and progress the availability of health insurance through various provisions; this is true. Yet, according to the Affordable Care Act (ACT), its chief impact aimed to bring about a reduction of financial barriers to care, which awarded health insurance to an added number of Americans in the sum of 32 million inclusive of African Americans, Hispanics, and the Asian-Pacific Islanders population (Errickson et al., 2011). According to Errickson et al. (2011), additional barriers addressed were copayments particular for preventive services which now require insurance plans

A person’s ability to access healthcare services has a significant effect of his or her health, yet 1 in 4 Americans do not have access to primary care providers who they can receive preventive care services or regular health services (Healthy People 2020, 2014). Approximately 1 in 5 Americans (i.e. approximately 48 million in 2012, OECD, 2014) do not have medical insurance (including children and adults under the age of 65). The ability to access healthcare services is linked to social, economic and environmental factors. A lack of medical services in rural and remote areas, shortage of healthcare professionals, cost of medical coverage, lack of transportation, communication barriers, etc. all have a profound effect of a person’s ability to access healthcare services. According to the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) (2012), the percentage of individuals’ age under 65 without insurance decreased 0.6%, differences in rates of health insurance exists by race and ethnicity and level of education. In an attempt to improve the nation’s access to healthcare services, one provision of the Affordable Care Act implemented in 2013 provides additional Medicaid funding for states providing low cost access to preventative

If the intent of our forefathers to define health care as an unalienable right, the support was introduced with the inception of Medicare in 1965, by Congress when the “first-dollar coverage” was introduced (Keraiakes & Willerson, 2004,pg 1). With the passing of the Affordable Care Act signed into law of March 23, 2010, there have been significant changes in the population of uninsured Americans. Fast-forward 10 years: The number of American with health insurance has increased. The number of people uninsured, under the current laws in 2016 is 29 million with a projected decrease of 2 million over the next 10 years (Congressional Budget Office [CBO], 2015). The uninsured are classified as individuals who are ineligible for Medicaid, those who are eligible, but choose not to enroll, and unauthorized immigrants who are ineligible for exchange subsidies or for most Medicaid benefits. Those individuals who have access through an employer, directly from an insurer, or through the health insurance marketplace and do not purchase insurance. Insured, nonelderly Americans will reach a projected 90% of the population in 2026 (CBO, 2015). Having health insurance has become increasingly important to U.S. residents and with these strides in health insurance availability; it seems inhumane to exclude health care as a human right. The Health Insurance Marketplace can assist with

The fast-changing economic landscape in the United States along with gridlock stalemate among congress members making it difficult to collaborate on a constructive solution to reduce health care expenses in the country have revealed an unresolved question. Is health care a right or a privilege? The country has guaranteed all its citizens free access to education, police, postal, military, park system and other government related services; however, has never committed to providing them with health care coverage (Bauchner, 2017). This is an important question to resolve because the realized answer will be the ultimate driver of all derived public health policy. Ensuring quality health care to all citizens can be very costly and there needs to