Community Service paper

Andy Kim

Mr. McAlister

Government

April 13, 2011

Health Care

Part I.

            Although I am South Korean, I kind of want to say my country is good, but I cannot deny the fact that the United States still is one of the greatest countries in this world right now. That is the major reason why our family emigrated from South Korea to the United States. We thought since the United States is one of the greatest countries, I thought everything was going to be good, but it was not true. Most of counties have universal health care, so I assumed that the United States would have one but they did not have it. In fact, “The U.S. is the only developed nation in the world that does not provide universal, taxpayer-supported healthcare to its residents. Instead, most Americans either pay for their own private coverage or use the insurance provided to them by their employers” (Universal Health Care). I was pretty young when I first got to the United States, so I did not really know anything, but I thought I would be able to go to hospital whenever I wanted to, just like I did in South Korea, but my mom said we cannot go to hospital unless we get into very dangerous accident or about to die. At that point, I realized that we would unable to pay for the medical bill because we do not have health insurances. And I found out that more than 32 million people in America do not have health insurance because they cannot afford to buy them. I wanted to talk about this because I feel like the government does not care about poor people. Rich people did not want Health Care Reform to happen in this country, because they actually can afford to get insurances without worrying about it. However, poor people just cannot afford to get insurances because they are too busy paying taxes, buying groceries, when they are done paying them, they do not have enough to pay for insurances. So, they do not get them. And I think it is not fair for poor people because they are actually the one who exposes themselves to danger the most.

            When Mr. Obama came out with this health care reform, two different reactions came out, one was from rich people and Republicans, and the second one was from poor, middle class people and Democrats. People who oppose new health care reform want to repeal it because:

The coverage expansion is simply too expensive, at a price tag of about $1 trillion over 10 years. They also say new fees and taxes to help pay for the coverage place too big a burden on currently insured people. Meanwhile, a group of state attorneys general is challenging the constitutionality of the law's requirement that everyone buy health insurance. (Clemmitt)

On the other hand, other people support health care reform because:

             The massive legislation will help 32 million Americans get health insurance coverage and bans insurers from denying coverage to those with preexisting illnesses. It also expands Medicaid to all poor people — except illegal immigrants — and gives subsidies to low- and low-middle-income people to buy insurance. (Clemmitt)

I like what the government is trying to do right now, because it will help poor people who could not go to the hospital. And I was researching information to write this paper, and I found out that the prisoners get better health treatment than the one who works really hard in the United States. And this is the story:

On Sept. 18, 1995, Horacio Alberto Reyes-Camarena repeatedly stabbed two sisters, 18 and 30, whom he had met at a farm labor camp. The younger bled to death but the elder survived with 17 stab wounds to testify against him. In 1996, Reyes-Camarena was sentenced to Oregon's death row. He was placed under protection of the state.

When it was discovered that his kidney was failing, the state covered the costs for his treatment, using $121,000 taxpayers' dollars per year to pay for dialysis.  On top of that, his prison doctor stated that he deserved a kidney transplant, a procedure that would cost the state an additional $100,000, so that he would be able to stay healthy until the date of his execution. (Berman)

When I saw this article, I was really upset, because even the prisoner, who committed the violence in the society gets kidney for free, but civilians living hard in the United States cannot get the surgery because they cannot afford it, or they are on a waiting list. I personally think government are thinking about the prisoners before civilians in America, because the article shows us that the government are willing to do whatever to save this prisoner, who was going to die eventually, because it is inhumane to let him die. And when my parents heard that President Obama was trying really hard to pass health care reform, they were really glad about it, because we are lower class. And everything the government has done, before new health care reform, was just feeding the insurance companies with a lot of money, so they could get some profit out of those. Lafayette and most of white community does not really need new health care reform, because everyone living here is at least in the middle class, other communities needs this health care reform. I have seen a lot of people who died from cancer from television, because they could not find the cancer soon, and the reason why they could not find it early was because they did not have enough money to check them out. And even my mom is physically doing pretty bad, she is often in pain, but she refuses to go to hospital because she is afraid of the bills we are going to get after the treatment, or just by checkup.

Part II.

