Sick Children In Poor Schools

Since the 50% of school funding comes from the local regions, 40% from the state, then 10% from the government, if a school is in a poor region they will not have money to fund their school. If people are poor that live in that region chances are they do not have health insurance. Schools that barely get by do not have the funding for education let alone the supplies or money to take care of the sick children that have all odds against them.

Poor urban children are coming to school with out treatment infecting the healthier children creating a continuous cycle.

Smuggling drugs

Because the cost of prescriptions are so high many Americans are smuggling prescription drugs into the U.S. from Canada and New Mexico. This can be highly dangerous because our neighbors do not have the same FDA regulations as the U.S. they could also be importing the wrong drug which could patentionaly be fatal. "When Americans import medicines illegally or buy medicines online from unreliable sources, they are faced with a dangerous buyer-beware situation," says FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford, D.V.M., Ph.D. But with the high costs of health care it is hard for many like the elderly to pay for daily living expenses and highly expensive drugs. When I'm older I hope I don't have to choose for or my pain medication that's just vulgar! Or have my children buy prescription drugs over the internet and I end up dying because they sent me the wrong one. This is just another example of how the poor is getting poorer and sicker with out help.

Alternatives

Because not everyone has the luxury of seeing a doctor when they can or can afford it alternative medicine can be a nice way of helping out. By trying to stay healthy can save you a lot of money in the long run. By taking a multi vitamin each day that can run under $5 dollars for a bottle can boost your immune system and can prevent certain diseases. The non brain er also would be working out at least 30 minutes a day 5 times a week can keep your body not also in good physical condition that can prevent injuries but helps keep your body healthy. Eating right also a no brain er helps your immune system and white blood cell count. Although not all of us can afford health insurance simple things can help us from seeing the dreaded doctor!

"The United States spends more of its gross domestic product on medical care than any nation in the world, yet Americans do not live longer than Western Europeans or Japanese." That's sad you think that money in health care would equal better health and longer living but it turns out it hasn't worked for us. Take San Angelo for example "more than a quarter of San Angelo residents have no health insurance and little access to health care, while many more are substantially under insured. At town hearings a year ago, residents told of choosing between buying food or heart medicine, of doing without asthma medicine and of going to crowded hospital emergency rooms with toothaches because dentists wouldn't care for them." Like in my other blog these untreated problems can lead to death like Dem the young boy that died from an untreated tooth abscess. Little problems or untreated illess can lead to death or serious injuries.

Vet Turned Down at Veterans Hospital

Now in today's society the war is a huge conflict still to this day, everyone knows this but I was surprised when I read the article "VA hospital turned away suicidal vet, family," says http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/2007/03/va-hospital-turned-away-suicidal-vet.html because I would never think that a war veteran would be turned down for medical assistance. After Marine Jonathan Schulze was rejected by a Minnesota VA hospital when he needed urgent treatment. He had post traumatic stress after being stationed in Iraq. He became suicidal and had been placed on several drugs to help him treat his depression. After Jonathan four days after Johnathan had been turned down from the hospital he tried to commit suicide. This is just another story how no one in America should be turned down for health care.

Disaster Leaves Thousands dead

With out hospitals like the Charity Hospital in New Orleans, many would have gone with out any sort of health care because they could not simply afford it. After Katrina hit wounding and killing thousands Charity hospital that took care of mostly uninsured patients was forced to be shut down. Charity Hospital in New Orleans served as a haven for generations of uninsured patients, and when it closed after Katrina, that population lost its entry point to acute medical care. A few services for the indigent, including labor and delivery of newborns, have returned to the city, but uninsured patients needing an orthopedist, neurologist or other specialist now face the difficult choice of traveling to a Charity hospital in another part of the state or relying on clinic directors such as Bultman to cobble together a solution through informal relationships with other providers. (Nola.com) this is unfortunate the citizens of New Orleans that could not originally afford health care were now homeless and left with nothing. As one of our biggest natural disasters our poor American brothers and sisters went un helped.

