The Rising Cost of Health Care, and the Uninsured Essay

The Rising Cost of Health Care, and the Uninsured - Essay Example In the face of rising health care costs, fewer employers are able to provide their workers with health insurance; the percentage of employers offering health insurance dropped from 69% in 2000 to 60% in 2005. Even if employers are able to provide health insurance benefits, the trend is towards providing high-deductible insurance that covers an ever-shrinking percentage of health care costs. The net result is that more and more employed middle-class Americans find themselves with low-quality or no access to health care. The erosion of employer-based coverage has been partially offset by increased enrollment in Medicaid, which is designed to provide a safety-net for the lowest income Americans. However, Medicaid has recently been the subject of relentless funding cuts by cash-strapped states and Congressional representatives who are ideologically opposed to welfare programs. As the program continues to be slashed, it is certain that Medicaid will not be able to offset the losses in employer-based insurance, resulting in more and more uninsured individuals. Health insecurity is at an all-time high. In a time when thousands of people lose their health insurance every day, when health care is becoming elusive to even well-to-do Americans, and when any person is just one pink slip away from becoming uninsured, it becomes clear that health care for all is not just important to achieve, but imperative. (http://66.249.93.104/searchq=cache:MjuwB2oUF14J:www.amsa.org/uhc/CaseForUHC.pdf+%22Health+insecurity+is+at+an+all-time+high.+In+a+time+when+thousands%22&hl=en&gl=pk&ct=clnk&cd=1) Most people have health insurance through their employers or jobs. But, employment is no longer a guarantee of health insurance coverage. As companies change from manufacturing-based economy to a service economy, the working patterns revolve and health insurance coverage has become less stable. Due to rising health insurance, many employers cannot afford to offer health benefits. Companies that do offer health insurance, often require employees to contribute a larger share toward their coverage. As a result, a lot of people have made a decision not to take advantage of job-based health insurance because they cannot afford it. Because of this healthcare spending continues to rise at the fastest rate in history. For example in 2004, according to the National Coalition of Healthcare (NCHC) the total national health expenditures rose 7.9 percent -- over three times the rate of inflation (1). Total spending was $1.9 TRILLION in 2004, or $6,280 per person (1). Total healthcare spending represented 16 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). Healthcare spending is expected to increase at similar levels for the next decade reaching $4 TRILLION in 2015, or 20 percent of GDP. In 2005, employer health insurance premiums increased by 9.2 percent - nearly three times the rate of inflation. The annual premium for an employer health plan covering a family of four averaged nearly $11,000. The annual premium for single coverage averaged over $4,000. Experts say our healthcare system is filled with inefficiencies, unnecessary administrative expenses, inflated prices, poor management, and inappropriate care, waste and fraud. These problems drastically

Walt Whitman's democratic society - dream or reality Essay

Walt Whitman's democratic society - dream or reality - Essay Example Ideally, the consequence of the Civil War affected the realization of a truly American democratic society in the sense that it upheld the rights of the people as human beings and it reinforced their roles in ensuring that the state is headed by a government that is chosen by the people and accountable to it. The reforms that were undertaken after the war include those about electoral issues, equality, the bill of rights, among other factors that defined the relationship of the people and the state in America. Particularly, civil rights legislations especially those outlawing racial discrimination were passed. In over 30 years, more than a dozen states in the North and West passed civil rights statutes establishing their own antidiscrimination policies. (Perry and Smith 71) This fitted Whitman’s vision, transforming his vision into reality. These civil rights initiatives confirmed Whitman’s position in regard to the divinity of the individual. In the Democratic Vistas, f or example, he maintained that: It remains to bring forward and modify everything else with the idea of that Something a man is, (last precious consolation of the drudging poor), standing apart from all else, divine in his own right, and a woman in hers, sole and untouchable by any canons of authority, or any rule derived from precedent, state safety, the acts of legislatures. (16) The Gilded Age in reality, however, differed markedly from the democratic rhetoric of the Civil Rights and the developments that was supposedly achieved after the Civil War and the Restoration. At this point, for instance, there was the redefinition of liberty and property as those rights within this area were increasingly used by the wealthy and big corporations to control and exploit ordinary people. According to Moore (2005), the freedom of speech is valuable for democracy as well as Whitman’s arguments because it preserves and promotes democracy and self-government.