The
present state of healthcare in the United States for poor and single family
homes continues to be an everyday stressor. The stressors of being in a low
income home, having bills, and not being provided medical benefits, definitely
is contributing to the unhealthy state of this society. In the video, Mary
discussed her small budget for food each month and that her choices are limited
because she has bills to pay to support her family (Unnatural Causes, 2008).
Mary's family consists of 3 teenagers and a disabled husband and that sometimes
the needs of the family causes her to take away money from bills, or food in
order to provide for her family (Unnatural Causes, 2008). Mary also stated that
these poor neighborhoods die early opposed to the more affluent neighborhoods
but that they do the best they can with what they got (Unnatural Causes, 2008).
Poor nutrition and having low or no income is contributing to the present state
of more people dying in the United States. According to the text, 45.7 million
Americans were uninsured for all of 2007 (Alexander et al., 2010). The text
indicated that low income people have a higher rate for not being insured and
that the family incomes below 10,000 dollars a year constitutes for 35.7% of
the uninsured people (Alexander, LaRosa, Bader, & Garfield, 2010). Lastly, the text indicated that
the uninsured are more likely to have poor health and also are less likely to
have access to care and that they die more prematurely then people who have
insurance (Alexander et al., 2010).
In conclusion, poor nutrition and low income families contributes to the premature deaths that we have in the United States. The healthy food choices are allowed by the government to be more expensive which causes poor people to choose the bad choices in the grocery store continuing this vicious cycle of poor health. I feel like we as Americans have a civil duty to make sure that all people get the healthcare and knowledge needed to survive in this world and if we don't intervene and ensure healthy choices are lower than the bad choices there will not be a new generation to hand the baton over to.
Alexander,
L. L., LaRosa, J. H., Bader, H., & Garfield, S. (2010). New Dimensions
in Women’s Health, 5th edition. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett
Publishers, Inc.
Unnatural
Causes. (2008). “There’s no small stuff”:
being poor in Louisville. Retrieved
from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dshh1JLO3ps&feature=related
Nutrition is a very important aspect of a healthy lifestyle. The amount of money the United States has and makes is well enough to support the hungry people in the United States. The question that we must ask ourselves is whose role is it to support the hungry and low income families out there? We all work hard for the money that we do have and especially college students don't have the money to give to those who are in need. However, I'm sure if we had to give an extra 20 cents to help support the hungry people out there it would help a little. I certainly agree that unhealthy living is associated with people making bad food choices. It concerns me that is more expensive to eat healthy than it is to contaminate our body's with fast food. Good read thanks for the information.
ReplyDeleteA picture is truly worth a thousand words. Thanks for posting that. The situation Mary is in is sad. In the film "Sick Around the World" T.R. Reid visited five affluent countries and explored the universal healthcare systems that they participate in. I wasn't sure how I felt about the health care reform that is being proposed in our country. However, families like Mary's are becoming the norm and the film "Sick Around the World" showed citizens being happy with their healthcare system. So I am now more open to the government imposing a tax on citizens and regulating health care in this country and taking profit out of the equation so that doctors and those who can afford them are the only ones with access to healthcare. Our country continues to get sicker and sicker and doctors get wealthier and wealthier. In Great Britain doctors get bonuses for having healthy patients. I think we should consider all of the "Mary's" and consider universal healthcare as a reasonable option.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting! I agree that our healthcare system needs an overhaul. As a public health educator, I know that access to healthcare is essential to a healthy population.
ReplyDeleteSonia