Essay On Louisiana Health Care Demographic

Maruthappu, M., Ologunde, R., Gunarajasingam, A.. (2012). Is health care a right? Health reforms in the USA and their impact upon the concept of care. Annals of Medicine & Surgery. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2049-0801(13)70021-

Simultaneously, health and healthcare policy plays a tremendous role in the quality of life of every American. Likewise, by the government constantly interceding, health and healthcare is significantly influenced by the political climate and undertakings of administration; therefore creating a conflictual split between republicans and democrats. Health care is regarded as a product rather than a human right shaped by policymaking. Policies establish healthcare service stipulations, which are rooted in local, state, and federal statutes combined with landmark court decisions. Not only does policy focus on healthcare services; but, it also places a substantial emphasis on cost-efficiency and equality.

Conklin, T. P. (2002, Fall). Health Care in the United States: An Evolving System. Michigan Family Review, 07(), 5-17. Retrieved from

There are two main distribution principle regarding health care in the United States. The first being social justice, and the second being market justice. The delivery system has continued to undergo periodic changes, mainly in response to concerns with cost, access, and

In addition, health care industry can affect every living person in United State in one way or another. For instance, the uninsured are excluded from services, charged more for medical services and die when medical care could have saved them(Berkin, 2012). America is known to have some of the best doctors, and healthcare facilities in the World, however two thirds of our country do not have an access to health insurance, or cannot afford it(Berkin, 2012). The Right to Health Care notes that the United States is one of the few, if not, only, developed nation in the world that does not guarantee

Louisiana used to be a slave state and they continued to not allow African Americans into their society as equals, so by imposing these laws, the St. Landry Parish is restricting the African Americans as much as they possibly could and continued to take away more of their freedoms. In another interview with Henry Blake, an African American farmer in Little Rock, she states, “After freedom, we worked on shares a while. Then we rented. When we worked on shared, we couldn’t make nothing, just overalls and something to eat...

Louisiana is a state that is known for its diverse population totaling 4,533,372 men women and children of all different races and ages, but the age and race this paper pertains to is that ranging from the age of 15 to 24, and the race would be African American males. According to latest statistical information approximately 334,987 African-American males between the ages of 15 and 24 live in the state of Louisiana which represents 7.3894% of the total African-American population, which is 1,452,396 African-Americans, residing the state of Louisiana (U.S. Census Bureau 2012).

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals will be examined in this investigative research paper. Their mission according to their website, “is to protect and promote health and ensure access to medical preventive and rehabilitative services for all citizens of the State of Louisiana.” Their organizational goals are to provide quality services. As well protect and promote health, develop and stimulate services by others. Lastly, in order to fulfill its mission utilize available resources in the most effective matter. The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals is led by an appointed structured leadership with years of experience. An important issue is the Affordable Care Act and it influence on Louisiana health care. The Honorable Governor Bobby Jindal is an outspoken opponent of Affordable Care Act and has composed is own version in Louisiana. The impact of ACA will be assessed. The Office of Public Health Center for Community and Preventive Health will be assessed on how it is organized to accomplish its statutory objectives.

The healthcare system of the United States was established as a system of health and welfare programs created to provide affordable treatment to the citizens of the United States. Recently, the Affordable Health Care Act was passed changing the structure of the system (Mulvany, 2012). While in theory the new arrangement works, it has its flaws due to the resulting cost, slowness, and the government interfering with religious and personal beliefs. These problems have led many people to question the role of the government in the life of the individual.

The Health system in Louisiana and Illinois is widely different on basis of access to healthcare, mental health issues and many others. Looking at overall performance of healthcare system by measuring 42 different variables such as at systemic level, from insurance coverage to vaccination rates to avoidable hospital stays and at individual level, from rate of obesity to numbers of adults who have lost six or more teeth, Illinois is among the third quartile while Louisiana is among the bottom quartile (The Atlantic, 2014). Furthermore, we can identify the differences by measuring indicators of health status such as adult obesity rate, mental health issues in young and adults and adult smoking behavior. For health resources, we would look for access to health care, primary care physician and mental health providers. For identification of risk factors, we have to mainly measure the uninsured rate and for focusing on child issues, measure rate of teen-age pregnancy, low birth weight children and infant mortality in the country.

In recent years, health care has been a huge topic in public debates, legislations, and even in deciding who will become the next president. There have been many acts, legislations, and debates on what the country has to do in regards to health care. According to University of Phoenix Read Me First HCS/235 (n.d.), “How health care is financed influences access to health care, how health care is delivered, the quality of health care provided, and its cost”.

For this discussion, I researched Louisiana’s health care reform after the devastating Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana on August 29, 2005 and changed the residents lives forever. The city of New Orleans was affected the worst by the hurricane. Before the hurricane, Louisiana already had high rates of poverty and a lack of financial resources that put Louisiana as a high-spending and low-performing state. There was a lot of destruction that took away some of Louisiana’s health care facilities so they had to figure out “how to rebuild the infrastructure, how to protect the citizens, how to reestablish and perhaps reconfigure programs and services (Morial, J.,2007) .”

Changes in access to health care across different populations are the chief reason for current disparities in health care provision. These changes occur for several reasons, and some of the main factors that contribute to the problem in the United States are: Lack of health insurance – Several racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and other minority groups lack adequate health insurance coverage in comparison with people who can afford healthcare insurance. The majority of these individuals are likely to put off health care or go without the necessary healthcare and medication that is needed. Lack of financial resources – Lack of accessibility to funding is a barrier to health care for a lot of people living in the United States

US health care expenditures have been rising quickly over the past few years; it has risen more than the national financial system. Nonetheless a number of citizens in the US still lack appropriate health care. If the truth be told, health care expenditures are going to continue to increase; in addition numerous individuals will possibly have to make difficult choices pertaining to their health care. Our health system has grave problems that require reform, through reforming, there is optimism that there will be an increase in affordable health care and high-quality of care for America. Medicaid, Medicare and private sector insurances are all going through trials and tribulations because of

As a matter of fact Wise and Yashiro, 2006 assert that there some individuals who describe the America’s system as being fragmented and inefficient, considering the staggering statistics regarding how Americans spend more on health care compared to other countries in the world. Additionally, they suffer from massive insurance costs and uneven quality of care, and thus understanding the debate about the two diametrically opposed viewpoints requires an in-depth understanding of the current health care issues in the United States (Rashidian, Joudaki, Vian, & Baradaran, 2012).