Introduction
The US is a first world country with visible developments in the communal realms. It is recognizable as a developed country with minimal flaws. Nevertheless, in recent years numerous negative things have been associated with such an entity.
They include war, crimes, poverty, racism and discrimination, which affect them socially and economically. Mooney, Knox & Schacht (2010) thus define a social problem as any social condition that has a negative impact on the society and the environment. A variety of social problems faces the American citizens in the contemporary society.
These include crime, war, inaccessibility to better care, poverty, unemployment, bigotry and inequity, illegal immigrations and inadequate shelter. These are examples of social problems, which affect such a populace thus the need for the government to address them swiftly lest they exude negative impact on subsequent generations. This paper mainly focuses on the health care issues affecting the contemporary American society with a definite focus on African Americans, elderly and related special groups.
Healthcare
The sole social problem facing the contemporary United States during this century pertains to healthcare. For example, obesity, cancer, diabetes and sexual abuses are prevalent. Mooney, Knox & Schacht (2010) reviewed studies that indicated that in every three women in a relationship at least one has been battered, forced into sexual activity or abused in numerous ways.
Unfortunately, persons they know normally initiates such acts. Despite the notion that battering is one of the major causes of hurt, and disability among the African-American women, most healthcare centers are not able to recognize this incident as a healthcare issue.
Furthermore, the rate at which the African-American citizens are involved in drug abuse especially smoking leads to an increase in the death rate of the population due to heart diseases, strokes and cancer. According to Patel and Rushefsky (2008), federal courts passed a ruling on the medical care civil rights act in 1994, which was to offer health care services to all patients regardless of race, division or the social economic status of an individual. Unfortunately, this problem is yet to be substantially analyzed.
Analysis of the problem
Although several persons have ignored such a concern, it is evident that for an individual to comprehend the current health care crisis of the African American population, one must understand the legacy of the experience of the slavery. This is together with the role of racism in the provision of diverse facets of care (Patel and Rushefsky, 2008). Former Senator Bradley once said that the slavery experienced by the African American population was and still is the American’s first sin since racism persists as the unresolved dilemma.
With reference to the most recent research, it is evident that most medical services offered by the American government consciously or subconsciously discriminate the African American. For instance, a report by the “U.S. Department of human health services” indicates that, the ethnic minorities are treated differently as compared to the whites due to either racial bias or cultural misunderstanding (Patel and Rushefsky, 2008).
Another factor that has contributed to the poor medical services to the African American in America incorporates their beliefs and ethics. Such aspects have a great impact on their lifestyle, health care maintenance and education. For instance, the blacks are always regarded lower thus, the services they obtain from the care sector is of lower standard as compared to the services given to the whites.
Such intolerance and bigotry has further lead to the continuous increase of the medical care costs with time. Furthermore, the idea of insuring an employee by an employer has its limitations. This is attributable to the fact that companies with many employees can insure them medically, while those companies with few employees, covering their employees’ medical cover fail to acquire the appropriate resources.
By doing the latter, the company is ultimately giving the employees an extra burden of paying their own medical bills including the family members. This often culminates as a costly affair. Apart from the working class, there are the elderly people in the society who require care services. However, the fee of management is often elevated since they require additional services like nursing homes and drug prescriptions, which are costly while the young require hospital services only (Patel and Rushefsky 2008).
Sociological theory as a basis for explanation
Sociological theory can be termed as a set of solid ideas and information that allow for the systematization of social world basing on established notions. These theories change with time depending on changes arising in the social world.
An example of a sociological theory that explains the health care of the Americans is the rebellion theory, which indicates that the society shuns approved goals and agreements. Dillon (2007) indicates that this notion would question the economy of the health care and the social inequality. Despite having good intentions to the society by trying to provide good health care, the social, political and economic interests always ends up interfering with their goal.
This occurs when the stipulated strategies that scrutinize the performance of the health care services is not applied effectively leading to low outcome performance of the hospital services, insurance companies, pharmaceutical drug companies. Furthermore, doctors’ together with nurses’ professional jobs, corporate and small business employers, federal and states government and medical malpractice lawyers are included.
In addition, Marxist’s sociological theory claims that class is a very important factor that determines the access of an African American to health services, privileges and power in America. This situation affects the blacks despite that both the whites and the blacks are subject to similar conditions (Dillon 2010).
Conclusion
In spite the care problems facing the country, several strategies are employed to improve delivery of care. There is a continuous improvement of the standard of services offered by the medical health care organization and the insurance companies. Electronic system is being set up to examine and assess the medical care services.
Additionally, appropriate policies and guidelines governing the use of health care resources effectively must be set. The government should reduce costs associated with health care to advance accessibility by citizens. By doing this, the health care crisis will have negligible unenthusiastic force on the societal realms.
References
Dillon, M., (2010). Introduction to sociological theory: theorist, concepts, and their applicability to the twenty- first century, Malden, MA: Wiley- Blackwell.
Mooney, L.A., Knox, D., and Schacht, C., (2010). Understanding social problems, seventh Edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Patel, K., & Rushefsky, M. E. (2008). Health care in America: separate and unequal, New York, M.E. Sharpe, Inc.