HW 29 - Reading and noting basic materials

Medical Care: (historically and now)
       Health insurance was believed to have started during the colonial era and then later, in the twentieth century, the idea of using health insurance to help people deal with illness became a necessity in society. With every new development, there are bound to be costs.  In Sick, Jonathan Cohn analyzes the history of health care and had come to find that "By the 1920s, the bills were becoming more that any American could bear" (Cohn 6).  Unfortunately, the expenses of insurance still condemn us and in result, "According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 45 million of us lack coverage" (Land Mark 65).  In the future, Obama plans to enforce Patient and Affordable Care Act, which will take place in 2014, in order to expand social society and provide affordable care and economic security to cover a predicted 32 million across the United States.  This Act will help insure most americans, lower health plan prices, and make federal subsides possible.  If this act succeeds, a remarkable "95 percent of U.S. citizens and other legal residents will have insurance within six years" (Landmark 73).  As societies become wealthier, our prevalent need to spend more money on trying to stay healthy and live longer is necessary in trying to maintain a nation.

Hospital Culture: 
       As a society, we have become obsessed with trying to control death under all circumstances. We have made biomedical research advances all in hoping to prolong dying and reduce "the pain, suffering, loneliness, and humiliation that are perceived to accompany life prolonging" (Kaufman 26).  In And A Time to Die: How American Hospitals Shape the End of Life, Sharon Kaufman gives us an outlook on Patient Self-Determination Act of 1990, where a patient must be informed of their right to make treatment choices.  However, decisions are "constrained by hospital rules" (Kaufman 28).  The Patient Self-Determination act, bordered by hospital rules, is a perfect example of a contradiction present in hospital culture.  When one is considered to be dying only then "does it need to be acknowledged by hospital staff" (Kaufman 29).  This unfortunate event somewhat defines the hospital systems and techniques which shape the forms of dying that occur.  An odd statement in whole because hospitals are institutions in which illness should be prevented yet, most deaths occur because some diseases are unintentionally exacerbated at the hospital.

Being Sick:
       I never really constituted Asthma as a sickness but, I know I've had Asthma ever since I was born.  I'm not sure at what level my Asthma is at but, I'd like to think it's not severe for the sake of my well being.  I think there is a certain stigma associated with Asthma as, I remember certain times in my life where I felt embarrassed to say that I had Asthma.  It meant to me, that I was weak and could not breathe well enough on my own.  Though, I've never used an asthma pump, the entirety made me feel below others.  I felt as if I had to compensate for this "defect"  and this was reason enough for me to start to play basketball in the 6th grade to prove I could run, without having any respiratory trouble.  Being sick means embracing what is presented before you and working around whatever obstacles come about, to make the best out of what seems to be unfortunate.