Medical Sociology-

New Healthcare Bill
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NEW HEALTHCARE BILL
Most of the revenue in the US goes to healthcare yet the country still ranks poorly in the health status of its employees Schroeder, 2007:1). To curb the problem of healthcare the nation needs a new health care bill that will help the government intervene on health problems by engaging in early disease intervention and prevention. For instance, responses are crucial for the poor and socially disadvantaged persons to ensure they receive appropriate health care education and of ways of preventing diseases. In designing the new healthcare bill, the government can consider some ideas from the following journal articles.
In his article Schroeder (2007:1) explains that a country does not need to have super powers to be healthy. He precisely points out that if the government is to yield positive results on health bills they need to intervene on obesity and smoking. The idea is that lifestyle behaviors impact on mortality rates and they are influenced by social-economic and development trends. There is a need to deal with these colossal epidemic by adjusting the health systems. Apparently, as Robert and Benedict put it public health policies are the answers to health care challenges. Schroeder (2007:2) further notes that altering the policies and procedures that lead to unhealthy lifestyles will help promote a healthy nation rather than trying to change the behavior of a single person at a time.

For instance, companies selling with tobacco and alcohol continuously convince people to consume their products which in the end lead to deadly diseases. The government should borrow Schroder’s idea and put in place a policy that will control these companies instead of trying to convince one consumer at a time on the dangers of such products. Additionally, other companies such as ones dealing with firearms and pharmaceuticals hire large number of lobbyists who resist against legislations that impose threats on their products. Consequently, Schroeder (2007:3) suggests that the government should create policies and legislations which protect the people from practices of organizations with self-interests.
The views from Schroeder’s article are crucial if included in making the new bill since they give light on why the health status of America is sick despite the government spending a lot of money on the health sector. For instance, as Schroeder (2007:1) highlights, even though the health care is right, most people never receive it, or they receive it when it is already late while others only get poor quality services. Consequently, the American government should use this idea to ensure that the new health care bill allows people to receive timely healthcare services and that all citizens receive quality healthcare services. According to Schroeder (2007:2), most premature deaths result from behavioral patterns of American and healthcare only impacts a 10 % of the deaths. The idea is crucial since the government should learn to focus the money on educating the people especially the poor and less advantaged on how their behaviors can lead to premature deaths instead on wasting the money developing high-class health facilities which play a small role in the ends. Using these ideas will help the people in making informed lifestyle decisions hence solving the problem. According to Woolf et al. (2007:5), most deaths in America result from lack of health education among the citizens rather than due to lack of appropriate medical devices and facilities. Woolf et al (2007:2) suggests that improving health care does not necessarily require technological innovations rather from a change of behavior. Woolf et al (2007:3) are of the opinion that the government should come up with firm measures of fighting fat such as food-stamp restrictions, raising taxes on unhealthy products, and allowing campaigns against products that cause risks to the people’s health.
According to Dereck and McBride (2015:3), the US lags behind in comparison to other developed countries in its health status. Dereck and McBride (2015:4), further suggest that if the health of Americans will improve, the government should pay more attention on improving the health status of the poor and socially disadvantaged. As Kangovi et al. (2013:6) note, individual based policies are less significant than policies directed to combating food industries into producing healthy products. The government should also consider Kangovi et al. (2013: 7) idea which argues that some illnesses such as ones resulting from obesity requires an environmental policy rather than behavioral policy since major causes of obesity are environmental. To fully curb some unhealthy lifestyles and illness, the government should embrace the idea of coupling medical efforts and healthy education with environmental strategies. Actions such as lack of physical activity, weak and unhealthy diets, smoking and drug use contribute a high percentage of premature deaths in the US (Kottle and Isham, 2010:8). Consequently, while developing a new healthcare bill that will help curb premature deaths requires the policy developers to think of how they can educate the people to prevent disease occurrences. Woolf et al. (2007:6) argue that empowering the masses on how their behaviors lower their life expectancy makes them realize the need for adopting healthy lifestyles hence improving health care status.
Existing Financial Considerations that can Hinder Implementation of the Ideas
Most of the ideas expressed by the articles may face financial hindrances in the attempts to apply them in the new health bill. For instance, the poor people may not be in a position to stick to healthy diets no matter the emphasis medical practitioners and the government put on healthy eating. Most low-income families struggle to afford a meal hence due they may lack the finances required to provide a balanced meal. Additionally, introducing health education and awareness to school going children and the community also needs a lot of money. Consequently, the government will have to look for ways of catering for the extra expenditure created by the new bill if they are to utilize the ideas. The additional budgets will comprise of physical training, changing the education system to incorporate health education, ensuring that each school has enough and competent personnel to train on healthy lifestyles and many others. The community members also require medical practitioners to guide them on healthy eating and desirable lifestyle which the government must consider costs of paying.
References
Dereck, S. B & McBride, T. D. (2015). Impact of the Affordable Care Act on Access to Care for US Adults with Diabetes, 2011-2012. Preventing Chronic Diseases. http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd12.140431
Kangovi, S., Barg, F. K, Carter, T, Long, J. A., Shannon, R., & Grande, D. (2013). Understanding why patients of low socioeconomic status prefer hospitals over ambulatory care. Health Aff (Millwood)
Kottle, T. E & Isham, G. J. (2010). Measuring health care access and quality to improve health in populations. Prevention of Chronic Diseases. Pp.3-6 Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2010/jul/o9_0243.htm
Robert, A. H & Bennedict, I. T. (2015). Education Improves Public Health and Promotes Health Equity. Center for Prevention of Chronic Diseases, pp. 3-4, Doi: 10.1177/0020731415585986
Schroeder, S. A. (2007). We Can Do Better- Improve the Health of the American People. The New England Journal of Medicine. http:www.nejm.org/doi/full/10. 1056/NEJMsa073350
Woolf, S. H., Johnson, R.E, Robert, L. P. Jr., & Maike, P. (2007). Giving Everyone the Health of the Educated: An Examination of Whether Social Change Would Save More Lives Than Medical Advances. American Journal of Public Health, 97(4) pp. 5-8. http://ajph.aphapublications .org/doi/full/10.21o05/AJPH.2005.084848