Janet Brown (not her real name) is struggling to cope with her ailing health. Each day, she must balance her fears with her need to protect her children. Brown, a second year student at Fresno City College is literally
caught in the middle of the healthcare debate. She has no health insurance and must decide between the surgery she needs now and food for her family.
“I get sick a lot, and it’s hard for me to go to the doctors
because I don’t have health insurance. There is a chance that I might have breast cancer, and I would have to finance the bill and my medications,” Brown said.
The on going health care debate has become hard to avoid, even on the FCC campus. Every time you turn on the television or read a newspaper whether via your iPhone, Blackberry, or a hard copy, health care finds its way to the front page. And here it is again.
An informal survey by theRampage on Aug. 31, 2009 of 189 students who attend evening classes at Fresno City College showed a general concern about the present health care system. While 68 percent reported they have health insurance, a vast majority of them agreed with the statement, “Everyone needs insurance”
and “Everyone deserves health care, regardless of whether they can afford it or not.”
Participants of this survey are older than the students who attend classes during the day and are therefore more likely to be employed full-time and in jobs that provide health insurance.
54 percent of the students surveyed are between the ages of 17 and 24 are enrolled in seven to 12 units this fall. Of the respondents who have health insurance, 63 percent stated that they receive their coverage either through their parents or spouse. 34 percent obtain coverage
through work.
40 percent of those surveyed
work full-time; 26 percent work part-time, and 26 percent are unemployed. Rising costs, lack of funding for coverage and the fact that millions of people get turned away every day are by far the biggest issues at hand. These problems affect not just people across the country but also those who reside in the Central California communities.
According to a 2003 research on Fresno County’s uninsured
funded by grants from the California Wellness Foundation and the California Endowment, 17 percent are uninsured; 31 percent are covered by Medi-Cal; 2.6 percent are covered by Healthy Families, and 2.6 percent use County health programs. In other words, a whopping 53.2 percent are either uninsured or dependent on government programs.
President Barack Obama has realized the need for reform in the health care industry by making it the centerpiece of his 2008 presidential campaign. The current nationwide debate on the subject pits proponents of a government-run insurance against those who prefer no government
involvement. In hopes of getting United States citizens on board with his plan for solving
the insurance issues, Obama is taking his plea straight to the U.S. citizens in a speech before the Joint Sessions of the United States Congress on Wednesday.
The president’s goal, according
to information on his website, includes finding a “cure for the ‘sick’ health insurance industry,
reforming the health care system, promoting scientific and technological advancements, and improving preventative care.”
The Obama administration
has centralized its ideas on comprehensive health care and argues that it should, among other things, “protect families from bankruptcy or debt because of health care costs”, “guarantee choice of doctors and health plans”, “maintain coverage when you change or lose your job”, and above all “assure affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans.” (http://www.whitehouse.
gov/issues/health_care)
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the national unemployment rate is at 9.7 percent,
a 13-year high, and a massive
five percent increase over the last 10 years. That leaves almost 30.5 million people without a job and who knows how many more without health insurance.
An NPR program “All Things Considered” captures America’s ambivalence about healthcare reform. According to information obtained from the program’s website, “75 percent of respondents [New York Times/CBS News poll] said they wereconcerned that the cost of their own health care would eventually
go up if the government DID NOT create a system of providing health care for all Americans. But in another finding, 77 percent said they were concerned that the cost of health care would go up if the government DID create such a system.”
Similar concerns were expressed by FCC students surveyed,
but the prevailing reaction is that even though 68 percent of them do have insurance, the idea of living with status quo is unacceptable.
“Everybody must have health coverage. We are not a third world country,” one student said about the need for health care reform. The frustration over health care is obvious and most students understand that people are in need of help.
For Janet Brown, the reform
cannot come soon enough. She is counting the days and holding
her breath and praying for a miracle. She said, “I might be so sick to where I can’t go to school if I can’t pay my bills.”