Social Assistance Programs

Financial burdens greatly limit the system’s accessibility; however, many in the U.S. are unable to fully utilize either option. Census estimates from 1999 indicate that 43 million Americans live without health insurance even though 75 percent of them have a full-time job or live in a household with at least one member working full-time (Mueller, , 5) In addition to the totally uninsured, census estimates also reveal that approximately 42 million other people in the U.S. are underinsured. This means that they have some insurance, but are still unable to afford all of their needed prescriptions, tests, visits to physicians, or hospital

In addition to those who are unemployed, you also have the Americans that are employed and still uninsured. These Americans either choose not to have health insurance or they are still unable to afford it. I have been there, I had to choose more money on my paycheck over having health insurance. For most, being uninsured is not a choice, insurance is simply unaffordable. In an article on The Economic Impact Of The Uninsured it states that “eighty percent of uninsured people are employed, or live in a home where a family member is employed. Their plight has nothing to do with a slow economy” (Knowledge@Emory). More young Americans look at insurance as a luxury not a necessity. However, when the unknown happens then these young people are faced with an enormous

Like the previous example of our class activity, you can gather some information about the family to personally consider whether you think the people portrayed deserve help. In the opening of the book, Andrea Campbell gives us information about the couple’s job status, income, and family size, which allows the reader to make a first opinion on the family’s deservedness. Once this introduction is made, the reader can see the twists and turns that can lead a family into needing government help, which is often the part of the story that gets lost – as most assume those in poverty are there because of their own ambition or actions. The wife gets in an accident, which forces the couple to take an insurance plan from the California government that is designed to keep them in poverty by taking away their income after a set cap is reached (Campbell 2014). The book continues to take the reader through the experience of trying to survive on social insurance and means-tested programs (those where recipients must hold a job or other status to maintain benefits), and ends with three Chapters discussing the difficulties that means-tested programs create for those in poverty. By forcing the reader to, in some way, experience a very average story about surviving in poverty, the book forces the reader

There are millions of people who do not have health care. Not having health insurance can take a drastic toll on your health and you can run into major problems. Health problems and financial problems as well.

Even with employer-sponsored programs and federal programs for those who qualify, many Americans are uninsured. Over 46 million Americans had no health insurance in 2006, and 86.7 million went without health insurance at some point in 2007 and 2008 (“Health Care Issues”). Why has the number of uninsured risen so drastically and why are employer-sponsored programs dwindling?

What is important for unemployed people to know, is that the Marketplace’s healthcare plans are based on their estimated yearly income and their household size, not their employment status. Estimated income for unemployed includes any unemployment compensation, the income of all household members, interest income, capital gains, cash support, alimony, and withdrawals from traditional IRAs and 401ks. Based on this information, the Marketplace will calculate ones eligibility for tax credits and savings on deductibles, copayments, and out of pocket cost. One’s eligibility may also be affected by whether or not one is eligible to enroll in a spouse health insurance plan. If an individual is eligible for an affordable healthcare plan that meets the minimum healthcare requirement they will

Paycheck to Paycheck details the daily life of Katrina who lives, like many more American women than one might think, in poverty. The social context of her situation is all too common and overlooked as merely poverty, people do not understand the gendered implications. Katrina finds herself in poverty due to her ex-husband’s addiction problem and after their separation things are not looking up. She even states that all of the income went to his addiction, prior. Single motherhood is anything but easy for Katrina

There are 45 million (17%) Americans without health insurance. Uninsured and special populations are experiencing problems mostly linked to unemployment, cost of health care, low income and decreased employer-based coverage. Also, many people are unable to find health insurance because of pre-existing health conditions. For some, citizenship status may also disqualify them for benefits. One example is Personal Responsibility Act of 1996, which prevents legal immigrant population and their U.S.-born children to receive certain benefits. These people have since experienced decreased access to health insurance, among other problems. Uninsured and special populations are more likely to

The Extent of the social problem reaches to numbers of persons and populations in the United States. Living without health insurance are in excess of 50 million people in the United States, which is roughly equivalent to 16.7% of the population, or one in six U.S. residents (Wolf, 2010). Defining this as a problem are those most affected by the inaccessibility barrier which includes illegal immigrants, the elderly, and those persons unable to attain insurance coverage due to a pre-existing medical condition.

You noted in your post that “social welfare program was created to help individuals in society improve their own life; however, the program must also maintain control within society”. Where you surprised by the notion that programs are used to maintain control within society? I found a few passages from our weekly readings regarding the need to control society through social welfare programs a little unsettling and have spent the last day reflecting upon them trying to figure out what it is that bothers me about the passages. According to Day and Scheile (2012), “social welfare is based partly on the need to control the poor and keep works available for low-wages work” (p. 17) and “poverty does not “just happen”…The gap is maintained through

I do believe people receiving welfare benefits should be able to spend some of their money on “non-essentials”. Everyone that is on welfare did not choose to be and do not what to be on welfare, circumstances has landed them there. Our society is fixated on welfare recipients as lazy non-working able body people, but they’re only a portion of the population receiving benefits other recipients are people working low paying jobs, elderly, children and people with illnesses who are not able to work. Furthermore, for these welfare recipients it can be degrading and depressing because society looks down on them as less than because they receive assistance from the government. So in my opinion being able to buy a lottery ticket, cosmetics, eat out

The healthcare system says that if one pays their insurance then they should get coverage. What the healthcare system forgets to tell people is that there are premiums to pay, even when one does not need healthcare at that moment. A premium is how much someone pays a month for their healthcare coverage. Since 2005 premiums has risen to the point that it takes almost takes all of an employer’s check (Clemmitt, Universal Coverage 2). If someone is unemployed or in school they just drop healthcare all together, because it’s

Donna family is in the lower class, they feel the effects of poverty. Donna family is experiences absolute poverty, the family needs to go to the food bank to get food each month to survive. Therefore, her father is working in a manual labor job, taking care of a family of 6, trying to feed his families and living paycheck to paycheck. Donna family can’t afford the health care for her family, because they needs the money to affordable basic need met. However, the money that comes from her husband job for housing, education, transportation, food, prescription, and health care issues with limited resource. Finally, the family of 6 is complex needs, in living, health care issues, and the necessary needs for they family on a day to day basic.

8% of employees have no health insurance from any source, with low-wage/low-income employees less likely to have access and least likely to use even if they do have access.

assistance to low income individuals and families. An estimate of 1.8 million New Yorkers and a total of 46.3 million Americans participate in the SNAP program. Despite the large number of individuals on food stamp the Census Bureau reports in 2010 3.9 million people were lifted above the poverty line and 5 million in 2012 all because of the assistance from SNAP. However the federal government has threaten to cut back on the budget for SNAP. In January 2014 the Farm bill was proposed which included an 8.7 million cut to the SNAP program for the next 10 years. Obama later signed the bill into law on February 7, 2014 saying that the Bill would help create more jobs, move the economy forward and give Americans more equal opportunity (Resnikoff 1). Despite the government’s reasons for the budget cut 850 thousand households would be losing an average of 90 dollars per month (Resnikoff 1). This is unfortunate because reports have shown that SNAP is not only an effective federal program but it also has a positive outcome for individuals. Even in the previous statistics, going from 3.9 million to 5 million people lifted above the poverty line in only a two year difference is a significant breakthrough for low income individuals. It is often easy to find yourself falling under the poverty line, but harder to pick yourself back up. Many individuals who are against the program believe that being on food stamps makes an individual more government dependent and takes away the drive for