Health Care and Poverty - A Vicious Cycle

For the millions of American children who are living below the poverty line, escaping the cycle can seem impossible.

Statistics show that children from poor families are more likely to drop out of school before attaining their high school diplomas -- and that individuals without a high school diploma are more likely to be poor. A recent study from the Schott Foundation shows that 7 of 10 black and brown males in major urban centers don't finish high school. They are also exponentially more likely to be incarcerated and unemployed throughout the course of their lives.

Quite simply, the odds are stacked against these young people. One of the ways to explain this crippling cycle is as follows:

When you feel better, you do better. When you feel bad, you do bad. In my anti-poverty work I have experienced the truth of this statement firsthand.

The more than 10 million adolescents who currently live in low-income families are not just denied life's little luxuries. They also are denied basic human rights, such as healthcare and nutritious food. Many of these children are unable to see a dentist because their families don't have insurance, and their parents can't take time off from work to spend the whole day waiting at the public health facility. Many of them have poor vision but do not get glasses since their families don't have insurance for vision care.

Furthermore, many of these children are malnourished, which means they are either underweight or overweight. Just because a child's bones aren't sticking out does not mean that his body is well nourished, as obesity has a myriad of health problems that can complicate a child's life. However, many families are forced to rely on cheap, unhealthy sustenance, including fast food and empty candy store calories. Healthy foods such as produce and lean meats are more expensive than fried, fatty foods, and most families don't have the option of buying the fresh food their children need to be healthy.

These are just a few of the very basic health problems that can prevent a child from excelling in school. When children's teeth ache from cavities, when their vision is too blurred to see the chalkboard, and when all they had for breakfast was a candy bar and a soda, it is no wonder that their school performance is poor and their behavior is aggressive.

We need to help the impoverished feel better so they can do better. We must work on legislative, faith-based, private and public sector solutions. Poverty is much too pernicious to fight over turf. Healthcare is just one area we must acutely address and until we do the poverty cycle will continue to ruin lives and imprison dreams.

Comments

[blaqntelligence]

good article.

[JM817]

Tragically, many people simply do not believe that there are children in the U.S. who are denied the most basic human needs. The right-wing Republicans did an excellent job of convincing most people that welfare recipients were mostly illegally manipulating the system and using the money in all sorts of ways that gave them an advantage over hard-working Americans who don't qualify for any assistance. That perception persists. Maybe we need to have a massive campaign on mainstream media to introduce America to its poor citizenry. If we can't convince people that the poor are real and that, by and large, they did not actually create their own problems, we will get nowhere in creating a fairer society in the U.S. Some people don't even accept anymore that the U.S. economic system should be fair.

[RightsGuy]

Martin Luther King said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane."

50 million Americans are without healthcare, and 87 million Americans had no health insurance at some point during the past 2 years. Almost half the bankruptcies currently filed in the United States are because of medical bills.

IN VIRTUALLY EVERY OTHER CIVILIZED NATION, NO ONE FEARS LOSING EVERYTHING DUE TO SOME MEDICAL CATASTROPHE.

The per-capita cost for health care in the USA is $7,400, the average family's insurance premium costs $12,580, and employee contributions for medical care have more than doubled in just eight years, amounts that are twice what people pay in other developed countries, including Germany, Switzerland and Australia.
Despite these costs, the United States ranks LAST on a list of 19 industrialized nations in preventable deaths and 29th of 37 in infant mortality. We can no longer maintain the status quo for the ways we currently provide and pay for health care.

Only a single-payer approach to healthcare reform will END THE INHUMANITY OF OUR FAILED HEALTHCARE INSURANCE SYSTEM, WHERE PROFITS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PATIENTS’ HEALTH, and people are dying because of it.

HEALTHCARE SHOULD BE A RIGHT, NOT A BUSINESS.

[JM817]

How right you are. How in the world did we decide that schools, fire and police departments, and even our nations' roads can be a non-profit process, but being healthy is something you are entitled to only if you can afford it, and/or (more frequently) you work for somebody who will at least partially subsidize it for you?

[remainderman]

I just do not understand how these people live with themselves. All this nonsense abnout a big scary government takeover of health care is so revolting.
Public pay health care is about Christian values (which I admire although I am not a Chrsitian) and being a good neighbour, a good human being. Creating scary stories about 'the government' where the alternative is to leave a good chunk of the country without medical care, crossing their fingers that no one gets sick and bankrupts the family is just a bunch of sociopaths preferring their profits to someone else's life.
My family was involved in the early days in Sakatchewan with the drive for medicare. (Saskatchewan was the first province in Canada to pas publicly funded health care in Canada in 1961; it was o popular the federal government made it national within a few years). Taking care of your neighbour was something you learned - you had to do on the prairies; and the people who broke sod learned that lesson best. Ever heard of barn raisings? That was how the west was won. New people move into the area. Neighbours show up with food and introduce themselves. When it comes time, everyone in the county shows up to help build their barn. Why? Well it was the only was anyone got a bran. But more than that, its just the right thing to do. Healthcare for all - just the right thing to do.

[Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston - Huffpost Blogger]

One of the most difficult barriers to overcome in the fight against poverty is the stereotype of a lazy, goal-less, welfare vampire who is getting over on the rest of us. My response is always, "walk with me." Spend a couple of nights with a struggling family etc. Radical? Yes, but so is poverty.

[MJinCanada]

This is something that is fixable.

In most parts of Canada (health care is administered by the provinces but must meet certain national standards), low income children get a basic amount of free dental care and free eye exams and glasses. A lot of employers provide dental and eye insurance plans for their workers and families.

The government doesn't necessarily pay for school breakfast programs, but lots of charities, parent groups and "good neighbour" corporations do.

Please excuse the butting in, but the US spends an insane amount of money to "defend" a way of life a lot of people wouldn't want.

[cdringer]

Excellent article. The connection between feeling better and doing better is very much under appreciated. Not to have access to some of society's basic services further breeds various forms of resignation and potentially hopelessness. Of course no one is arguing against personal responsibility (does anyone ever really argue against that?) It is our collective responsibility that we have lost a sense of.

[nyscof]

6.5 million children on Medicaid suffer with unfilled cavities because 80% of dentists won't accept Medicaid - too little money for their rich blood. Dentists accept welfare for the rich in the form of tuition and dental school government subsidies. Dentists must be required to give back. Instead they force legislators to throw fluoride chemicals into the public water supplies - as if that were a solution.

The current Journal of Public Health Dentistry reveals that African American children are ingesting too much fluoride and are more likely to suffer from fluoride-induced discolored teeth (dental fluorosis). Yet tooth decay is highest among this population. At least two children have died as a result of untreated cavities. Thousands seek emergency room care at taxpayer expense.

New York City spent $24 million on fluoridation in 2008, alone. Yet they want to save $2.5 million by cutting dental clinics. I'd say they have that arse backwards.

There is clear evidence that fluoridation does not reduce tooth decay but does expose the whole population to fluoride's adverse health effects while wasting our tax dollars.

See: http://www.freewebs.com/fluoridation/fluoridationfailsnewyork.htm

Take action to end fluoridation here congress.F­luorideAct­ion.Net

[scottishenlightenment]

There is simply no credible evidence that communtiy fluoridation does not reduce tooth decay. Dental disease is a major health inequality in the USA and fluoridation is a safe and effective means of tackling it.

[nyscof]

Achieving cavity-free status has little to do with fluoride intake, reports a study in the Fall 2008 Journal of Public Health Dentistry.

IFS researchers report, "The benefits of fluoride are mostly topical…
while fluorosis is clearly more dependent on fluoride intake."

They explain that when fluoridation began in the 1940’s, “it was
believed that fluoride needed to be ingested early in life to provide
[cavity] prevention…Today, evidence suggests that…the benefits of
fluoride are mostly topical.”

The IFS researchers find that “firmly recommending an ‘optimal’
fluoride intake is problematic.” They agree with fluoride researchers
Burt and Eklund that the term “optimal fluoride intake” be dropped
from common usage.

In 2003, IFS researchers wrote, "There is no specific nutritional
requirement for fluoride.” They described the fluoride content of some
foods. For example:

-- Processed chicken: 4.4 ppm and 10.0 ppm fluoride
-- Cereals: 3.8 to 6.3 ppm
-- Creamed spinach: 2 ppm
-- Soft drinks: up to 1.55 ppm
-- Decaffeinated tea: 3.19 ppm
-- White grape juice: 4 ppm
-- Ready-to-feed infant formula: from 0.15 to 0.30 ppm

This well-done, long-term study by respected fluoride researchers,
and published piecemeal in several scientific journals, tells us that
fluoride ingestion, such as fluoridated water and supplements, is
causing dental defects with little, if any, benefit

[Gidster]

Reagan said that poor people are lazy, and poor because they want to be, and homeless people choose to be homeless.

Republicans of every stripe have latched onto these words with such ferocity it is truly frightening.

Many "Conservative" feel that the poor get too much of their hard earned money, and would rather keep it than see it help anyone. Then they go to church and put a dollar in the basket and feel they have done their part!

[Willow712]

I'm just so scared that we're never going to be able to get health care for everyone. Obama and his crew are working on it, but look at the Conservatives yelling, "Socialism" and "running up the debt more", etc. We need universal health care for everyone. And I'm hoping and praying that we'll get it going. But I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Gidster]

It is the only way to compete with other industrialized nations.
The conservatives scream "NO UNIONS" then talk about wage and benefit reduction!

Insurance costs go up, wages are going down, soon we will all have to choose between food or insurance!

[Samalabear]

I did that long ago.

