When it comes to providing the best care
for your loved ones, everyone wants the best of the best. The reality of it, however, is not as simple
as we would want it to be, unless you fall under the small percentage of the
wealthy. This blog will discuss the adverse effect of health inequality based
on income from the social view point of the wealthy and the poor. To be more
specific, how does income affect health care services in the lower and upper
class?
Recently, I saw this film called “The Bucket List” that demonstrated a
huge gap of differences between how the patients were treated according to
their economic status. One of these differences, in regards to the rich, is the
luxury of having the best doctor treat you if you happen to fall sick or
develop a disease. Being able to afford these physicians and staff to care for
you day and night may ultimately be the reason for your survival and recovery.
On the contrary, the poor cannot afford the top doctors to look after them.
Most of the lower class rely on public health physicians who are not as
educated and experienced as the physicians looking after the wealthy. Many
people that I know like to think that all doctors know what they are doing, but
that statement couldn’t be more wrong as 2 + 2 = 5. There are doctors out there
that are extremely precise on methods and treatments and there are others who
know about it, but are not really familiar and well educated as how the top
doctors in the world are.
Another difference among the wealthy and
the poor are the treatments and medication. Realistically speaking, the poor
have no way to pay for the medications and treatment they need to survive or
recover. Sure, many of them have health insurance, but the majority of these
insurances do not cover major treatments or medications. What if the person who
is sick has no family or insurance and due to their sickness they cannot work
anymore. How are they going to afford the treatment or better yet their
hospital stay? Even if the poor somehow afford the treatment and medication,
they won’t be able to afford it for long if their loved one does not get better
soon. What’s not to say that they have to be treated for years and you run out
of money? I know there is funding and help out there for the lower income
class, but it is truly difficult to receive that help and you have to be one of
the lucky ones to receive it because not all people do. The ability to afford
the advanced technology also plays a factor in this. These super computers and
highly advance technology can mean life and death for some patients. As far as
the rich go, they can simply afford the medication, treatment, and technology
with no struggle.
In addition, the accommodations of the
classes differ as well. The upper class tend to have private rooms with their
certain needs met. They have spacious rooms with frequent checkups to see if
there is anything missing. Their food items also t end to be satisfied more. The poor often have to share
rooms and receive less of an effort to accommodate their stay. At last, we can
see the issue of income significantly playing a role in health status.
Although this may be a little of topic,
I believe this is important for people to realize how these sicknesses and
diseases arise between the poor and rich. According to the National
Longitudinal Mortality Survey, the wealthy and better educated people live
longer than the poor and less educated. You may wonder and say it is because the
poor can’t afford the necessary treatments, but the majority of the reason is
because the poor have to face the burden of stress and anxiety of trying to
maintain themselves and family. The poor worry about paying bills and having
enough food for the day while the rich do not. Most of these worries lead to
coping methods and the poor can only get hands on alcohol and cigarettes which
ultimately lead to poor health and weaken immune system. Some people can’t even
afford enough food causing malnutrition leading to health issues. The rich
mainly get sick due to their own genetics or simply did not pay much attention
to their health.
In the end, health care services do
differ based on income level. I concluded that the more income you have the
better chances you will have to recover from an illness, but no money can buy
the faith and hope many poor citizens have and lastly their will to live.
Angus
Deaton, (Spring 2003). Health, Income,
and Inequality. Retrieved from
http://www.nber.org/reporter/spring03/health.html
“Poor Sleeping” by Linda Hernandez.
ReplyDeleteThe reason I chose this blog to respond to is because I felt that I could truly relate my life to this blog from personal life experiences, and what my family has had to suffer through basically since I could remember. Not only that but I must say, I truly enjoyed reading this blog.
From my personal perspective, the reason I could relate to this blog is because I have been working my tail off since the age of 16 which is the legal working age to be able to work in Illinois as Linda’s blog pointed out. I did not however start working because I wanted to have the coolest clothes, or the hottest new gadgets. I began to work because I was raised to do whatever I could to help somebody if I knew I had the ability to do so. In this case, it was to help the people that blessed me with that attribute which were my parents. Usually an individual with 16 years of age can’t wait to receive their first paycheck to spend it on something they’ve been really wanting. In my case, I couldn’t wait to get my paycheck to see the look on my parents faces when I handed it to them and they saw that I would do whatever I could to help out with the bills. From the moment my parents came to this country illegally they had struggled very much, and they got deported when I was 10 years of age. I remember how painful it was to not have them around, and see them bust their butt to send me money from Mexico, and I vowed that I would do whatever I could to repay them, and this was the way that stood out to me the most.
Another reason as I mentioned before for why Linda’s blog stood out to me is because it reminds me of how hard my parents have worked all their life so that me and my siblings could have the life they never had. Over the years, this included working job to job restlessly and paycheck to paycheck. They would get home from one job at 2AM, would sleep for an hour, and it was time to get up and head to job number two for their 4AM shift at another job. What I always admired is how they would always tell my siblings and me how blessed they were instead of ever complaining.
The second blog I would like to talk about is “Health Inequality” by Patricia Cortez. The reason this blog caught my attention is because she talks about how the rich tend to have the better side of health benefits, which I agree with. I agree with it because it’s pretty obvious that since the rich could afford more , they’re obviously going to be able to have the better side of pretty much anything.
ReplyDeleteI never really saw it that way, but it makes sense that poor people get sick more often and worse than the rich. There’s more stress and much more worry in a poor man’s world can lead to death or depression, anxiety. I’ve seen this with my own family as well because my mom doesn’t have medical insurance that covers everything which means there’s constant charges and bills for anything medically related to her, and it’s truly stressful to have to pay to be alive.
The only thing that I don’t like about this blog however is that she makes it seem like it’s the rich people’s fault that they have it better. I truly believe in survival of the fittest even though my family is involved in what you could probably call the “poor class”. We don’t blame anyone for what we suffer through in any way; instead we know that if we want anything in life we have to work for it. We also know that money isn’t everything, but we also know that faith isn’t going to pay the bills.
The last thing I have to say is I like how Patricia talked for the poor, but in the end, every man for himself has to find a way to make it in life.