Introduction
Health care has always been a public health concern in America. It has been one of the principles used to segregate blacks from whites; rich from poor; colored people from non- colored among many divisive tactics employed by policy makers under Jim Crow laws and beyond. Therefore, the twenty first century health care concerns listed under the Obama care is just another attempt to correct the ills of segregation in America, which was never thoroughly addressed by other politicians. We live in a society where blacks and now Hispanics have the highest rates of every disease on the face of this earth once they are living in America. So the statistics carry the data (Lopez & Haney, 2007).
Body
Consequently, my perspective of the present state of healthcare in America and its future is that it is an unfair system deliberately placing minorities at a disadvantage above the affluent and rich. Minorities in the twenty-first century happen to be African Americans and Hispanics. Statistics reveals the leading cause of death in America is heart disease and blacks have the highest rate as usual. Further, they are the in the majority with no health insurance and when they do have it cannot afford to pay for basic health care services because medications for hypertension, diabetes, HIV/AIDS; cancer, mental illness and complication of these diseases take it all. They have the highest rates at the present time. It has been predicted that the trend will increase along these minority racial lines (Selden & Sing, 2008).
In concluding the future of health care in America with the Obama care strategies, may just give few more minorities’ access to health insurance. However, can health insurance improve the quality of health care they will receive with the escalating costs? Poor people will continue receiving poor health care while the rich have access to the best through better insurance coverage (Jackson, D. (2014).
References
Jackson, D. (2014). Obama pitches health care on 'Between Two Ferns'. USA Today.
Lopez, I., & Haney, F. (2007). A nation of minorities: race, ethnicity, and reactionary
colorblindness. Stanford Law Review.
Selden, T., & Sing, M. (2008). The Distribution Of Public Spending For Health Care In The
United States, 2002. Health Affairs 27, no. 5 (2008): w349-w359.
Part 11: Public Health Official Budget
Introduction
As a public health official who has just been awarded a $500,000 grant to reduce the number of new cases of a HIV/AIDS in the Miami Dade Opa Locka community within a 2-year period; my budget proposal and anticipatory spending for this project is outline in the following pages of this document.
Disease and area demographics
The youngest child in Opa locka, Miami Dade, Florida community knows that, HIV/AIDS is a sexually transmitted disease, which can be prevented through safe sexual practices. It is also common knowledge that, children become infected through mothers who have contracted the virus. Drug users/abusers who exchange needles are the most vulnerable transmitters and can contract the organism. Besides, both children and adults know that, there is no cure for HIV/AIDS. Once a person contracts the virus; it is a death sentence if he/she cannot afford the costly antiviral treatment, which is available today as a palliative therapy (Mandell, Bennett & Dolin, 2010).
Opa locka according to the 2010 census has a population of 15, 219 residents. They account for 5,104 households of 4,000 families. The ethnic composition consists of 69.64% of African Americans; 22.83 Whites; 28.55% Latino/Hispanic and the other percentages represent unclassified ethnic groups. Importantly, 41% of households in this community have children under the age of 18 years old; 35.2% are female headed; 26% are between the ages of 24-44 and 8.5% are 65 years of age and older. English can be considered the first language since over 68% of the community members are fluent in this language. However, some speak creole along with English (2.7%) and 28% speak Spanish (United States Census Bureau, 2010).
Historically, Opa Locka has had a notorious crime history. For example the Opa Locka Triangle is one of the most dangerous vicinities in the community where broad daylight shootings occur. More importantly, statistics reveal that Opa Locka has the highest violent crime rates for any city in United States of America. Also, the area also harbors a number of prostitutes and drug addicts. Even though comparative studies between the years 2011-2013 show significant decrease in violence rates, law enforcement is still cautious when investigating crimes in this community due to the history of high violence incidences. There are also statistics to prove that Opa Locka has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in Miami Dade country (United States Census Bureau, 2010).
In planning prevention strategies to address HIV/AIDS in Opa Locka community the ethnic composition must be considered along with incidences of violence and residents’ life style. Research proved that the influence of churches collaborating with local government has been quite influential in reducing violence in this community between the years 2011-2013. Therefore, as a public health official entering this somewhat dangerous community my first technique is seeking collaboration with churches who are already providing social services along with local government to address HIV/AIDS together (Harrison & Lock, 2004).
This joint public health effort would encompass distribution of flyers updating the community about HIV/AIDS and the importance of being tested. Those who have already contracted the virus are provided with information on how to access affordable services for medication management. A portion of this grant would be allocated to persons who do not have insurance coverage for medication (Harrison & Lock, 2004).
Conclusion
This project cannot be executed without funding. As such, the $500,000 grant awarded to me will be spent on executing this project.
Budget
References
Harrison, L., & Lock, D. (2004). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Gower
Publishing
Mandell, L. Bennett, E., & Dolin, R. (2010). Practice of Infectious Diseases (7th ed.).
Philadelphia, PA: Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier.
United States Census Bureau (2010). US Census Opa locka, Fact Finder
