American Government Health Care Program Essay

American health programs are subdivided into vast categories depending on a social status of a person, age, occupation, disability. MEDICAID, for instance, is one of the running programs enshrined under the government health programs. It was and still is intended for the economically and socially disadvantaged. It is currently serving approximately 42 million people who are adversely affected by poverty. As such, the program focuses on enhancing their status for them to grow and develop healthily in a holistic manner. With such a program to cater for the poor, quality services seem to fall in the private facilities whereby, not everyone can access. The essay will elaborate the potential restrictions individuals face concerning access to quality health care services in America. MEDICAID is a pragmatic government healthcare program which has implications for the target population it was designed.

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MEDICAID services only benefit the American citizens or non-Americans who are considered permanent residents. Secondly, for one to be confirmed legible for the service, the criterion calls for low-income households and children, expectant mothers unfortunate people with disabilities like blindness and the elderly. The federal government finances the program in conjunction with the state government. Additionally, the program majorly relies on the private sector health services providers, centers for community health and other public health facilities. However, a majority of the beneficiaries of the program are children below the age of six, covering over 56%.

Functionalists argue that perfect health care is essentially good for the wellbeing of a functional community. People depend on each other as a society and not as an individual. While a conflict theory argues on the other hand that, one's status socially plays a role in the quality of health services they are to receive. For instance, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds have a high tendency to fall sick due to aspects of poor diet plans, yet still unfortunate to obtain the best of the services. Consequently, it has defined the physicians' perspectives in determining social inadequacy as medical issues. On the other hand, an interactionist theorist elucidates that the state of fitness or being ill is a social element. It depends on how the society looks and understands it. A good example is an obese individual. Some people look at it with pride, as others see it as a health risk (Schaufer & Lamm, 2017). The role of a physician is to practice their medical expertise in the management of the situation at hand.

Access to quality healthcare can encounter hindrance due to some inevitable factors, for instance, people with low social status may not afford to pay for the services required. It may result in accessing low-quality services which may not be essential, but since necessity calls, they are forced to act with what they can. Correspondingly, social networking restricts the kind of support one receives. An HIV positive individual's health depends on his/her social interactions and contacts. If by any chance the network around them decides to stigmatize them, then, the person may end up neglecting her health.

Support is vital in such cases to enable the person to realize their self-worth, equipped with better advice hence improving their health status. Similarly, race in America has affected access to quality medication, the case of the Hispanic community, for instance, have faced discrimination in health provision. The Hispanic community over the past years has been characterized by low income thus low purchasing power. They also categorized as people with little education and low occupation which is a barrier to insurance coverage ("Leadership by Example," 2012).

Insurance has become mandatory for one to receive adequate care. Some Hispanic members are illegal immigrants, and they remain undocumented. It is quite hard to acquire insurance when you are an undocumented immigrant. Furthermore, the recent Hispanics are not part of "American citizens" hence receive minimal benefits, health being among them (Schaufer & Lamm, 2017). Hispanics communicate in Spanish which has resulted in language barrier with the Americans. Language has brought about communication issues with the health practitioners; in that, they have difficulties in voicing the challenges they face.

Conclusion

The current American healthcare providers are doing a great job in delivering quality services. However, health services should provide services for all. However, in the healthcare sector, there are still discriminatory remarks from providers to patients. Providers should be committed to offering treatments equally regardless of ethnicity or race. No one chooses to fall ill, or the time to get sick, not even the type of illness that one should contact. Sickness should get treated as an emergency that can attack or befall anyone. People with low income should be considered, just as they contribute partly in one way or another to the welfare of the state. Race, on the other hand, should never be a barrier to list sure people as legible to access the services. Comprehending the sources of disparities in the healthcare sector needs an effectively designed multi-level approach which spans beyond reductionism to establish a justification how all factors influence health experiences.

References

Schaefer, R. a., & Lamm, R.P.(2017). Sociology: Three sociological perspectives. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Leadership by Example. (2012). Coordinating government roles in improving healthcare programs, 28-40