While looking up the price differences in the U.S. and Canada I found that price differences can be drastic. For example, 90 Coumadin pills, a blood-thinner, cost about $90 in the United States and only $50 [American] in Canada. Sixty cancer treatment tamoxifen pills for U.S. consumers are roughly $52, while across the border they go for $38. And 30 anti-inflammatory Vioxx pills fetch $78 for U.S. pharmacies and are only $37 in Canada. Thank god my mom pays for my health insurance because with the rate of the expensive drugs I think I might be moving to Canada soon! Although this drug system exchange is not full proof it is saving many people oodles of money in the long run. As our health care system's rates increase and the number of people who can actually afford health insurance decreases it leaving people hurting.

S- Chip

After the majority of congress voted on the "S-chip" which would have provided millions of poor children without health insurance with health insurance. The new bill would provide federal matching money to cover only children in families with incomes below 300 percent of the federal poverty level, or almost $62,000 for a family of four. The only exception is that New Jersey could continue to provide coverage to families who earn up to $72,000 — if the state ranks high in covering the poorest children. (New York Times). The Senate majority leader, Harry Ried, Democrat of Nevada, said, “Republicans have now twice asked for more time on the children’s health bill and have twice objected when we granted their request.” (New York Times) This bill has been reprocessed because of the need of health care and because children and being neglected and can not do anything about it.

Deamonte a Life that could have been saved.

12 year old Deamonte's life could have been saved if only his family had health insurance. Deamonte's parents could not afford private health insurance so his abscessed tooth went unnoticed. He complained of a tooth ache after surgery his abscess spread to his brain and a couple of weeks later his eventually died. A simple thing like an abscessed tooth could have been prevented if simple visit to the dentist was available. This could have to anyone of the 47 millions Americans that does not have health insurance.

The Sad Truth

While reading an article form the New York Times Greensboro, N.C. (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/22/health/policy/22insure.html) about low income famlies like the Lange's family with little or no health insurance it got me thinking. Like the Lange family I can relate in several ways although I come from a middle class family, with a single parent mother in the nursing profession health care has always been a struggle. My mother has health insurance but with my brothers kidney disease that forced him to have multiple surgeries, and a kidney transplant, it's been almost impossible for my mother to keep up with his medical bills totalling in the thousands. Like the Lange family if I was not on the death bad I didn't really ever go to the doctor. This is sad, money shouldn't have this big of an affect on someones health. For many if you can get by feeling sick but getting by it worth the huge amounts of money that you save. Many people like my mother had to work 2 or 3 jobs to cover the expenses, while thousands get multiple jobs to seek health care benefits for their families through there employers but are still drowning in bills.

Uninsured Numbers Rise

The number of people living below the poverty line in the United States increased by 1.3 million last year. In addition, the number of Americans without health insurance grew by 1.4 million, to 45 million; 15.6 percent of Americans have no health insurance. It was the third consecutive year where the percentage grew. These factors go hand in hand together poverty rate is increasing further more increasing less people to be able to afford health insurance leaving America to play catch up with trying to pay for those uninsured.

The large number of uninsured creates a significant strain on the emergency medical system. For-profit managed care has shown a steadily increasing pattern of denying needed treatment. More Americans are dissatisfied with the health-care system overall. Overhead costs are significant. In an October, 2003 Washington Post/ABC poll, by almost a two-to-one margin (62 percent to 33 percent), Americans said that they preferred a universal system that would provide coverage to everyone under a government program, as opposed to the current employer-based system. Both the French and Canadian systems rank in the Top 10 of the world's best health-care systems, according to the World Health Organization. The United States comes in at No. 37. The rankings are based on general health of the population, access, patient satisfaction and how the cares paid for. Although America is advanced in medical technology and is ahead of other countries our system is not working out.