Healthcare for All

After watching the video on Doctor Hotspot I was so shocked and very motivated to do something about this awful problem that America is facing. I had never seen or heard of anyone doing this so the fact that someone thought of this idea in order to benefit others and also work with social workers to understand and use a better approach to helping others was an amazing idea. This topic of health disparity is very near to my heart. My grandparents who are mostly Spanish speaking try to avoid the doctors office as much as possible. I always thought to myself “why are they so hard headed?” I had no idea the amount of trouble they went through just to even find a doctor without paying less than $100. Until this one time when they both got very sick and finally agreed they needed to go to the doctor’s office in order to get better. So I had to help them find a doctors office that took their insurance. I had no idea how hard and stressful it would be. I spent hours looking for a doctor and finally found one. That next day we went to the doctor’s office and we get there and they tell my grandma they do not take her insurance and she would have to pay out of pocket more than $300. I knew they were not right and I proceeded to go help my grandma and they finally took her into her office. It was something like that I had never experienced. I know every time I visit the doctor it is a quick visit with a $20 co pay. That is a privilege I failed to realize. So many people here in America are without healthcare, and it all stems from our social values here in America. As mentioned in our reading it is a “human right” to get the healthcare we all need(Braveman,2011). I personally dealt with this issue and it hurt me deeply that someone I loved could not get the adequate healthcare all because they did not make enough money to get the insurance needed. I even felt that the language barrier for my grandparents was a major problem that the health professionals did not care to address. I felt as if they almost wanted to take advantage of that fact that my grandparents could not fully comprehend what they were saying and could not accurately describe what they were trying to say to the doctors. Health disparity is very much happening here in America where you think is the place to be for opportunities but yet there are other countries out there providing better healthcare to their own citizens. This is a cycle that needs to be broken. No matter what race, gender, or social economic status you are your healthcare should not be determined by that. The treatment my grandparents and many other Americans are receiving is something I would never want someone to go through. Having to constantly worry about how much it is to get a basic medical treatment is a problem America should not be facing.  

References

Braveman, P. A., Kumanyika, S., Fielding, J., Laveist, T., Borrell, L. N., Manderscheid,    

    R., & Troutman, A. (2011). Health Disparities and Health Equity: The Issue Is Justice. American        Journal of Public Health, 101(S1).

Doctor Hotspot. (2011, May 13). Retrieved March 27, 2018, from 

    https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/doctor-hotspot/

Sick Around The World. (n.d.). Retrieved March 27, 2018, from

  https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/sickaroundtheworld/