The Backbone Of Any Health Care

A national health care system in the United States has been a contentious topic of debate for over a century. Social reformists have been fighting for universal health care for all Americans, while the opposition claims that a “social” heath care system has no place in the ‘Land of the Free’.

A Heart for the Work: Journeys Through an African Medical School by Claire L. Wendland is both an first hand account of time spent in an African medical school and hospital as well as a critique on Western medical practices. Dr. Wendland, an accomplished anthropologist and physician, provides a first hand account of her time in a Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world. Through this account she provides insight into the complete journey a student must take to become a doctor in conditions much different than our own. These insights and research are used to argue that medicine, or biomedicine as it is called, is part of a cultural system and is predicated on the cultural ideals and resources of developed nations. Wendland uses the differences in moral order, technology, and resources between the Malawian culture and our own culture to provide evidence for her main argument.

These scenarios are in complete contrast with some of the countries of poor health care system. One of these countries is Nigeria which has been suffering from a stagnant health care system. Its people either have limited access to health care or none at all. Many blame this problem to the prevalence of fake drugs, AIDS epidemic and the unhealthy lifestyles of the people while others point at the lack of health policy as the culprit.

In healthcare system the highest quality medical care means” the greatest benefit to patients at the lowest possible cost” (Burke & Ryan, 2014, p. 3). “The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) defines quality health care as doing the right thing for the right patient, at the right time, in the right way to achieve the best possible results” (NCQA, p. 3) According to American college of physicians, the single most reason for the health care cost is higher healthcare spending. There are several factors involved in the high health care cost such as inappropriate use of technologies, lack of patient centered care, overuse of the reimbursement, excessive price for health care facilities, increased organizational cost, and health accountability are some of the reasons for increased health care cost. In order to decrease the cost, the available health resources be used judiciously and equitably. Understanding these factors and identifying the potential factors of health care costs assists in providing quality and effective services and thus improves the health outcomes (ACP, 2009).

Americans should have access to healthcare because no American should go in debt in order to be seen by a Doctor.

The poor areas have many less doctors than the wealthy spots, even though the rural areas suffer from much harsher diseases on a larger scale. The countries either provide medical training for their own citizens or fund their training from somewhere else, but once the students have the skills to save lives, they move to different places for higher pay. This issue lies not only in South Africa, but in the entire continent. For example, for every Liberian doctor working in Liberia, there are two working abroad. Not only is there a shortage of doctors in general (averaging about 1.15 doctors for every 1,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa) but a shortage of nurses and midwives. Over two-thirds of mothers in Africa have no health professionals to guide them through hardships regarding pregnancy and childbirth, causing Africa alone to be responsible for over one half of the world’s infant and maternal

Abassi, L. (2017, August 10). Refugee doctors a wasted resource? | American council on science and health. Retrieved from https://www.acsh.org/news/2017/08/10/refugee-doctors-wasted-resource-11679

The health care system in the United States is one of the greatest concerns facing Americans today and is an issue both moral and economic in nature. Some think the system should stay, for all intents and purposes, the same. They believe that the right to healthcare is a stepping stone toward socialism, and that it is the responsibility of the individual to obtain health care. These are usually the more ideologically conservative citizens and politicians who believe that medicine should remain a free enterprise, not to be constrained by government interference. Then there are those who believe that healthcare is a right, and the federal government has a responsibility to make sure it is available to all citizens, not just those who can afford

Now that the best health care system in the world (Faguet, 2013, p.7) has been demolished after the passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March of 2010, how have Americans allowed these historical problems to happen to them? Much of the legislation was written to confuse the average American so that they would not understand what was being done to them (Gruber, 2014). The ACA was more than 2000 pages in length and most, if not all, of the members of Congress did not even read the bill before they voted on it. The House Speaker leader at the time, Nancy Pelosi, went on record saying that "We have to pass the bill to find out what is in it." Based on the exact words of the number one architect of the Affordable

In recent years, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone have launched major healthcare initiatives in order to expand and improve access to services. However, the state of health systems for the last 20 years is difficult to overcome. Liberia and Sierra Leone were each embroiled in civil wars until the mid-2000s. Porous borders and a shared diamond belt meant that their conflicts were often shared, as political strife, violence, looting, armed forces, and refugees moved to neighboring countries. , Guinea in particular was on the receiving end of refugees. During that time in all three countries, health systems were uniformly poor, with under-staffed and under-resourced facilities, significant health disparities, and almost no systematic infectious disease surveillance or control.

The Liberian Government, through the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW), the caretaker of the nation’s health services and advocate for children’s health and welfare has prioritized improving its health sector. However, the colossal task of bringing the health system back to pre-civil war years has become a formidable challenge. Besides, the limitation of services to both the rural and urban poor, the health system lacks trained medical personnel, including technicians, nurses and doctors (Bertelsmann Stiftung, BTI. 2016).

Good, accessible healthcare has always been a part of my life. This summer I got to see firsthand that this is not the case for everyone. I knew disparities in healthcare were prevalent in the world, but seeing it in person instead of reading about it in a global health textbook opened up a whole new door for me. As I have reflected on these experiences, I have come to the realization that me becoming a doctor is not about “me” necessarily. I have the opportunity to gain a good education and contribute to this world, which many people do not have, and I cannot think of a better way to do this than to help improve health. With my medical degree, I want to go and work in Zambia, and really any other country which faces large disparities in access to quality health care because I have been fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to enter the medical profession and it is time I use the resources I have to help the global community solve this issue.

The residents of Africa are suffering from preventable, treatable, and fatal diseases everyday at a higher rate compared to developed countries. The healthcare crisis in Africa is the primary cause of all these deaths, and includes inefficient healthcare systems. Consequently, African's inefficient healthcare systems results in poor delivery of care and a shortage of health professionals. The healthcare crisis in Africa is a current issue impacting the lives of many African's who don't have the same access to resources as developed countries such as the United States. These resources can save the lives of many African's dying of preventable and curable disease, and understanding why the African continent has little access to them

After the death of two family members is when I realized there needed to be a change. My aunt and uncle both lived in Nigeria and they both died of preventable disease. As a result of these unfortunate incidents, I have made it my mission to improve the quality of health care individuals receive regardless of their ethnic origin or location. I have embarked on accomplishing this goal by beginning research over this topic. My research is over how race, ethnic origin, or geographic location impacts the quality and importance of healthcare. At University of Pennsylvania, I will not only continue this project, but I will also be able to expand on it because of the opportunities offered to me there.

A health care system is the association of institutions related to people's health and resources. It delivers health services in order to meet the health needs of the targeted populations (Nigam, 2011). There is a wide variation in the world of how different nations organize their health care systems, with almost all nations having differing health care organizational structures. Planning in some countries for health care distributes to those participating in markets. In other countries, however, planning is as a result of joint efforts between the government, religious bodies, and charities among other groups (Nigam, 2011).