I Had The Privilege Of Interviewing A Close Friend That Will Go

It is no secret that the cost of American healthcare is becoming increasingly more expensive. However, the issue of the rising cost of healthcare and its severity needs to be recognized as a major problem. Health prices are steadily increasing in the United States, and there is no sign of it stopping. Since 1970, spending on American health care has grown 9.8%, which is a rate that is growing faster than the economy (“New Technology”.) Furthermore, health insurance premiums are also increasing at a rate five times faster than American salaries, which makes it difficult for families to afford health care coverage (Zuckerman 28). Therefore, it has become an obligation to address why the cost of American health care is soaring and to seek out a solution to lower the cost. Many would jump to the conclusion that the United States simply charges too much for their medical services, but there are deeper influences that need to be analyzed. The causes of the rising cost of health care are people not using preventive health care, the development of modern technology, and the treatments being overprescribed. A possible solution is to have preventive health care services available in clinics of low-income areas.

Health disparities in the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual and Transgender community that lack fair treatment. This population deals with many adversities due to their sexual orientation and gender identity. LGBT’s community consists of a diverse population of people who come from all walks of life ((Howard, 2016). Many LBGT’s will delay or not seek health care due to stigma and lack of fair treatment. In other words, they believe that they are discriminated against.

The process of receiving and affording healthcare was, at the time, out of reach. Once my family was able to attain healthcare insurance, doctor visits were unpleasant. The physicians struggled to comprehend my parents’ needs, while my parents simultaneously struggled to understand the diagnoses provided by the physicians. These instances led to the frustrations of the physicians because of the communication barrier, which led to their inability to do their job at their full potential. Due to this dilemma, our visits to the doctor were few and far between.

More and more people with medical insurance are relying on the health care system as new technologies and treatments become available. This leads to a grater number of claims for payment by insurance companies, the costs of which are passed back to health care consumers. The baby-boom generation is entering its peak health-care using period. Over eighty million Americans will turn 50 in the next 10 years. The cost of providing heath care for these individuals will be staggering

In the book “mama might be better off dead” written by Laurie Kaye Abraham, tells a story of Jackie Banes and her family, and their struggles to hold the family’s health together. Her grandmother Mrs. Cora Jackson, who pretty much raised her, has suffered the amputation of one leg because of uncontrolled diabetes. Jackie’s father, Tommy, who has suffered a stroke because he didn’t care about the consequences of high blood pressure. Jackie’s husband, Robert, who has a progressive kidney disease. Abraham has gone out of her way to find more about the American health care system in North Lawndale, Illinois. Throughout the book she talks about how the health care system in America is so unfair and unsatisfactory to the needs of poor people such as the Banes’s Family.

Regarding access to healthcare, transgender individuals often face the most obstructive barriers when attempting to receive care. Whether they are seeking access to hormones, therapy, general health services, reproductive healthcare, or specialty healthcare, transgender patients typically cannot get what they need without jumping through many hoops or hiding their identities. This occurs especially so in cases of intersecting identities -- where an individual is not just transgender, but is transgender and a person of color, disabled, gay, indigenous, undocumented, poor, etc. These intersecting identities interact in multifaceted ways to produce even more barriers for trans individuals seeking healthcare due to healthcare provider bias, insurance requirements, and doctors’ general unwillingness to help coupled with inaccessibility founded on racism, transphobia, homophobia, mental illness stigmatization, etc.

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.

Early in the panel, Barbara Vinograde talked about how easily a monthly payment for private insurance can cripple a low-income family – as payments can often be large fractions of someone’s budget. Worse yet, Betsy Momany describes an all-to-common situation where those who do have certain government insurances can’t utilize them because care providers won’t take them in due to the lack of profitability when helping them. This occurs in a productivity-based system, where physicians are paid by the insurance companies, which leads them to accepts those insurances that pay them the most per visit. Further effects of this lack of assistance and care are things like obesity and diabetes amongst low-income children. According to Dr. Eleanor Lisa Lavadie-Gomez, major food companies work hard to get children addicted to sugary food, and they profit off of the fact that the poor can only buy processed food because they can’t afford to spend money of fresh food that could go bad. Because these families don’t have better options, they experience negative health consequences, which then go untreated when these children aren’t provided proper

was the use of telemedicine in order to reach patients who do not have access to

Patients with long-term, chronic illnesses like Mr. Davis’s, care can be very costly, especially when the patient is unable to maintain routine medical care or visits and medications. Without routine medical care and maintenance medications, patients like Mr. Davis tend to have more frequent emergency room visits and hospitalizations; increasing costs for state and local government as well as tax payers. Though Mr. Davis is able to receive care during an emergency room visit, the providers are not fully aware of his health history and are only able to provide a temporary fix of his symptoms and not address his health care needs.

