Health Care Provision and Poverty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Health Care Provision and Poverty - Essay Example This is not the case as the entire blame lies on the government which has for the longest time possible ignored the plights of the poor in relation to health care provision. Matters of insurance and health care heavily impacts on the poor as they are the minority in the nation and, therefore, cannot have access to such services. It is common knowledge that lack of access to proper medical aid at the appropriate time can only lead to more suffering of the patient. According to analysts, healthcare has become unaffordable for businesses and individuals because of varied reasons. The most prominent reasons for lack of health care services are poverty, lack of employment, and employers transfer of healthcare costs to their employees. The burden of health care is not any better for the employed Americans. These employed people have to pay more out of their pockets for medical services and doctor visits. Employed people contribute towards health care in the form of taxes which is deducted from their salaries on a monthly basis. The major reason for lack of health care for the employed is that health care has become too expensive, and families opt to keep the matters of health care on hold. Culturally, the cost of health care services should be on the employing unit and not the worker. An employer should never put more on an employee through health care as these can lead to high employee turnover. In as much as employers may not have adequate funds to support the health care programs, it is their duty to ensure that employees have access to proper medical services. Most Americans give priority to the provision of other basic needs like food, clothing, and home. Healthcare comes in as a secondary need and people will struggle to provide for it in times of need. There is a high death rate for Americans as they fail to have access to medical aid at the appropriate time or when they fall sick, they have no sufficient funds to cater for the medical need. Records of America ns way of spending indicate that their priority bills are mortgage, rent, car payments, and other adulthood obligations. People do not give health care priority because it is expensive to maintain an insurance cover especially for the entire family. With this in mind, it is only fair that the government takes up some responsibilities like provision of free health care to its citizens. Analysts believe that this will be instrumental in maintaining America’s image as one of the wealthiest and industrialized nation (Doug, 2010, pg 12). Health care services become an even extreme case for the unemployed. Insurance is a luxury for Americans with no jobs or who have just lost their jobs recently. Reports on channel 7 news showed the relationship between unemployment and free health care clinics. The rise of unemployment level in America has seen the growth of free health care clinics. The only obstacle in this case is the crowding in these health care clinics as most people are une mployed (Andrews, 2011, pg 40). In addition, the free health care clinics will only serve people who have current insurance cover. This idea cuts out so many people from using their services as most people in America have no cover because of its cost. Another option for the unemployed Americans is cobra subsidy policy, which caters for 65% of the whole bill. This is subject to people accepting to pay more after fifteen