[JM817]

I am afraid that is the case too. Even though our antiquated health care system is one of the reasons that many of our industries can't compete--GM, Ford, etc., there is every reason to believe that the three major beneficiaries of the current system (the pharmaceutical and insurance industries and the AMA) want nothing to do with reforms that will harm them. This thing can't be fixed in a way that everybody wins--if we try that we will end up with a public system (whatever ends up being public) costing way more than it should because the vast majority of us will still have the prohibitively expensive system we get from our insurance companies, who, by the way, are the decision-makers in terms of what we care we get. Do we really think they care more about us than the government could possibly be expected to?

[ChiCityGirl]

I agree! And I truly hope that as this new administration turns its focus to health care reform that issues like the ones you have so poignantly addressed are at the forefront so that we can have truly comprehensive action!

Its interesting that you what seems like such an obvious connection (feeling better equaling doing better) is so lost on those who shape the policies that perpetuate the very issues you're talking about.

Great article! Looking forward to the next submission and I'm very curious what other HP readers will have to say.

[atlantajoe]

what the good rev should focus on is getting the fathers of these young men to play a part in the child's lives. Poor kids get treated through medicare and to blame crime on lack of insurance is shortsided.

[Rev. Gregory Seal Livingston - Huffpost Blogger]

Fathers, parents should be involved in their children's lives - period. However the fact that we even have to raise the 'father' issue speaks to larger concerns. What when who why - upset this natural order? Even without answering those questions I still hate to see a child suffer and not do anything about it. Not blaming crime on the lack of insurance just looking at causes.

[JaneDoe1979]

"What when who why - upset this natural order?"
Give me a break. First off, the leaders of the black community hold much responisbility for the longevity of these problems becuase scapegoating never solves anything. And black leaders have scapegoated everyone and the kitchen sink, as we see with outbursts like Wright's.
The reality is many things, including the prevelence of babydaddies not fathers in the black community, are dishonestly tied to slavery or racism because it is a way to hold white people responsible for black behavior. There isare a disproportiate amoung of absenst fathers in the UK amoung people of African decent as there is here is America. Did you take note that Obama's Kenyan father had 8 kids by a handful of women and never took care of one of them? No one is Kenya seems to find this unusual. Can''t blame poverty, lack of education, or the white man for that.

[Gidster]

Joe,

Not every poor kid has access.
Medicaid helps many, but it does not reach them all, some are removed from the rolls because they miss two appointments in a row, or their parents abused the system.

1 dental check up a year, cavities are filled, but root canals, braces, and any oral surgery issues are not covered.

Welfare and medicaid cover sustenance needs only. Thanks to conservative led cuts to these programs, even that help is being eroded.

Poverty, desperation, hopelessness, the three pillars of crime.

[TomFox]

A little difficult to be a part of your child's life if you are doing hard time for a drug crime isn't it? While your answer sounds good, you would really have to walk the streets of the cities around this country to know.

As someone who was considering the ordained priesthood of the Episcopal Church in the 1980's I spent a year as a parish intern seeing first-hand the pain of our fellow citizens, while Reagan made his snarky comments about the poor and the government being the problem. Then later I watched as an employee of the department of labor while Clinton "reformed welfare".

The problem of poverty extends in many directions and the presence of fathers is only one part of the equation.

[JaneDoe1979]

"A little difficult to be a part of your child's life if you are doing hard time for a drug crime isn't it?"
Obama's father was doing hard time for a drug crime?
Again, there are certain fallicies we are force fed by people who have a desperate need not to hold men accountable for their lack of parenting. And most of these crutches are shown to have little substance when held to the light.
One- making it sound like they are all in jail. Sorry this is untrue. I've worked in the child support collectiion agency for years and most men who don't pay believe the government is more responsible for their children than they are. Most feel entitled to live life unencumbered by responsibilty. There are men who will buy a bottle of courvoisier for themselves or new rims for their car even if this means no money left for dipers or baby food. For some reason we never hear these men referred to as "entitled".
Then there is the excuse that absent father's are only absent because they have to work 2-3 jobs to keep their families afloat. Also untrue. You find absent fathers even more amoung men on welfare as you did amoung men working 2-3 jobs. If a man isn't working at all he has more than enough time to raise his children AND help the children of men who ARE absent due to long work hours. We don't see this happened.

[kendraro]

You have no idea. I just turned in the paperwork for the fourth time this year to Social Services to get my son health insurance - they have "lost" the previous three times I filed. I am not in good health myself and I find it really difficult to keep redoing the forms over and over- this is something a universal single payer health plan would fix!

[Samalabear]

My son has Medicaid and he had to go to Stony Brook Hospital. He also been to Mather and St. Charles for a couple of problems. Because Medicaid screwed up the six on his card -- they put female -- he is being charged thousands of dollars by Stony Brook. The other two hospitals there were no problems in spite of the Medicaid mixup. He has been trying to straighten this gender mess thing out with Medicaid and can't seem to get a hold of them, and Stony Brook -- the quasi-public hospital -- has been totally uncooperative, too.

We need single payer desperately in this country to get rid of all the different plans, the extensive paperwork and inequality. Of course, while my son has Medicaid, I have nothing. I don't qualify for Medicaid and can't afford anything else. The lower-middle class is fast becoming the top tier of poverty and falling fast.