Healthcare
One of every seven people in our country lives without health care…and many of those who are insured are covered only for catastrophic care. This hurts us all. Learn more and help heal our society!
Introduction
Health care affects every citizen of every country in the world. Every human can be stricken with disease or find themselves unable to receive the care they need. Statistics are not able to tell the full story of the health care challenges we face. Untold multitudes of people around the globe are unable to receive the care that they require to live healthy lives. Browse this section to learn more about the issue from a local to global level and find out the ways that you can help.
Exploring Health Care on the Local Scene
Concerns about access to healthcare are not restricted to developing countries thousands of miles away. Connecticut citizens share these concerns with people all over the world, and the issue is particularly critical right here in Hartford. There remain an estimated 196,000 Connecticut citizens living without health insurance, according to the Connecticut Office of Health Care Access’ (OHCA) 2006 Report. This same report states that blacks and Hispanics are over half of Connecticut’s uninsured but make up less than a quarter of the state’s population. At any one time, about six percent of the state’s population is uninsured, and over a year approximately ten percent will experience a period of uninsurance. This is compared to roughly 47 million Americans that are without health insurance, over 15% of the nation’s population.
This has a tremendous effect on the use of health services by the uninsured: “The uninsured are less likely to have a regular health care provider, to have visited a health care professional in the last year, or to receive a prescription,” according to the OHCA Report. In other words, access to care is far from equitable. An estimated 18,000 adults in the state die each year from illnesses that they would have survived had they been insured, according to a health coverage & insurance report by the Economic & Social Research Council.
Children are also affected by lack of access to adequate health care. About 24,700 Connecticut children are uninsured, although this has fallen from 4% to 2.7% of the state’s children, according to the OHCA’s Child Health Care Coverage in Connecticut 2006 Report. Because of this improvement, children comprise a smaller share of Connecticut’s uninsured, mostly due to programs like HUSKY, State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and Medicare.
Like most uninsured citizens in the state, uninsured children are predominately in working families, earning too much to qualify for public assistance but too little to afford their own coverage.
From Local to Global
Health care is a concern for people on the local, state, national and global levels. Globally, about 40 million people are infected with HIV/AIDS, 14 million with tuberculosis, and over 400 million with malaria (globalhealthfacts.org). Closer to home, nearly 20,000 Connecticut residents are living with HIV/AIDS including about 5,000 in the Hartford area, according to the Department of Health & Human Services/Center for Disease Control.
Inadequate health systems are a major contributor to health problems around the world. Many developing countries suffer from poor health care facilities & personnel and inefficiency & waste. For example, less than 50 percent of the population of several African countries (Zaire, Somalia, Rwanda and Liberia) have access to health care facilities, and many African countries have only one doctor for every 10,000 people (compared to 26 doctors for every 10,000 Americans), according to the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Poor infrastructure compounds these problems, leading to disastrous results. One such statistic is child mortality: according to UNICEF, one in five children in Western and Central African does not make it to age five.
The United States, on the other hand, has some of the best health care facilities & personnel in the world. However, the World Health Organization ranks the U.S. health system 37th out of 191 despite the fact that the U.S. spends a higher portion of its gross domestic product on its health system than any other country. This is because many U.S. citizens do not have access to the quality health care that is offered all over the country. Our health care is excellent compared with much of the world, but only if one is able to afford it.
Responding
There are many routes you can take to advance the cause of improved health care. Perhaps the most important is to get informed and learn more about the topic. You can follow the news, monitor local and national political debates, browse web sites and attend local meetings to better understand this issue. Join up with local organizations, including those that work with Hands on Hartford to improve local health care. Connect with local officials so they know that their constituents care about this issue.
Hands on Hartford offers many ways to get involved with the issue of healthcare. Check the project calendar to find a service opportunity that fits your schedule and interest.
Resources
The above information was taken from the following sources. Click on the links to learn more: Connecticut Office of Health Care Access, Commonwealth Fund, U.S. Census Bureau, Economic & Social Research Institute, Universal Health Care Association of Connecticut, Hispanic Health Council, World Health Organization, Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America, Department of Health & Human Services/Center for Disease Control.
