A right to good healthcare Essays

A right to good healthcare Essays A right to good healthcare Essay A right to good healthcare Essay Introduction to Ethics and Social Responsibility This is the United States of America, land of the free. Good health care is a right, not a privilege. Healthcare (including public health) is special because it protects normal functioning, which in turn protects the range of opportunities open to individuals (Daniels N. 2001 pig. 2). Currently President Obama has been trying to change the way health care is approached in the United States. He is facing quite a bit of opposition in his ideas that the government should provide health care for all Americans. No matter what your stance is on President Beams healthcare plan, we all realize that it is better to have health insurance than not. With prescription-drug costs being so out of control, many people have to choose between food and their prescriptions. Which is Just not right, the fact is that health care is out of control. If healthcare was made more affordable it would actually end up costing taxpayers less in the long run because the expense of having to pay for uninsured patients medical expenses is so high. The cost of going to a doctor is so high that many dont even other until it is often too late. Having experience a major health issue myself at the last minute, because I am not offered any type of healthcare insurance through my job. Many Americans Just cannot afford the cost of health insurance. In this paper I will address several issues on why healthcare is so important to Americans; such as the types of preventative care needed. Ways to prevent diseases, screenings and causes. The reasons many Americans Just do not have any type of healthcare coverage. Preventative Care The emphasis on preventative healthcare is all for good reasons. By maintaining f opportunities (or plans of life) reasonable people would choose in a given society (Daniel, N. 2001, pig. 2). Many people without access to healthcare only go to the Doctors after they have been ill or injured. We all know that regular exercise, a good nutritious diet, not smoking, and drinking to excess is the best course to minimize health problems and reduce the amount of money spent on health care. Along with life style selections we make the environment in which we live and work are critical to good preventative health practices. Prenatal Care is a preventative care practice. Women in developing countries are bleeding to death after giving birth, writhing in the convulsions of clamps, and collapsing from days of futile contractions, knowing that they have suffocated their babies to death (Maine, D Yamin,A, 1999, pig. 562). Getting good prenatal care is very important for the expectant mother and the unborn child. Many pregnant women in Georgia receive free prenatal care for their unborn child. This is great for the many women like myself that do not have healthcare insurance, and do not make enough money to actually pay out of pocket to have a baby. There are so many doctors appointments, screenings, and tests that need to be taken as a precaution before a mother gives birth. Moreover, according to the World Bank, although men and women between the ages of fifteen and forty-four lose approximately the same number of years of healthy life due to disease, there is no single cause of death and disability for men that comes close to the magnitude of maternal death and disability (Maine, D Hyman, A. 1999, pig. 564). Many women choose not to participate in having prenatal care, either from being in such denial, embarrassment, and even religious beliefs. This could be very dangerous to both mother and baby, many tests and screenings could have shown if the pregnancy needed to be aborted or if there is a complication such as the umbilical cord wrapped around the babys neck, or th e baby may be breached (the baby head is not down for delivery). Also tests can detect birth defects which are physical abnormalities that may be caused by inherited genes, genetic mutations, or environmental factors. Technology is so advanced now many expectant mothers are offered D and D visual of their precious baby. Even learning the sex of the unborn baby can be very exciting for new parents, but all which is very expensive to those that do not have medical coverage in place. Well care check-ups are so important staring with infants. Most infants have their first well-baby exam within the first few days to weeks after birth. Even when things are going well, frequent checkups during the first year are an important way to monitor the babys growth and development. Many parents have their children vaccinated according to their age. These vaccines are to help prevent many childhood diseases, not saying that the child still may not get sick, but it is a great prevention plan all parents should participate in. As parents it is very important that, they make sure their children stay on the vaccinated scheduled for their age. Many children must have all their immunization done before they can enter kindergarten. Other screenings are ear, eye, and dental checks. Many low-income or single parent homes, their children may be eligible for the Medicaid Program. This helps assists many single mothers with keeping up with their children well-care check-ups, vision and dental screenings. Well care check-ups go on into adult hood, many people that employers that do not offer any healthcare tend to slack up on doctor visits. But regular check-ups are still very important, certain age screenings are still needed. Early diagnosis for many diseases can be detected. Being without healthcare insurance, I was put into a life-threatening health scare in 2009, and it could have been prevented if I had been receiving regular check-ups, but like millions of Americans around the world, the cost are Just beyond high. Also, many Americans feel as though they are treated differently if they do not have any type of health coverage. Without co-pay at the time, one may be sent home without the proper screenings or sets run, and this is and can be very scary, and could be life-threatening. Long-term illnesses sometimes may not be able to be prevented, but detecting them early can save a person life. Cancers, Diabetes, HIVE/AIDS are a few long term diseases, even though some are not preventable, but when detected early your chances of either recovering or living comfortable with it may be easier. Many people feel like do not ask do not tell, or if it is not broke then do not fix it. These feelings can sometimes cause many people to be severely sick and suffer, or cause an unexpected death. This all could have been prevented with regular check-ups. Education is also an important factor; many people Just do not have the knowledge on the type of signs and symptoms on many illnesses. This is why having regular check-ups are so important. Disease