Personal Narrative: Nothing Wrong With Our Health Care System

“Do you like your job mom?” My son Matthew asks me casually looking up at me from his wooden desk chair. I’m working on cooking our family dinner and he’s currently working on a 10th grade essay, where he describes what he wants to become when he grows up. I always have thought that term “growing up” was funny, because through everything I certainly never have. I smiled down at him and answered “Yes, Matthew, I love it very much.” “Can I interview you about it please, it’s part of the assignment?” he replied. I nod and make my way over to the matching desk chair and sit down. “Just answer my questions about your job” He said. “Wait Matt, don’t you have to write this down?” “UGH mom this isn’t 2016, no one writes anymore. Gosh. My IPhone 17

This was hard for us because we had to subtract monthly expenses from the total income, we had to be able to cut back on utilities, food, gas, clothes, etc.… , had to summarize if there would be enough money left over to cover other living expenses.

Our healthcare system is in a state of constant change. Just as the industry was adapting to the demands of countless healthcare reforms, the fate of regulations like the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and others like it, dangle in the wind. As the country transitions to a newly appointed administration, there is an increasing level of uncertainty among industry leaders. Federal, state, and local mandates continue to drive the need to improve the quality, costs, and outcomes of care which add to an already overburdened and burnout system. These coupled with our highly secular society who is primarily focused on the treating and curing illness through advanced technology, medications, and procedures has resulted in a

Medical costs are getting too expensive. Ever fought with your insurance providers because they refused to pay for care, or struggle to find an “in-network” provider? I know a woman whose name I will change for her privacy and the struggles she is going through are a perfect example of an issue many people face when dealing with insurance; Nancy’s (name changed for privacy) story is a perfect example of how our healthcare system is no longer working for the people. Nancy is this woman whose husband recently passed away. Nancy used to work for county and county workers cannot receive social security; and Nancy is too

The increase of expenses - As politicians continue their dissension amongst each other, the situation is worsening in our healthcare system. According to the World Health Organization, to achieve universal health coverage, countries need a financial system that enables people access to all types of health services without incurring financial hardship (Carrin, Mathauer, Xu, & Evans, 2011). This idea would be the foundation of innovative ideas that the U.S. could reform its healthcare system, but too many ideas are sabotaging any valid efforts. In the mean time, the U.S. healthcare system continues to deal with issues such as the increasing uninsured Americans (over 49 million), expensive administrative procedures and the inability to measure the accuracy of quality of care, access of care, and the increasing healthcare spending and financing that limit our ability to efficient utilize resources.

Looking back at our former healthcare system, we see that it was far from flawless, some say it is due to the government, while others claim the health insurance and the healthcare system in general is to blame. So it 's no wonder that the healthcare system is constantly fluctuating. These fluctuations have let us to a system that was very flawed and in dire need of rectification. Furthermore, the health insurance market wasn’t readily accessible to the middle and lower class, due to high costs, bizarre prerequisites, and complicated terminology.

The increases of children that don’t receive any medical attention are prone to more cases of illness in United States. The more the child is at risk, the less the child is able to attend school with normal children. There are also over 40 million Americans a year that do not get medical care when it is needed, even if they are insured (Sweeney). More than 8 out of 10 uninsured Americans are from average working families (Sweeney). If an injury or sickness occurs, Americans that do not receive proper health care pray for the best because they cannot afford it. In most cases, lacking proper health care leads to thousands of deaths every year (Sweeney). Today, there are five major problems in the current health care systems. Those problems include: Accessibility, Cost/Affordability, Lack of portability, technologically deficient, and Lack of data availability (Sweeney). These problems have not been solved yet because of lack of central planning of the healthcare system.

Thirty professionally trained and licensed staff members with a minimum of five years work experience each are ready to address families and patients’ social and emotional needs. Our goal is to provide patients and families with exceptional care during trying times so they can attain their maximum level of psychosocial functioning.

In this life everyone in the world has opportunities, especially people from United States. In this country everyone is able to find financial help, either from the government or organizations, for education (Scholarships, FAFSA), and for health (Obama care, financial assistance). Sadly, some people are lazy or they just can’t get the help.

The current function of our health care system is neither organized nor controlled in a way that help achieves a maximum efficiency because it is orchestrated in a very outdated fashion. The current Canadian health care is developed based on a system that was designed in the 1960s in order to privately protect citizens financially should they be hit by a catastrophic health incident. The concern for a patient’s privacy is so important that it has had a severe impact on the technological development of the Canadian Health Care system. Notably, Canada is one of the few developed countries that is struggling to cease the use of physical medical records, like paper, in order to switch to a more technology-oriented system. The use of slips of papers and fax machines may have been an effective system 50 years ago, but now all that it contributes to is limiting health facilities’ ability to communicate with one another because it considerably slows down the transfer of crucial medical records such as a patient’s history, medical diagnosis, and allergies. Thus, patients are left either to organize their medical records on their own or to hope that they will be transferred to a certain facility in time to receive

My initial plan was to go back to school, because my boss at work is planning on retiring. I would like to take her position, within the next five years. I am currently a patient access representative or more commonly known as a registration clerk for St. Vincent Mercy Hospital. I am not one hundred percent sure that I want to pursue this now, our department was just outsourced. After hearing all of my bosses concerns, it makes me question if I want to stay here at all. My last day is the 16th of July as a St. Vincent employee. A company named R1, which was formally called Accretive Health, is our new employer and will be taking over patient access associates on July 17, 2017. I have been here for over ten years, and love everyone that I

Hospitals and other healthcare institutions are under increasing pressures to provide medical treatment to patients with limited and reduced reimbursements from medical insurance providers. There is also a substantial increase in the number of patients without health insurance. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act is a national mandate that requires healthcare organizations to access and stabilize any person who seeks medical treatment regardless of their ability to pay (Kaji, Koenig, & Lewis, 2007). Public health facilities are challenged financially with complying with state and federal mandates such as required implementation of electronic medical records and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (Hanfling, Schafer, & Armstrong, 2004).

Through this essay I have found many surprises and learned many things. One of the main things that surprised me was the major cause of death in America. I thought it would have been something along the lines of car wrecks or accident, but it was actually heart disease. I was also surprised to learn that one of the main cause of heart disease is obesity. Another thing that surprised me was how guns are obtained. When I was writing this essay I already knew when buying guns you had to go through background checks, but what I did not know is all the things that can easily disqualify you from buying a gun. From felons all the way to being a illegal immigrant can disqualify you. The last thing that surprised me was the phrase “Guns do not kill

I have worked in several environments that focused on innovative care. Teaching a compassion class involved numerous health care professionals. Hearing advice and stories from people in varied facets of health care gives me a better understanding of their respective fields. Those experiences have prepared me for developing professional relationships and collaborating in interdisciplinary teams. VITAS also takes a team approach to patient care and I was involved in communicating with them about the patient I volunteered for. In the free clinic, we connected with local resources to find affordable care for patients. Lastly, my commitment to integrative medicine and wellness promotion involves being aware of many modalities of health care.

Ronald Reagan once said, “We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” I think about this everyday. It seems that I, and everyone around me, is in a constant state of struggle. Over the years I have learned that it’s almost impossible to get though hard times alone. That its best to reach out for help.