Kern County is located in the central valley of California. Bakersfield is the largest city in this county. According to the U.S. census in 2010, Kern County’s population contains 839,631 residents. The health of the county has been an alarming concern because Kern County is the least healthy county in California with more than 60% of its population considered obese. Kern County’s obesity rate, and the number of physically inactive residents are higher than both the state and national averages. Kern County has many health issues in their community, but they are slowly combatting their problems by establishing farmers’ markets, creating more walkways instead of having to drive everywhere, and also bringing community leaders and local organizations together to come up with the county Call-to-Action plan.
One of the most crucial health problems affecting the people of Kern County is diabetes. The risk factors include: being over the age of 45 years old, having high blood pressure, having pre-diabetes, coming from an ethnic minority or low income household, smoking, being overweight or obese, physical inactivity, and eating less than five fruits and vegetables a day. Diabetes is a chronic medical condition where people identify themselves with irregular quantities of blood glucose, which can be a cause from deficiencies in the making of insulin. There are two types of diabetes that people are diagnosed with. The first one is known as Type 1 diabetes, which has to do with influences in your genetics, and Type 2 diabetes, which is brought on by choices in your daily routine. Gestational diabetes occurs while you are pregnant, and if it is not monitored well pregnant women can develop Type 2 diabetes within 5-10 years (Diabetes in C...
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...county, which indicates that there is room for improvement in our health care system. Research studies have shown inside our community that these outside factors in our population increase our risk for developing chronic diseases. Minority groups, those with little to no health insurance, smokers, the overweight and obese population, people who live below the poverty line or have little socio-economic status, and those with low access to medical care. By being able to guarantee health care with the Affordable Care Act and to increase funding for social services such as Cal Fresh, Medicare, Medical and many other programs that our government has developed, we will then be able to help people who fall into those specific categories, as well as those who are genetically inclined to developing chronic diseases, and to ultimately be in control of our own health outcomes.
Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2 diabetes/adult onset diabetes) is an epidemic in American Indian and Alaska Natives communities.7 AI/AN have the highest morbidity and mortality rates in the United States.7 American Indian/Alaska Native adults are 2.3 more times likely to be diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus than non-Hispanic Whites.7 More importantly, AI/AN adolescent ages 10-14 are 9 times likely to be diagnosed with Diabetes Mellitus than non-Hispanic Whites.7 Type 2 diabetes is high blood glucose levels due to lack of insulin and/or inability to use it efficiently.8 Type 2 diabetes usually affects older adults; 8 however, the incident rate is rising quicker amongst AI/AN youth than non-Hispanic Whites.7 This is foreshadowing of earlier serious complications that will be effecting the AI/AN communitie...
Healthcare has been a topic of discussion with the majority of the country. Issues with insurance coverage, rising costs, limited options to gain coverage, and the quality of healthcare have become concerns for law makers, healthcare providers and the general public. Some of those concerns were alleviated with the passing of the Affordable Care Act, but new concerns have developed with problems that have occurred in the implementation of the new law. The main concerns of the country are if the Affordable Care Act will be able to overcome the issues that plagued the old healthcare system, the cost of the program, and how will the new law affect the quality of the health delivery system.
The facts bear out the conclusion that the way healthcare in this country is distributed is flawed. It causes us to lose money, productivity, and unjustly leaves too many people struggling for what Thomas Jefferson realized was fundamental. Among industrialized countries, America holds the unique position of not having any form of universal health care. This should lead Americans to ask why the health of its citizens is “less equal” than the health of a European.
Diabetes is a disease that affects the body’s ability to produce or respond to insulin, a hormone that allows blood glucose (blood sugar) to enter the cells of the body and be used for energy. Diabetes falls into two main categories: type 1, or juvenile diabetes, which usually occurs during childhood or adolescence, and type 2, or adult-onset diabetes, the most common form of the disease, usually occurring after age 40. Type 1 results from the body’s immune system attacking the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The onset of juvenile diabetes is much higher in the winter than in the summer. This association has been repeatedly confirmed in diabetes research. Type 2 is characterized by “insulin resistance,” or an inability of the cells to use insulin, sometimes accompanied by a deficiency in insulin production. There is also sometimes a third type of diabetes considered. It is gestational diabetes, which occurs when the body is not able to properly use insulin during pregnancy. Type 2 diabetes encompasses nine out of 10 diabetic cases. Diabetes is the fifth-deadliest disease in the United States, and it has no cure. The total annual economic cost of diabetes in 2002 was estimated to be $132 billion, or one out of every 10 health care dollars spent in the United States. Diabetes risk factors can fall into three major categories: family history, obesity, and impaired glucose tolerance. Minority groups and elderly are at the greatest risk of developing diabetes.