One of this health care’s programs objective is to limit the number of uninsured (Shi & Singh, 2015). This controversial healthcare plan incorporates a privately funded insurance which is paid for through employment and solely by the patient and a publicly funded insurance by the government. Medicare is provided for senior citizens 65 and older, and Medicaid is provided for low income citizens. The federal government and state government both partake in the funding of Medicaid. Although insurance is provided to the low income through Medicaid, the United States continues to suffer from cost escalation spending 17.1 percent of GDP on healthcare in 2013, a 50 percent more than the second nation (Commonwealth, n.d.) The high cost and limited coverage continues to spark up the conversation for a

Medicaid has become an essential program for many, proving comprehensive inpatient and outpatient health care coverage, including many services and expenses Medicaid does not cover, especially, prescription drugs, diagnostic and preventive care, and eyeglasses. Medicaid can also help supplement Medicaid deductibles and premiums and pay a 20% portion of uncovered charges in some cases (Hansen, 2012). The program supports the country's most vulnerable and frail including children, those requiring long-term care services for chronic mental illness and retardation and those needing AIDs therapy (Goodman, 1991). These are enormous societal needs that may not be met without the assistance of Medicaid.

Mrs. Jones, like many older adults, is on a fixed income, has Medicare for health coverage, but lacks prescription drug coverage. She was recently prescribed a new medication by her physician, which she cannot afford. As Mrs. Jones nurse, it is my responsibility to advocate for her by providing education and sharing information on the multiple different avenues available to decrease the cost of the medication prescribed. I will identify three strategies in which I can help Mrs. Jones afford her medication. First, I will provide education on her insurance plan and explain Medicare Drug Plans and their enrollment process. Secondly, I will identify a financial assistance program which she might qualify for. Finally, I will identify different ways to lower the cost of the medication such as coupons, drug discount cards, switching to a generic medication, and store programs ("Prescription Drug," 2014). All of these options are a solution to Mrs. Jones problem. In the meantime, it may be beneficial to obtain free samples from the physician 's office if possible, but this only makes sense if there is a strong likelihood that she will eventually be able to afford the new medication.

“But insurers in many counties are offering such a dizzying array of health insurance plans with so many subtle differences that consumers have struggled to determine which plan is best for them” (Pear, 2015). One of the attractive features of affordable coverage is the low monthly premium. With these attractive numbers, some people might even choose to give up their employer coverage to save the extra money. Naturally, consumers would most likely be fond with the low premiums rather than the quality of the plan. However, low premium is only worth the price that is paid for. The high deductibles lie within these low cost plans could cost the patients a fortune when they receiving the care. As this happen, the Affordable Care Act is no longer serve its purpose in helping to increase the quality and affordability of health insurance as well as reducing the cost of healthcare. Instead, the Obama Care only succeeds in reducing uninsured rate of the population. The lack of understanding about the healthcare coverage could become financially burden to the consumers’ family if they choose to use the plan.

Sexual and social stigmas largely affect the health of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population. While many reports from the Institute of Medicine, Healthy People 2020 and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality recognize a need to improve the quality of health care, barriers still remain. LGBT patients face legal discrimination, especially with insurance, a lack of social programs, and limited access to providers competent in LGBT health care. Although the Affordable Care Act increased access to care for LGBT patients, unless these patients feel understood by providers and develop trust in the system, they are not likely to utilize care. Healthcare providers need to recognize how these vulnerabilities, as well as persistent racism and stigma linked to sexual orientation and gender identity, make the healthcare needs of LGBT patients more challenging than the general population. Healthcare providers also need to promote cultural competence within this population and broaden their clinical lens to include health promotion, in addition to addressing concerns mentioned above within the population. Additionally, medical and nursing schools need to ensure that future providers are adequately educated by including information about this population in the curriculum.