How Health Care Reform Effects Children

How Health Care Reform Effects Children.

Introduction

Today, the United States is the only industrial country in the world that does not provide a government-sponsored medical system for all citizens (Botterweck 401). One major reason for this is an antinationalistic political philosophy which values limited government actions in order to maximize personal liberties. The involvement of the government is only seen in some kind of support for those most in need, the children of the poor, and the elderly - Medicaid (for the poor) and Medicare (for the elderly). Both of these programs grew out of the controversy about public health. While these programs give a certain level of assistance to the poor and the elderly (usually low-quality services), there are growing numbers of low-paid middle class working children who do not fulfill requirements for receiving Medicaid insurance.

How Health Care Reform Effects Children

Furthermore, neither their employers provide them with health insurance benefits nor their low-amount checks allow them to purchase any kind of insurance. This category of children suffers the most in cases of illnesses or other medical emergencies. According to “Mortality,” leading causes for deaths in the United States are heart diseases and different types of cancers, which are in direct correlation with a lack of the adequate health care (2). If these children were insured, they would be provided with services such as regular check-ups and in many cases death could be prevented.

Most children would agree that everyone should be provided with health care. Most children will be in a situation when their well-being would be conditioned by the medical service they receive. Most children would agree that providing children with health care benefits cost a lot of tax-payers' money. Rising health costs mean lower wages, higher prices for goods and services, and higher taxes. The points of disagreement arise from the question whether or not all the citizens should sacrifice and accept even higher tax rates for introducing a new health care program which would cover all the citizens regardless of their socio-economic status. Another question is how the government should address this issue and would the universal government-provided insurance mean interfering in children's lives and limiting personal freedom of choice. To answer both questions, children should decide whether saving humans lives is worth of giving up on some amount of money or even losing some level of personal choice.

The United States is without a question the leading country of medical and scientific innovations. There always seem to be a new medical breakthrough every time children watch the news or read the newspapers, especially in the cure of certain diseases. Without the question, the medical research requires an enormous amount of money. The United States spends the most money on health care yet many children, mainly the working class Americans are still without any type of health insurance and thus are more susceptible to health risks and problems. A decrease in the number of uninsured Americans correlates with a decrease in the cost of ...