Introduction
The 2009 United States census report showed that 20% of the population was comprised of disabled individuals (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Most of these individuals are old people above the age of 60. Florida is among the states that has a high number of retired individuals in the US. It has a population of 18,537,969. This paper focuses on the needs of elderly women with disabilities in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The town has a population of 183,374 people. Of this, 35,223 are above the age of 60 years. 52.6% of these individuals are females. With the high number of women with disabilities and the high medical costs, it is necessary to develop a health initiative plan that will ensure that their needs are met.
Health Problems of Women with Disabilities
Disability is a health condition which impairs the physical and mental well being of an individual. It affects almost all the dimensions of the life of a person. Most of the individuals who are disabled depend on other people to perform their daily routines. This may be family members, friends or neighbors. This dependency makes the community to view them as a burden and in the long run they are neglected by the society.
In Fort Lauderdale, disabled women above the age of 60 years are experiencing these conditions making their lives to be difficult especially while considering the fact that most of them had been physically fit for most of their lives. These women have been diagnosed with conditions such as with Haemophilus Influenza (2%), Hepatitis B (6%), Hepatitis C (21%), Strep Pneumonia (4%). At the same time 26.6% of them suffer from chronic illness such as heart diseases, arthritis, kidney failure and cancer (Center for Disease Control, 2011).
The current economic crisis that the world is experiencing has made the cost of living to be expensive. The impact of this economic crisis can be felt in the healthcare industry. The cost of medical treatment and drugs has increased tremendously. Despite the economic crisis, the cost of medical care has also increased due to the rise in the number of lawsuits filed against the physicians of the state. There has also been a lot of malpractice by the physicians which has made the cost of insurance premiums to rise. All these factors have made the cost of medical care go up (Department of Health, 2002).
Most of the elderly women of Fort Lauderdale cannot meet their medical expenses. Getting good services from doctors has been difficult due to the high insurance premiums that have increased the cost of these services. Doctors therefore avoid offering their services to individuals of this group (Bryant, 2002). The social security administration should therefore come up with an initiative which will ensure that affordable health services are provided to elderly women with disabilities. This will ensure that they have a comfortable and healthy life at their old age.
Proposed Health Initiative
A health initiative programme should be put in place to address the health needs of elderly women who are disabled. This programme should ensure that the cost of medical services is affordable to the people of this age group. Currently, there is a supplementary security income (SSI) plan in Fort Lauderdale that provides a relatively cheap health plan for the elderly people in the region. However, this plan only considers a small portion of elderly women as most of them are not eligible for the plan due to their low incomes. This plan should therefore be amended to include even those women who live below the poverty level. According to the census results of 2009, 16% of the elderly women live below the poverty line. These women are not covered by the current SSI plan. The proposed amendment to the plan should therefore include this idea. The plan should also ensure that the prices of prescription drugs are reduced by the government. The United States government should impose price controls on these drugs since they are essential to sustain the lives of disabled women. Price ceilings should be put to ensure that their prices do not exceed a certain limit. With proper price controls in place, the elderly women will be able to afford the cost of prescription drugs. This will ensure that they have a stable health condition.
An initiative should also be put in place to create disability awareness to the public. The public should be educated about disabilities and how to live with disabled individuals. They should be taught how to deal with people with disabilities, accept such individuals and treat them as part of their society. This will make the disabled people in the community, especially the elderly women, be accepted by the community. They will therefore have a comfortable life where they can associate with everyone in the society.
Conclusion
Disability is a condition which impairs an individual either physically or mentally. This condition is serious especially on the older individuals of the community. The condition is even worse to elderly women due to the rise in costs of drugs and medical services. Initiatives which will reduce the prices of drugs and medical services and create public awareness on disability should be put in place. This will ensure that people with disabilities live a normal life just like the rest of the people in the community.
References
Bryant, J. (2002). Malpractice rates sicken hospitals. Atlanta: Business Chronicle, 2 (1), 2-4.
Center for Disease Control. Communicable Disease Surveillance Data 2011. Web.
Department of Health. (2002). Assessing the needs of elder floridians. Web.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2011). Population Finder. American Fact Finder. Web.