The impact of increased life expectancy on community health, locally and nationally Essay Example for Free

The impact of increased life expectancy on community health, locally and nationally Essay There is constantly a rise in the life expectancy in the US, due to the improved healthcare system. New diagnostic interventions, treatment techniques, incorporation of preventive strategies, and drugs have enabled to increase the quantity of life. Deaths from several diseases including cardiovascular, cancer, etc, continue to decrease. In the year 2003, the life-expectancy of an American was found to be about 77.6 years, whereas in the year 1990, it was 75.4. There continue to be a rise in the life-expectancy. There is also a difference in the life-expectancy between men and women. As in the year 2003, men live about 5.3 years shorter than women. However, individuals in the elderly group are more often affected with chronic diseases such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, musculoskeletal diseases, etc. The problem has become more severe than ever before. About 50 % of the individuals between 55 to 65 years are affected with hypertension, and 40 % have obesity. As the health and the quality of life of the Americans are currently poor, the pressure on the healthcare system has all the more increased. People are having a very poor lifestyle and do not follow proper dietary and exercise patterns, which could increase the risk of chronic diseases. One of the huge impacts has been on the costs of providing healthcare. Inflation needs to be a major consideration. Considering inflation, providing healthcare for a year of increased lifespan, can increase spending by about $ 20, 000 a year. In the 1970’s, this cost was about $ 7, 400. Is it justified to provide healthcare when the effect is going to be severe on public savings? The costs of providing healthcare to senior citizens have increased drastically. The incidence of chronic disease on elders is even greater, and it would be very costly to provide healthcare to manage chronic diseases. An increased life-span would also mean greater need for healthcare professionals belonging to various fields and various specializations. The demand for healthcare in the US has constantly been rising, and an increased lifespan would mean employing more staff especially to care for seniors with special needs. There has been an increasing demand for institutions that provide health education and also students who find the healthcare field promising and would pick up a career in such a field. However, the need for individuals to join the healthcare sector is high and hence, an increasing life-expectancy would create an even greater problem. As the US cannot meet with the demand for healthcare professionals by itself, it would have to obtain the resources from outside the country. These human resources require further training to ensure that healthcare is provided according to the US standards. References: Medical News Today (September 4, 2006). U.S. Health Care System Offers Good Value In Terms Of Life Expectancy Gains Despite Rising Costs, Study Finds, Retrieved on August 22, 2008, from Medical News Today Web site: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/50922.php Stobbe, M. (2006). U.S. Life Expectancy Hits All-Time High, Retrieved on August 22, 2008, from Breit Brat Web site: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8ECEHUO0show_article=1

