Chapter 2 Problems of Health and Healthcare. © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved....

Chapter 2

Problems of Health and Healthcare

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Health Care as a Global Social Problem• What problems do developed nations face

as opposed to developing nations?– Access vs. Disease and life expectancy– Life expectancy is related to the quality of

health care in a society– Infant mortality is associated with:

• Health-care professionals in a society• Nutritional intake, sanitation, health facilities and

health


Table 2-1: Health Indicators for Selected Nations


The Scope of Health-Care Problems in America• Micro-level: how we experience health

care on a personal level– Terminating the life-support of someone we

know and love– Placing an elderly parent in a nursing home

• Macro-level: the social forces that affect how health care is distributed in society


Unequal Access to Health Care• How do race, ethnicity, social class, and gender

affect access to health care in the United States. • About 18% of Americans under age 65 do not currently have

any health insurance

– Factors related to a lack of insurance– Inequalities of race and ethnicity

• Racial and ethnic minorities are likely to receive less or inferior care

– Inequalities of social class & gender• Heart disease, asthma, breast cancer (pg 33)

• Why do these inequalities persist?


Women and Health Care

• Abortion rights• Increase the awareness of medical

personnel to the health needs of women• Less intervention in the birth process• Medicalization of women• Women & their needs underrepresented in

the health care industry


What does Inadequate Protection mean?

• Prevention v. Treatment• Pay as you go• Health Insurance• Over 45 million Americans lack insurance• Problems with Medicaid and Medicare • Costs due to administrative waste and abuse• Who will be hurt the most?


Figure 2-6 & 7: Health Insurance Coverage & % of Firms Offering Health Benefit


AIDS - A Modern Plague

• HIV & AIDS - a global epidemic– Exchange of bodily fluids from infected

person’s blood, semen, vaginal fluid• Sexual activity• Blood transfusion• Hypodermic needles• An infected mother to her unborn or newborn infant


AIDS Orphans

• Over 15 million AIDS orphans in the world of which 80% are from sub-Saharan Africa

• Psychological impact on families• Economic impact• Lack of affordable drugs in poor nations


Figure 2-12: Number of Children Who Lost Their Mother or Both Parents to HIV/AIDS


Figure 2-11: Routes of AIDS Transmission Among Males and Females, United States


• Should health care be treated as a commodity, or as a basic right (as is public education)?

Chapter 2 Problems of Health and Healthcare. © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved....

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