Prevention Disease Prevention is a very important role in healthcare. Prevention comes with check-ups, screenings, and knowledge. There are so many diseases that cannot be prevented, but can be treated with antibiotics and other medicines. Several of those diseases are: Arthritis, Alchemists, and Cancers cannot be prevented, but they can be treated. There are two common types of Arthritis which are Osteoarthritis and Rheumatoid. There are commercials that have different types of medicines to help with the pain of Arthritis. Many people have seen the Celebrate commercial. Alchemists is a type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior. The most common symptom is difficulty remembering, and usually develops slowly and get worse over time, becoming severe enough to interfere with daily tasks. As Alchemists advance it leads to severe symptoms, including disorientation, mood and behavior changes. Alchemists has no current cure, but reattempts for symptoms are available and research continues. Cancer is characterized by an abnormal growth of cells. There are more than 100 types of cancer, including breast cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, and lymphoma. Cancer symptoms vary widely based on the type of cancer. Cancer currently has no cure, but treatment options include: includes chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. With early and proper treatment these diseases can make living with them a lot easier. Later detection can result in emergency surgeries, long term pain, and even death. Diseases that can be prevented are Sexual Transmitted Diseases (Studs) and HIVE/AIDS. Studs are infectious diseases that spread from person to person through sexual contact. Studs can affect anyone who is having sex. Studs are common among teens, since they are at a higher risk, its important to learn what you can do to protect yourself, things simple as abstinence, and condoms. If untreated, some Studs can cause serious health AIDS). Early detection can cure some Studs, with medication such as antibiotics. As stated in (Bible, G. 2007, pig. 1086), amidst denial, stigma, and inaction, AIDS became he first major epidemic of present-day globalization. Of more than 40 million people estimated to be HIVE-infected worldwide, 95 percent live in middle- or low-income countries, causing life expectancy to drop dramatically in those countries worst hit (Bible, G. 2007, pig. 1086). In late 2003, with only about 400,000 people receiving treatment, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Program on HIVE/AIDS (UNAIDED) announced their goal of having 3 million HIVE-positive people on antimicrobial therapy by 2005 (Bible, G. 2007 pig. 1086). Early detection of HIVE/AIDS can allow someone to live comfortable with the disease while on their medication. Reasons many do not have Coverage Statistics show that people without health insurance do not get their health checked regularly and therefore are at a greater risk of having something that may have been prevented happen later on. Given the cost of even basic insurance, many people of modest means who do not qualify for Medicaid cannot reasonably afford insurance without subsidy (Mizzen, P. 2011, pig. 86). The high expense of going to a doctor visit is why most people without insurance do not go to the doctor and this is something hat should be changed as well. Costs of medical insurance as well as the cost of having health insurance all need to be made more affordable for Americans so they will take better care of themselves. Having health insurance is important because coverage helps people get timely medical care and improves their lives and health (Levy, H , M. 2004, pig. 110). Its sometimes about $500 or more to see a doctor, and then add lab tests, x-rays, etc. Many will see their family doctor if it is not a true emergency. There is a reason why they are called Emergency Rooms there are walk- n clinics everywhere. At your family Doctor get the same treatment at half the price. You also are not taking up space when someones life may be at stake, and truly need the emergency room. There are new triage system evaluates your symptoms and can even refuse to admit you to the ERE, referring you to your family doctor, where you should probably go in the first place. Many people will go to the ERE because they think they cant be refused, and think they can be seen at no cost to them. Verses going to their own doctor, they may have to pay a co-pay or office visit, and even have o take a prescription to their local pharmacy and have to buy their own meds. Since 1989, the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (METAL) have prohibited hospitals from refusing acute care to those who cannot afford to pay (Mizzen, P. 2011, pig. 83). Realistically, when hospitals live up to this requirement, it is difficult for them to confine the care they provide to the emergency room (Mizzen, P. 2011, pig. 83). Patients who are not kept on for further acute care outside the emergency room will likely Just show up again, incurring more emergency room care for which they are not insured. Self-employed individuals have limited choices when it comes to health insurance coverage. Many go without going to have regular check- ups and preventative care screenings. They can buy an individual plan, start a group policy or forgo coverage altogether. However, even having coverage wont guarantee financial security in the event of medical catastrophe. A business group insurance policy costs members less because the financial risk for the insurance company is better coverage, there are many ways for self-employed people to Join a group. Most people obtain health coverage through a health plan offered by their employer. However, many people have become unemployed either to termination, Job closures, and even being laid off. Currently state and federal law allows people who have recently become unemployed to continue their previous health coverage for some time. If one loses their group coverage for employment-related reasons, some may be able to continue your coverage for a limited time. Employees who stay at a Job, but lose coverage eligibility because of a reduction in the number of hours they work, are also usually able to elect to continue their coverage. The employer is no longer squired to contribute any amount toward premium costs, so you must pay the full price of coverage yourself. However, continuing a work-sponsored plan may still be more affordable than purchasing coverage individually Conclusion The central moral importance, for purposes of Justice, of preventing and treating disease and disability with effective healthcare services (construed broadly to include public health and environmental measures, as well as personal medical services) derives from the way in which protecting normal functioning contributes to protecting opportunity (Daniels, N. 2001, pig. 2).