The Dutch Health Care System Health And Social Care Essay

The Dutch Health Care System Health And Social Care Essay After years of spiraling health costs, change was needed to the Dutch Health Care System. A dual system was introduced January 2006 comprising of compulsory private health insurance and government provided health care. Compulsory private health insurance finances all primary and  curative care  (i.e. the family doctor service and hospitals and clinics). Social insurance funded by earmarked taxation covers long term care for the elderly, palliative care, and the long term mental health patients needs. Primary Health care is provided by family physicians, district nurses, home care givers, midwives, physiotherapists, social workers, dentists and pharmacists. Each person must be registered with a local family physician. The general practitioner makes referrals to specialists or hospitals. The Netherlands has world class hospitals, including eight university hospitals. Each of the university hospitals offer services such as  neurosurgery,  cardiac surgery, a high-level  emergency department, advanced  oncology, departments for infectious diseases, and other services generally not found in smaller hospitals. A level and type of care similar to that offered by university hospitals is offered by a number of large hospitals which are not directly affiliated with a university, though these hospitals tend to be somewhat smaller. These hospitals are frequently referred to as top-clinical centers. Most of the hospitals in The Netherlands are private not-for-profit institutions. This compares well with the Australian health care system. Although Australia has a strong private health care system, it is not compulsory. Government funded health care provides excellent care in public hospitals, primary health care included visits to gps, and discounted pharmaceuticals. Role of Government Dutch Health care is regulated by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, and the current Minister is Edith Schippers. Marlies Veldhuijzen van Zanten-Hyllner is State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport de ¬Ã‚ nes policies that aim to ensure the wellbeing of the population to lead healthy lifestyles. One of the main objectives of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is to guarantee access to a system of health care facilities and services of high quality where all citizens have private health care. The Ministry has acts within the Exceptional Medical Expenses Act (AWBZ) and the Sickness Fund Act (ZFW). Local authorities work with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to provide public health care to the community. Local authorities are involved in public safety policies, including the the implementation of the Medical Assistance (Accidents and Disasters) Act.). The Ministry also coordinates the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, a major knowledge centre for public health care. The Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations is responsible for: standards in public administration policy on urban areas the integration of minorities coordinating integrated public safety and security policies Funding Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager reported on 12 May 2011 that the rising cost of healthcare is the biggest challenge facing the Netherlands and the rest of the world. This increased spending on Australian health care reflects this trend. Over the past decade, the cost of healthcare has risen by 4% a year, while the economy has only grown 2%, he said. That is unsustainable, he said. At some point that single category will eat up the entire economy. The Netherlands spent à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬60bn (A$80bn) on healthcare in 2010.. De Jager said the solution does not lie in increasing premiums or cutting coverage. In the long term you cannot avoid looking for solutions within healthcare itself, he said. How we approach this is the biggest challenge that we have to deal with, for both the Netherlands and the rest of the world. Australia is facing the same issue of rising health care costs. The government has implemented incentive schemes to encourage a higher percentage of Australians taking up private health insurance (30% private health insurance rebate) as well as a 3% medicare levy for those earning over $70 000 who do not have private health insurance. Workforce The Dutch Health Care system is facing a universal issue with its health workforce. The ease of travel through EU and geographic proximity of countries has created a very mobile health workforce. The report xxxxxx Health Worker migration from Western Europe, may increase, adversely affecting health system performance in other countries, particularly those that have joined the EU since 2004. The Netherlands Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport is responsible for the development of policies to ensure the health and social wellbeing of the residents in this small densely populated country. The Netherlands is similar to the United States in having a health system based on private providers with government responsibility for the accessibility, affordability and quality of health care. Health insurance is compulsory and the government contributes for those unable to pay. General practices are private businesses which enter into a contract with insurers to supply services to the customers of the insurance company. GPs are paid a capitation fee per patient registered with their practice, a fee per consultation and a negotiable reimbursement for practice costs, depending on services offered, staff employed, and the achievement of quality and efficiency indicators. These fees are paid to the GPs by the insurance companies. Most GPs are independently established and self-employed. Patients in The Netherlands choose their own family physician, but are required to register with a practice. Many practices employ a practice nurse to provide chronic disease management and most GPs employ doctors assistants who can perform simple medical procedures such as taking blood pressure, syringing ears, giving injections and performing vein punctures under instruction from GPs. Out-of-hours centres or cooperatives provide access to PHC services from GPs, nurses or doctors assistants from 5pm to 8am. The report indicates a pull from health works in countries further east and south seeking better pay and career opportunities. There are large disparities in health expenditure across the EU, as well as skill shortages (actual and projected) in many health systems in western Europe, which may exert a pull on health workers in countries further east and south seeking better pay and career opportunities. This raises important questions what is the evidence that health workers are migrating, and is any migration temporary or permanent? If health worker migration is an issue, what are the options for policy makers? What are the push and pull factors and how can they be addressed? It is critical that the issue of migration is examined in the broader context of the dynamics of health care labour markets, and that any policy solutions focus on improving monitoring as well as managing what is happening. It is also crucial to understand migration trends in relation to existing stocks and flows of health workers. In order to do this, better and more complete data are needed to monitor the situationso that policy decisions can be made from an informed perspective. Conclusion In summary, The Netherlands are facing the same health care themes as the rest of the world, including Australia. A mobile workforce has led to a health care worker shortage. Increasing health care costs has led the government to rethink private health insurance and the Dutch government implemented a compulsory system in .

