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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Public Health and Health Insurance

By Ethan Kalvin

Many people are currently wondering about the issues of swine flu and how to protect against it with the world facing a possible pandemic of this illness. Many people think that we have one of the best health care systems in the world, and that potentially this is why Mexico is struggling to keep its people alive. After all, Americans have health insurance coverage and good access to medical care, and therefore are immune to having the same issues faced by the people and government of Mexico. But the question remains, what is keeping us healthier than the people in Mexico?

Well, it is not that I dont appreciate the health care that we have here in the states, however, the main thing that Americans have that other countries dont is the CDC. This is actually a huge help when dealing with the swine flu or any disease or illness that is easily spread. The CDC works in conjunction with the WHO to help locate, detect and trace cases of spreadable diseases, and help limit them while searching for treatments, cures and vaccines. Although our medical system is more advanced in its reporting than in third world countries.

Other countries have some difficult issues to overcome in order to keep them healthy, safe from something such as the current swine flu. Some of these are poor nutrition, no clean water supplies, communal living, lack of personal hygiene and little to no disease education.

So although we definitely are facing some serious health care issues and people are questioning not only the benefits of the health insurance system, but also the entire health care system in general, realize that the government does work to keep us healthy by providing a good clean water supply, access to nutritious food, and a government agency to monitor the spread of diseases that is fully armed with the resources to address the outbreak in the US.

In the wake of a crisis, as we are currently facing, it is important to remember all the things that the government does do right, even though there are many areas of health care that need to be revamped. Health insurance and medical care coverage are not the only things in place to help keep this nation healthy, there are many other facets of public health to consider. When looking at a crisis like this, you can see that our public health system is working for the greater good of all of our people.

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