The 7 most common mistakes in technical writing †and how to fix them

The 7 most common mistakes in technical writing – and how to fix them How to fix the 7 most common glitches in technical writing Most of us are technical writers at some point or other, even if we don’t realise it. You may be quite happy with the label if you write test reports or standard operating procedures. But you can have a very different role and still sometimes need to write technical things: a design brief, an employee handbook or even guidance on how to use the new office photocopier. If your document is complex, and someone needs to be able to follow and act on it, then it’s technical writing. The fact that many people don’t realise that what they’re writing is technical may partly explain why so many of these types of documents fall short. Fortunately, those shortcomings tend to fall into just a few categories, and they’re easy to fix. So let’s look at some of the most common difficulties technical writers (and their readers) face – and how to fix them. 1. Messy structure Many technical documents confuse readers and fail to achieve their aims because they were not planned properly to begin with. This lack of planning means that documents, especially longer ones, end up structured in an illogical fashion. Things are hard to find in the text, sections don’t follow naturally from each other, cross-references are a mess, and so on. At best, this frustrates readers; at worst, it makes the document virtually unusable. How to fix it: Before you begin writing at all, think carefully about the overall layout of the document. Creating a simple outline will help you structure it appropriately and optimally. So when youve written the text, but before you publish it, have it carefully reviewed – preferably by an editor or by a colleague who will read it closely. They may suggest improvements to the document’s structure, especially if you ask them to keep this in mind. The structure of the finished document should seem logical and intuitive to its intended readers. 2. Too much jargon Who your readers are will inform the content and style of your text. So it’s important to keep them in mind throughout the writing process. If you’re writing something for specialist readers, some jargon and technical language is fine; it may even be essential. If you’re writing for a general audience or people who actually specialise in a different area, be careful – what’s familiar and self-evident to you may not be so to them. One manager who commissioned a technical-writing course from Emphasis described how different specialists may ‘talk different languages’. You need to ensure that nothing gets lost in translation. How to fix it: Take a few moments to identify and visualise your readers. Then consider what level and type of technicality in the writing will be appropriate for them – and what won’t be. Those acronyms that roll off your tongue because you use them every day – are they well known elsewhere? Unless you’re sure your readers will know all the technical terms you plan to use, it’s a good idea to include a glossary or a list of abbreviations, or both, at the start of a text. Another strategy is to explain those items in parentheses or footnotes when they first appear. But if you find yourself doing this a lot, you should probably just add a glossary instead. 3. Poor punctuation All writers have a passing knowledge of the main set of punctuation marks. Very few, however, outside of professional authors and editors, have a thorough grasp of how each one works. The use of full stops and question marks is painless enough, but beyond that there is widespread difficulty with getting the details right. When exactly are commas required? Which dashes go where? When should you use hyphens? What’s going on with colons and semicolons? How to fix it: Find a good, modern guide to punctuation and read it carefully until you have a firm grasp of each mark’s use and misuse. Pay particular attention to any area you have trouble with. If certain mistakes or difficulties crop up repeatedly in your company’s documents, address them in your style guide (see next item below). 4. Inconsistency Technical writing should convey coherent ideas and trains of thought. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. And that’s especially true when a document is written over a period of time, created by multiple authors, or updated piecemeal without due regard for overall consistency and readability. These circumstances are common and can result in choppiness in the document’s style, layout, tone, point of view, and so on. For example, the text may address readers as ‘you’ in one paragraph and as ‘designers’ in the next. The tone may switch abruptly from warm and chatty to scientific. This can be disconcerting, if not downright confusing. How to fix it: If you’re making changes to an existing document, get a sense of the surrounding context – including things like tone and tense. Try to align your changes with these, so that new material is incorporated seamlessly (or, if