The Effects on Hungary as a New Member Nation in the European Union :: essays research papers fc

Overview/History of Hungary and the European Union   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The nation of Hungary is a country that has come a long way in a short period of time. In the years since the fall of communism in 1989 in this country, Hungary has managed to establish an extremely prosperous economy and population. Because of this, Hungary has developed into one of Eastern Europe ¡Ã‚ ¯s most attractive business environments.  ¡Ã‚ °The level of political, structural and economic stability it has achieved demonstrates the success of its transition into a modern market economy.  ¡Ã‚ ± This stability has allowed for Hungary to become a member of numerous international organizations, such as the OECD, NATO, and most recently the European Union in May 2004. Hungary ¡Ã‚ ¯s membership in the EU, although short so far, has brought about many changes in the nation, both positive and negative. The nation has always served as a crossroads that connects Eastern Europe to Western Europe, and this coupled with EU membership will only allow Hungary ¡Ã ‚ ¯s economy to grow more. The Eastern European nation of Hungary has a population of a little more than 10.2 million people with about 2.5 million, or 25% of the country's population, living in and around the capital city of Budapest. Hungary ¡Ã‚ ¯s populace is made up of mostly Hungarians with ethnic minorities of Romanians, Germans, Serbs, and Slovaks. The nation is mostly Catholic with minority religions of Calvinism, Lutheran, and other religions. The life expectancy for the total population is 72.25 years and the literacy rate is very high, with 99.5% of the total population able to read and write, which demonstrates the exceptional educational system in this country. The nation has well-established transportation, communication, banking, insurance, accounting, and legal systems. All of this allows for a prosperous nation. For centuries Hungary had been part of the Holy Roman Empire under the rule of the Hapsburg monarchy. This was until the monarchy was overthrown during WWI and Hungary became a democratic republic; however political and social unrest continued for many years, with the government returning to a monarchy at the end of WWI. The nation also lost two-thirds of its territory as part of the unfair peace settlements following this war. This coupled with economic distress provided  ¡Ã‚ °incentive for resurgent Hungarian nationalism.  ¡Ã‚ ± After World War II, Hungary became a republic once again and held democratic elections after which a coalition government was formed. However, the Hungarian Communist Party, supported by the Soviet army, did not accept the results and overthrew the lawful government and assumed power.

The Lady of Shalott and Industrialized Misery Essay -- Lady of Shalott

The Lady of Shalott and Industrialized Misery Alfred Lord Tennyson, one of the mid-Victorian's most celebrated poets of the time, was genius in "eloquently presenting the anxieties and aspirations of his era" (Longman p. 1909). Trademarks of Victorian life included questioning faith, the Bible, the past, and the self. More and more people were interested in the industry of man rather than the uniqueness of nature, and progress of society proved that man was made to dominate and take everything for himself. Tennyson greatly recognized this trend as "he called attention to the industrialized misery and revolutionary anger of the poor" (Longman p. 1909-08) produced by the industrial progress in the mid-1800s. He noticed that as people delved into improving society, they at the same time lost their sense of humanity and innocence as they sped up industry and the making of material wealth for the well to-do. This loss of innocence is echoed in Tennyson's Arthurian lyrical poem "The Lady of Shalott" (Longman pp. 1913-1918). ...