According to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, they have assessed the nation’s health system annually since 2003, reported that, in 2015 the health care delivery system has made progress to achieve the three aims of better care, smarter spending, and healthier people (City of White Plains Health Equity Report, 2017). However, they continue to promote health equality and reach the goal of New York State being the healthiest. But most importantly aiming to reduce or eliminate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic health
The health of the American people lags behind those from other developed countries. Federal public health agencies have a wide range of responsibilities and functions which includes public health research, funding, and oversight of direct healthcare providers. It has been a long time since changes have been made to the way the federal government structures its health care roles and programs outside of Medicare and Medicaid (Trust, 2013). With healthcare reform on the horizon now is the time to invest time and money in prevention, not medicine, making it a top priority to improve health and prevent disease. Funding efforts at all levels of the public health continuum need to focus on developing programs aimed at such leading initiatives as tobacco cessation, improving nutrition, supplying safe workplaces, and increasing physical activity in all ages of the population. People should have equal access to quality preventative medicine and education.
Despite the established health care facilities in the United States, most citizens do not have access to proper medical care. We must appreciate from the very onset that a healthy and strong nation must have a proper health care system. Such a health system should be available and affordable to all. The cost of health services is high. In fact, the ...
Overall, the healthcare system in the United States is still broken because not everyone is insured and disparities are still evident. More policy evolution is required if the US is going to be a nation state that has completely equal citizens. Health scholars must research more so that they can influence what happens in health policy. I believe the patient’s opinion needs to be included so the system
Health care is one of the most debated issues in the United States today and it 's necessary to understand the basics of this problem. Approximately 50 million people living in the United
spends about 15% of its gross domestic product on healthcare, thereby making it the largest sector of the economy” (Goldman, D., & McGlynn, E., 2005). “Americans are not healthier than some of the other developed nations, regardless of these extensive costs” (WHO, 2010). “Almost 40 million Americans are uninsured and about 18% of Americans under the age of 65 receive half of the recommended healthcare services” (Goldman, D., & McGlynn, E., 2005). “Though, quality of care was noted not to vary much in cities with respect to lack of insurance, poverty, penetration of managed care and availability of physicians and hospital beds” (Goldman, D., & McGlynn, E., 2005).
... more prone to chronic illnesses. As for Medicaid, it needs to improve its chronic care management. Chronic care management should be made more affordable to those with chronic illnesses (Baicker, Katherine, & Amy Finkelstein, 2011). This way, the program will be more beneficial to more people. The program should also introduce, and support home and community based services. Providing care in home settings will be much cheaper than nursing homes. Moreover, Medicaid needs to come up with customized beneficiary services. Patients’ needs are not equal. Therefore, Medicaid should be flexible enough to abandon the one size fits all mentality. Anyway, that notwithstanding, we cannot ignore the fact that Medicare and Medicaid have revolutionized healthcare in the United States. Giving credit where it is due, these two programs continue to save millions of helpless lives.
County commissioners come from many different backgrounds, such as jobs or home lives. They can be nurses, doctors, farmers, lawyers, teachers, etc. They are elected officials. Basically, their job is to keep the county efficient. Without them it would be chaos.
Nearly every American can agree that our current health care system needs reforms. Primarily do to the fact that 45.7 million Americans are without health insurance. That's approximately 16 percent of Americans who sometimes have to do without healthcare, or face crucial financial responsibility. The main issues are admission to healthcare, and the affordability of health care. Before 1920, doctors didn't know enough about diseases to really provide useful care to sick people. Therefore the...
The movement for changing the Health Care system believes that there is a need for change because of the problems that the system faces today cannot be handled. Every month, 2 million Americans lose their insurance. One out of four, 63 million Americans, will lose their health insurance coverage for some period during the next two years . 37 million Americans have no insurance and another 22 million have inadequate coverage . Losing or changing a job often means losing insurance. Becoming ill or living with a chronic medical condition can mean losing insurance coverage or not being able to obtain it. Long-term care coverage is inadequate. Many elderly and disabled Americans enter nursing homes and other institutions when they would prefer to remain at home. Families exhaust their savings trying to provide for disabled relatives. Many Americans in inner cities and rural areas do not have access to quality care, due to poor distribution of doctors, nurses, hospitals, clinics and support services. Public health services are not well integrated and coordinated with the personal care delivery system. Many serious health problems -- such as lead poisoning and drug-resistant tuberculosis -- are handled inefficiently or not at all, and thus potentially threaten the health of the entire population. Rising health costs mean lower wages, higher prices for goods and services, and higher taxes. The average worker today would be earning at least $1,000 more a year if health insurance costs had not risen faster than wages over the previous 15 years . If the cost of health care continues at the current pace, wages will be held down by an additional $650 by the year 2000.
A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is a government-mandated survey that counties perform to determine the health of their residents and a plan of attack to improve that health. In these assessments, surveyors will see how community members are doing health-wise. Additionally, the assessment will determine discouraging factors in the community that prevent members from being healthy, and if there are factors that can be improved upon. In 2015, a Mountain States Health Alliance (MSHA) facility, Sycamore Shoals Hospital (SSH), conducted this community health needs assessment.