Public Health Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Public Health - Essay Example There is no country in the world, which has a perfect system (Barker, 2009, p. 89). The American health care system has a decentralized system of financing and ownership. Currently, it is seeking to reform its financing and delivery system. In order to accomplish its reforms, it needs a concerted effort from the federal government along with considerable help from the private health care sector (Burns, 2014, p. 8). Financing health care is a tension among the ethics and values we place on human life. The implication is that the health care system would fail if completely governed by market forces, even though the health care system exists within a general market economy. At some level, health care competes for resources with production of food, production of movies and construction of homes and other numerous goods and services consumed by over 300 million people in a nation (Jonas, Goldsteen, Goldsteen & Jonas, 2013, p. 142). The public financing for the American health care system comes from the state, local and the federal government. Public funding is accountable for more than half of the health care spending. It covers over 27 percent of the U.S population. This percentage includes the aged population, the disabled, the poor, war veterans, children, government employees and Native Americans (Smith, Wertheimer & Fincham, 2013, p. 23). The centre for Medicare and Medicaid compiles the national health expenditure estimating the annual health spending of the entire U.S population. This is done using source of funding for those services (Sundararaman, 2009, p. 8). Medicare financing comes from general revenues, beneficiary premiums and the payroll tax contributions. Medicaid is a partnership between the federal government and the state government to provide health benefits to the disabled and low-income persons. Apart from the Medicare and Medicaid, the U.S government also finances other

The smoking bans on university and college campuses Research Paper

The smoking bans on university and college campuses - Research Paper Example While these smoking bans are beneficial to smokers, the bans are primarily being undergone to protect the rights and ensure the health of those exposed to secondhand smoke. Many smokers fight for their rights to smoke in public with the argument that â€Å"smokers and nonsmokers alike have to learn to share their space† (Smith, 2012). However, this stance is riddled with holes, the largest being that, by being forced to share space, people who choose not to smoke are still being subjected to the toxins that smokers insist on. Nonsmokers are not given the opportunity to be in public smoke-free environments because the smoke does not stay in one place but wafts in all directions, leaving nonsmokers with very little choice in the way of clean air. As such, these smoking bans on university campuses, and in other public locations, seek to protect the rights, and the health, of nonsmokers (Fortin, 2007). They are being put in harm’s way when someone else decides to light up a cigarette, a choice that nonsmokers seldom have a say in. These bans will give nonsmokers the protection that their health requires. Similarly, â€Å"comprehensive smoking bans can reduce secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmokers† (CDC, 2007). Secondhand smoke has proven to be more dangerous than the smoke inhaled through a cigarette. This is due to the fact that filters in cigarettes remove the most deadly toxins as smokers inhale, thereby allowing them to not inhale all of the toxins. Those exposed to secondhand smoke do not get the benefit of the filters, and are left to to wade through the harsh smoke, toxins and all. These proposed and active smoking bans protect employees and students from exposure to secondhand smoke on college campuses (ANR, 2012). While smokers are inhaling dangerous toxins themselves, they are leaving behind something much deadlier for those who have made an active decision not to smoke. Essentially, nonsmokers are being punished for the choices made by smokers,