True Portrayal of Children in Lord of the Flies :: Lord of the Flies Essays

True Portrayal of Children in Lord of the Flies In the novel The Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, one can see how children react to certain situations. Children, when given the opportunity, would choose to play and have fun rather than to do boring, hard work. Also, when children have no other adults to look up to they turn to other children for leadership. Finally, children stray towards savagery when they are without adult authority. Therefore, Golding succeeds in effectively portraying the interests and attitudes of young children in this novel. When children are given the opportunity, they would rather envelop themselves in pleasure and play than in the stresses of work. The boys show enmity towards building the shelters, even though this work is important, to engage in trivial activities. Af ter one of the shelters collapses while only Simon and Ralph are building it, Ralph clamours, "All day I've been working with Simon. No one else. They're off bathing or eating, or playing." (55). Ralph and Simon, though only children, are more mature a nd adult like and stray to work on the shelters, while the other children aimlessly run off and play. The other boys avidly choose to play, eat, etc. than to continue to work with Ralph which is very boring and uninteresting. The boys act typically of m ost children their age by being more interested in having fun than working. Secondly, all the boys leave Ralph's hard-working group to join Jack's group who just want to have fun. The day after the death of Simon when Piggy ! and Ralph are bathing, Piggy points beyond the platform and says, "That's where they're gone. Jack's party. Just for some meat. And for hunting and for pretending to be a tribe and putting on war-paint."(163). Piggy realizes exactly why the boys have gone to Jack's, which would be for fun and excitement. The need to play and have fun in Jack's group, even though the boys risk the tribe's brutality and the chance of not being rescued, outweighs doing work with Ralph's group which increase their chance s of being rescued. Young children need to satisfy their amusement by playing games instead of doing work. In conclusion, children are more interested

Critic Paper †Out of Africa Essay

Out of Africa: The Incredible Human Journey, is an educational movie series hosted by Alice Roberts, a medical doctor and anthropologist, trying to explain the reasons behind evolution and repopulation of humans from our early ancestors by citing existing evidences such as skulls or bones, artifacts and many more in different parts of Africa. The purpose and intention of the film was to discuss that we, as a modern human being, just evolved and originated from Africa. Emphasizing that all people in the world came from Africa. Throughout Robert’s journey in the film, she met lots of people having different views towards this evolution of humans. It started when Dr. Robert crossed a river and arrived in an island somewhere in Africa, and later introduced to the head of the said tribe who entertained her. She was then guided by villagers into the place wherein it is said that it is the place where the early humans lived. Robert observed that there’s no visible roads present on their track, and a little bit curious to how do these villagers reach their destination paths without roads to remember setting as guides for directions. During their walk, Dr. Robert noticed that one of the guiding villagers is carrying a gun, which is for protection purposes they said. Because according to them the other tribes might attack them anytime on their way to the said place. After Dr. Robert’s very tiring and long walk, she finally reached her destination, and finally arrived at the place where according to them where early human remains were found. Robert stated facts and histories about the place, wherein she believed that people live their in thousand years ago. She also discussed and explained to what are the possible explanations to how African ancestors left Africa repopulating throughout the world. Later on, Dr. Robert spend her night in the wild making a safety place for her to sleep all through out. During her stay in the wild, she heard different loud roars of various animals, then later on, in the morning she found out footsteps of lions near her place wherein she spent her night. After her tough night, she and volunteer hunters went out for a hunting trip under the heat of the sun. Not just that, Dr. Robert is constantly checking their body temperatures from time to time which he found out that their body temperature are constantly changing, which shows a sign of survival and may be is the reason for our ancestors to why they managed to pass through the deserts of Africa and repopulate the other parts of the globe. Afterwards, she stated and examined to how our appearance differentiated with our ancestors based on the skulls found in some part of deserts in Africa. Critique: The movie merely focuses on the human origins from Africa and how did evolution involving migration from one place to another occur. The ideas were well presented supported by scientific facts and evidences. Also it is clearly emphasized in the film that the studies were focusing on the discoveries in Africa without the influence of different scientific findings in other parts of the world, independently which segregates the main objective of the movie which is to find out to what really is the truth behind human journey. The film should have presented more evidences or discoveries from other parts of the world outside Africa for a better satisfaction of viewers and to avoid conflicts. However, despite of lack of supporting discoveries to compare with, the ideas and discoveries throughout the film where properly selected and arranged in a way that the viewers will understand and have a broad background from the origination to evolution and finally to migration of these African ancestors of our as they say. Reaction: â€Å"Out of Africa† is an educational and very much helpful movie specially when it comes to the illumination of events and the approximate life in the past. But not just helpful, it also was entertaining and fascinating, one of these reasons is that, its difficult to go to the wild and take the risk just to share the personal experiences waiting their for example. But maybe because Dr. Robert just find it interesting in taking these risks for his contentment for this field. Overall, I liked the movie for the same reason that it has given evidences and images to what really is the life of our ancestors before and how did they repopulate the whole world in a way that involves struggle for survival. Not just like that, the movie also showed some on going struggle for survival such as the tribes in Africa, which might be an existing evidence carried from our ancestors generation.

