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The Effects Of Us Poverty : The Degradation Of Health Essay

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The Effects of US Poverty: The Degradation of Health The United States of America has been considered by many to be the richest and most blessed country to exist. Many of its people are wealthy and powerful. Many US citizens are happy people, living in their homes with their families. However, some US citizens are living in extreme conditions that affect their lives drastically. Many face homelessness, some face extreme hunger, and most experience more stress than happiness throughout their lives. Undoubtedly, poverty causes a large array of issues in one’s life, but one of the most harmful components of being poor is the extreme health hazards that those who live in poverty face every day. A substantial number of Americans can afford Medicare and medical assistance to combat these illnesses, but many poor people cannot. This lack of medical support leads to various health issues that not only subtract from an individual’s already low quality of life, but can also impact others by spreading disease in the home or in public places. Furthermore, some may contract severe illnesses and even die from a curable disease because they could not afford the cure. The University of California San Francisco tells its readers in an article about a doctor who lost an important document in the trash and searched behind the clinic for the paper in the trash bins, “What he found instead in the mountain of rubbish were crumpled prescription slips that patients had tossed in hospital trash

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