necessary, signposted appropriately). Jumps in tone or tense can be overlooked even more easily than typos and grammatical errors. The sense is clear to the writer (or writers), so they don’t notice things that will jar for the reader. These jumps must therefore be looked for specifically. Create a company style guide and make sure all your writers have easy access to it and are encouraged to consult it. This will do wonders for the consistency of your documents, both internal and external. Ensure that the guide not only includes vocabulary items but also addresses things like readership, typography, company aims, and brand voice and identity. A style guide is a living document, so put a system in place for proposing and incorporating additions and revisions to it. 5. Too much abstraction People writing in a formal or semi-formal context often go overboard in an effort to make their prose sound proper and elevated. Their writing, as a result, can end up very abstract and noun-heavy. ‘The achievement of good performance’ may sound fancy, but it’s a mouthful compared to ‘performing well’, and it’s really no more impressive than the plain-language option. It’s also less clear. Abstractions like this are unnecessary and, as they accumulate, make your prose turgid, verbose, and tiring to read. They can also make it ambiguous: if you describe a system as having ‘enhanced functionality’, do you mean it has more functions or that it works better? How to fix it: Try to replace abstract, noun-heavy phrases with strong, straightforward verbs. This will make your points more concise and intelligible. ‘The carrying out of tests’ can become ‘carrying out tests’, or, better still, ‘testing’ or ‘tests’. Watch out for phrases like took place, which often point to gratuitous nouning and buried verbs: ‘Analysis of the figures took place’ really just means ‘The figures were analysed.’ A related issue is redundancy: ‘blue in colour’ means blue, ‘robust in nature’ means ‘robust’, and so on. 6. Unclear antecedents An antecedent is a word, phrase, or clause referred to by another word, which is usually a pronoun like it, they, or who. For example, in ‘Observe the results and add these to a worksheet’, results is the antecedent of these. Ambiguity can occur when there is more than one possible antecedent. Take the following: ‘Trainees should mark their schedules in the notebooks provided, then in the group calendars. The manager is responsible for them.’ Whoever wrote this knew what the manager was responsible for, but readers may reasonably wonder if them referred to the trainees, the schedules, the notebooks, or the calendars. How to fix it: This is a common blind spot for writers, and it shows why we are our own worst editors. When we review the text, we see only what we meant – we miss the potential for uncertainty. Have someone else look over the text, if possible, because a fresh pair of eyes will be more likely to notice problems like this. It’s better to choose someone who is less familiar with what is being described, since they are less liable to fall into the same trap of overfamiliarity. 7. Dense presentation Technical writing can be very †¦ technical. Unavoidably so. Applying plain language as much as possible will help, though you still probably won’t win awards for literature. But even allowing for its stylistic limitations, technical writing can be made much worse through poor presentation. Long, unbroken chunks of text, for example, are visually off-putting and hard to follow. They can make a reader’s brain shut down out of sheer effort and frustration. The prevalence of jargon and complex concepts add further cognitive loads, and it all adds up. How to fix it: There are several ways to tackle the issue of dense presentation. Short words, sentences, and paragraphs are generally preferable, though they’re no guarantee of lucidity – it’s more important to use the most appropriate words in the best possible manner. Some passages can be broken up with bullet points, which makes them far easier to digest. Bullets also allow you to simplify the grammar, since they don’t need to be full sentences. Parallelism can lend grace, polish, and clarity, and is a grammatical device worth attention and practice if you want to improve your writing. It can take various forms, but essentially it means using matching grammatical structures in words, phrases or clauses that should work in parallel. For example, consider the sentence: For breakfast we like eggs and to grill bacon. Here, eggs is a noun but to grill is a verb. Better to write: For breakfast we like eggs and bacon, or: For breakfast we like to fry eggs and grill bacon. It’s natural to struggle with technical writing, especially if you only do it from time to time. Producing something that reads effortlessly is a challenge. But thinking about and applying these seven straightforward tips will benefit your writing experience. Even more importantly, it will make everything a whole lot clearer – and life a lot easier – for your readers. Image credit: ALPA PROD / Shutterstock