The white house, president and Democrats were trying very hard to pass new health care reform but could not pass it quickly because Republican always said no. But finally on June 11, 2010, new health care reform, which is known as the Patient protection and Affordable Care Act, was signed by president Obama. This health care reform includes:

Expanding Medicaid; providing subsidies to help low- and middle-income families buy insurance; creating regulated insurance markets where people without employer-sponsored insurance can buy subsidized coverage; and using Medicare's economic clout to cut health care costs. (Clemmitt)

Not only it makes a lot of people to get insurance with a lot cheaper price, so they could go to hospital anytime they want, without worrying about the money, and it also will bring many patient to the hospital, so they will eventually make more money, and that is why many big hospitals and American Hospital Association is up for this law. And a lot of people think of this new health care reform as government taking over insurance company, but it actually is not. All they are trying to do is this.

The health care reform plan includes no new government-run plan. Rather, it imposes new regulations on health insurance companies, preventing them from dropping people from their plans when they get sick and restricting them from denying coverage based on preexisting conditions. The law also requires almost all Americans to carry health insurance, starting in 2014. (Health Care Reform)

When we watched the movie, which was produced by Michael Moore, during economy class, I got very upset when I found out that the insurance companies are literately selling product which is useless to the customer. And even if they have bought the right one, they make some excuse, so they do not have to pay for them. I think before the insurance company think about the money they are about to lose because of the Patient protection and Affordable Care Act, they should try hard to improve their product. So by passing this law, it would make insurance company to at least slow them down from trying to fraud innocent civilians. Not only that, cost of health care was keep increasing but nobody really knows why it is increasing. And I think this law could prevent insurance companies from raising the price of their product for no reason. And finally make hospital to treat everyone equally since everyone has insurance, so they would stop from kicking people out from their own hospital.

            What I did for the community service was fairly simple. I just had to sort and organize the medical stuff, which was donated by many hospitals, so the organization, Medshare, could send those to third world countries. By the way, the medical stuff was donated because they did not use it during the surgery, or it was expired, but if they sanitize it, it could be used. And the director said, people in third world counties do have some hospitals and some doctors, but they cannot get the medical stuff because it is expensive or could not get it. So, they ended up using supplies more than it needed to. They even reuse the gauze which has the blood on it. If it looks dirty, they would just go to the river, and rinse it out, and use it to other patient and because of those actions, people who drinks water gets sick and reused gauzes ended up infecting the patients. Therefore, I do think Medshare is a very good organization, but I did not really like volunteering there because I did not feel like I was helping out the community. When they say community, normally people mean the area which surrounds them. And I was disappointed because I could not help out the people in the United States, because they also suffer as much as those people from the third world countries. Anyways, what I am trying to say is, my community service has nothing to do with the United States’ health care reform, but what I want to say is, when the government is helping out the patients in other countries, they are not really thinking about the people in the United States. I know the U.S. government cares more about the Americans, but it seems like they only care about rich Americans. Moreover:

The United States will donate $130 million to African medical schools to improve medical education on the continent, the Obama administration announced last week. The donations, to be made over five years, will go to about 30 medical schools and teaching hospitals in a dozen countries, and to about 20 American medical schools that have agreed to collaborate with them. (McNeil Jr.)

I think the United States did really great job, helping countries that needs medical help, but I personally think instead of improving their medical education, they should send more medical equipment. And even before they help those people out, they should look at their own citizen and take care of lower class first.

Part III:

            To be honest, I do not know what else can be done about the health issue. President Obama tried very hard to pass the Patient protection and Affordable Care Act, and he made it into a law. I am little bit afraid because I think the Republicans will try to repeal this law again, as soon as they get a chance, the government has done everything they could do for citizens. The remaining has to be done by the insurance companies, and citizens.

            Even though I said I was not very satisfied with my roll, I still think it is good to help other people who need help. And we were volunteering one day and the queen from Tonga came all the way down to us to say thank you, and I realized that Medshare is pretty powerful organization. And when I was working with other people, who does community service for nothing, I was really amazed people would spend their day helping other people out, because even when I was doing community service at food bank, I did not feel like I was helping anyone, because everyone was kind of like forced to do what they were doing. But I learned a lot of things from Medshare, if I had more chance, I would like to go back to that place, and volunteer so I can help other people out.