Monday, February 24, 2020

TERM PAPER Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

TERM PAPER - Essay Example healthcare system. The emergence of new diseases and continuous growth of the population have triggered the need to modernize disease prevention and public health systems. In the past, the clamor for a National Health Insurance was the outcry of many administrations – in the U.S. and many countries in Europe. Recently however, the Obama administration has pushed for the full implementation of its once a campaign platform but now has become a law, the Affordable Care Act or what is popularly known as the ObamaCare. The aim of this law is to implement within the next ten years an Information System for the healthcare sector and to invest $10 billion annually for the many programs about health insurance and address the problems and challenges of healthcare. Modernizing disease prevention and public health systems is a question of policies and political will. If there is political will, all things are possible under the sun. But what should be modernized? The Medicare and the Medi caid are two healthcare programs that insure U.S. citizens but the system is already rotten and needs to be reprogrammed to address healthcare problems of the people. Medicare was designed to provide healthcare insurance to seniors and the disabled. It was run by the government to focus on reimbursing healthcare expenses and financed by federal taxes but also shared by payroll tax from employers and their workers, to include individual enrollees. Medicare covers hospitalization expenses, physician fees, and expenses for drugs. Medicare Gaps The Medicare program has many gaps which need review and so-called modernization. For example, insurance lacks nursing services, inadequate preventive care insurance, and no insurance for dental, loss of hearing, or vision. Since there is lack of insurance, some enrollees resort to supplemental insurance and so more expenses for the citizens. This gap needs to be reviewed and covered by the ObamaCare, or the Affordable Care Act launched by the pr esent administration. The Medicaid is a government insurance program for the poor and the disabled. It is also the program for poor pregnant women, children, seniors, disabled, and poor parents. Although it’s a federal program, states are given the leeway to improve the coverage and eligibility options. (Chua, 2006, p. 2) Incentives for Prevention of Chronic Diseases Stakeholders in disease prevention should be provided with government incentives. Again this is a question of policies. Policy makers should be able to determine the areas where care is most needed, know the various stakeholders and identify their motivational factors where they could be effective in disease prevention, and develop systems in accessing the incentives. (Singh as cited in Committee on Living Well with Chronic Disease: Public Action to Reduce Disability and Improve Functioning and Quality of Life, Institute of Medicine, 2011, p. 240) Modernizing Disease Prevention and Public Health Systems Problems in healthcare require new ways of detection and prevention of illness. Aids and other virus-triggered diseases are considered new diseases that require new techniques and methods. A. Clinical and Community Preventive Services When there is improved collaboration among health professionals and the community, there is increased reduction in health disparities, deaths and morbidity. Public and private sectors should focus more on the 65-years-and-older sector as this is growing. This is composed of Baby Boomers who

Friday, February 7, 2020

Death Penalty and Deterrence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Death Penalty and Deterrence - Essay Example The death penalty is an ultimate punishment which may provoke criminals having low motives to refrain from crimes however such crimes are usually committed under the extreme state of mind or for significant motives, therefore, the fear of death can have limited effectiveness in deterrence from crimes. Definition provided by Grimes (2010) states, â€Å"Deterrence includes the direct and indirect benefits of punishing offenders: specific or direct deterrence refers to the inability of the offender to commit any further crimes due to the extent of this particular form of punishment, while general or indirect deterrence presumably serves to deter the general public from committing the offense(s) which resulted in the death sentence for the death penalty (p. 2010)†. Therefore, capital punishment is expected to have the tendency of ensuring that crime is avoided due to its fear. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (2012), there are limited shreds of evidence as to how ca pital punishment contributes to reducing crime rates. It is important to note that a punishment or penalty imposed by law can be deterrent to a crime when its severe enough against the crime committed, can be applied with certainty and up to a just level of frequency. On the other hand, capital punishment although daunting ensures that a criminal does not have to suffer adequately for the severe crimes committed by them as compared to a lengthy imprisonment. It is argued that a punishment can only serve its purpose of deterring crime and also providing justice to criminal as well as the victim if it has consistency and adequacy in it. However, it is difficult to find these characteristics in a capital punishment. Firstly, despite an increase in capital punishments in the last few decades, the actual percentage of execution is limited mainly because of after sentence investigations and appeals after conviction. According to BBC U.K. (2012), â€Å"in the USA at least, only a small mi nority of murderers are actually executed, and that imposition of capital punishment on a "capriciously selected random handful" of offenders does not amount to a consistent program of retribution. Since capital punishment is not operated retributively, it is inappropriate to use retribution to justify capital punishment.† In order to protect the rights of convicted, necessary measures are required to be taken to ensure that wrong convict are not punished and the punishment itself is adequate enough under the protection provided by constitutional rights as well. Such lengthy measures undermine the effectiveness of capital punishment. Since these processes are time taking and the ratio of appeals’ success is relatively higher, therefore the punishment itself appears to have leniency in it negating its deterrent nature. Secondly, the crimes for which capital punishment is imposed are usually taking place in the state of extreme emotional pressure, substance abuse or traum a which questions the mental stability of a person to make logical decisions regarding his/ her actions (American Civil Liberties Union, 2012). On the other hand, there have been cases reported in which crimes were committed for self-defense or by those whose mental health was questionable. Since these factors have a tendency of affecting the court’s decisions greatly, these grey areas can be used by criminals and lawyers for avoiding conviction.Â