Democracy in the United States and Great Britain Essay

Although the need for government to have leadership that provides direction is universal among states, the form that the government leadership assumes varies. Government structure varies significantly between the United States and Great Britain, despite that each is a democracy and share a common history. In fact, the common history of the United States and Great Britain suggests reasons to explain the broad differences between the governments of each respective state. In the wake of the American Revolution, the people of the United States rejected the forms and institutions, most notably a monarchy and Parliament, of British government as well as British sovereignty. Possessing a democratic presidential government, the United States has two separately elected agencies of government. The executive and legislative branches of the United States, the President and Congress, respectively, both derive their power from the people, whereas in Great Britain only the legislative branch, Parliament, derives its power from the people, as the executive is elected by Members of Parliament, thus effectively combining both branches within a single institution. The Parliamentary system in Great Britain and the Presidential system in the United States both have histories marked by an absence of abject failure, yet neither system can be considered truly perfect. Consequently, the analyst cannot conclude that either system is better; rather, he must recognize that there are merits and faults in both systems. The Parliamentary system tends to legislate efficiently, whereas a presidential system tends toward gridlock. However, the presidential system grants both elected representatives and citizens greater influence in government. The Parliamentary system tends to favor Prime Ministers who have much experience, whereas the Presidential system favors Presidents who are responsive to the general will of the people. Also every week the British prime minister appears before the House of Commons and must answer questions put to him or her by the members of Parliament. Sometimes it is suggested that the president of the United States should be subject to similar questioning by members of Congress, as a way of encouraging closer interaction between president and Congress. If the president did so, however, it would be his or her choice; the president is elected directly by the people and is answerable to the voters rather than the legislature. Whereas the prime minister has no choice because he or she is a member of Parliament and is directly accountable to that body. Herein lies a very basic difference between the presidential system of government as it exists in the United States and the parliamentary system that has evolved in Great Britain. Another point is that the framers of the U.S. Constitution adopted the principle first enunciated by the Baron de Montesquieu of separation of powers. They carefully spelled out the independence of the three branches of government: executive, legislative, and judicial. At the same time, however, they provided for a system in which some powers should be shared: Congress may pass laws, but the president can veto them; the president nominates certain public officials, but Congress must approve the appointments; and laws passed by Congress as well as executive actions are subject to judicial review. Thus the separation of powers is offset by what are sometimes called checks and balances. In a parliamentary system, by contrast, the legislature holds supreme power. The prime minister is chosen by members of the legislature (Parliament) from among their own number and in practice is the leader of the majority party in the legislature. The cabinet members must also belong to the legislature, where they are subject to the same kind of questioning that the prime minister experiences. If the prime minister loses the support of the majority in the legislature on a significant vote, he or she must resign, and elections are called immediately. Thus, whereas in the United States, elections are held at fixed intervals, in Britain and other parliamentary countries, they may occur at any time, the only restriction being (in  Britain) that they must be held at least once every five years. In Conclusion, the governments of Great Britain and the United States of America have many differences, they are, at the core, provides leadership and direction to their nation.