Running Head: THE GOVERNMENTS ABUSE OF POWER

Hailey Casas
Briar Cliff University
Professor Allen
27 February 2015

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Running Head: THE GOVERNMENTS ABUSE OF POWER

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The Governments Power Over our Health Care System and how they are Abusing it

What does the government do behind the scenes without us knowing? Do we have any
say really in what the elected officials are doing? As American citizens we dont always
know where our money is going when we pay taxes. The government is abusing its
authority by spending money on the defense system, when in all actuality it is focusing
on the United States status in the world. This photograph shows an African American

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women standing next to a window with the words saying, Fund Healthcare not
Warfare. This picture taken by Gerald L. Campbell in Washington D.C. is very serious
with some darker tones, like black, greys, and whites, making it have an earnest, almost
somber theme. The words are very bold to emphasize that they are important. If we are
proactive with the government, I think more things would get solved in a decent amount
of time. To do that, we actually have to speak out or no one will change things or make an
impact. This photo was shot in 2010. Now there is Obama Care, but back then the
government was spending the peoples money on the defense system when in retrospect
they should have spent it on the health of our own people. What are the governments real
intentions when it comes to our money? Will we prosper as a country without healthcare
(Cane,2012)? As a country we need to take action and speak up against and/or with the
government to fix our healthcare system.
This photograph provides a lot of unsaid things about this country that probably
should at least be stated. For one, the words on the picture directly say what the
government is doing wrong or what they need to be doing, which is fund healthcare. I
feel that we care more as a society on how good we look to the world, rather than how we
are inside the country. So we make sure that around the world we are the enforcers who
are living well and have power but on the inside we are weak and need a little help. We
dont always care about the people without power that need medical help but are too
underpaid to get it themselves. Renter states,
Uninsured Americans, falling into a gap created by the ACA, are too poor to
receive assistance on their health insurance premiums, but make too much to

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qualify for Medicaid, putting them in a difficult predicament when costly medical
bills come due (Washington post, 2014).
After this picture was taken the government started to become a little more concerned by
providing Obama Care for the people who need it. On the other hand, America has been
in a war almost constantly for about thirteen years, ever since the attack on the Twin
Towers in New York City. This event was said to have caused a war in Afghanistan and
then in Iraq, which has been ongoing since 2001. Another big element on the meaning of
this photo is that it was taken in Washington D.C., our national seat of government. The
photographer was trying to get his point across by going straight to the source and getting
as close to the government as he can; it is right in front of the governments faces. In
2010 we didnt have the new health care act, which helps underprivileged people afford
health insurance. The fact that she is a woman also keeps her from having much say in
this world because woman are placed under a glass ceiling along with the minorities. The
glass ceiling is a barrier between the white middle-aged men, and minorities; they get
paid more and treated with way more respect. A woman with the same job as a man
makes on average seventy seven cents to every mans dollar. Which is another sub group
under a barrier that keeps the groups back. The black and white element makes it more
somber and serious. She also is not well dressed so it makes her look like she doesnt
have a lot of money. This gives people another reason to suppress her, and makes her
harder to hear in the professional world. Lastly the words in the background are big and
bold, the Fund Healthcare and not are all bright and white while Warfare is dark
and scratched on made too look messy. These make the words have a deeper meaning:
the right thing is bright and pretty while warfare is dark and deceiving made to look ugly.

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As the people of the U.S. we need to think about our spending. We are in a
recession and our money needs to be put toward somewhere more important, like
healthcare. Our healthcare system has been advancing much quicker than it has in the
past, and we have more technology and medical advances. This requires more money
than it has before and now that it is advancing so much that insurance companies dont
always cover it all. For example a cancer treatment lasts for about ten weeks but the
insurance company only covers eighty percent of the cost and only will cover that eighty
percent for 8 weeks (Wesley, 2012). If the cancer is not fully gone they will not pay for
the extra treatments. According to The Business Insider the average American spends
about a fifth of their paycheck on healthcare. Gleevac, a cancer drug in New Zealand,
costs about one thousand dollars while in the United States its about seven thousand
dollars. Standard lab performances like an MRI can cost about ten times more in the
United States than in Switzerland (Wesely, 2012). Americans spent about 2.4 trillion
dollars on healthcare in 2008(Renter, 2014). Thats nearly as much as food, clothing, and
national defense combined and that just shows that we spend a huge amount of money on
just health care. The FDC has a law that states that it is illegal for them to negotiate the
price of medicinal drugs bought. So if we go to buy a new drug for cancer, like Gleevac,
and the seller says its 1,000 dollars a milligram, we are forced to accept the price.
Almost a quarter of Texans do not have access to affordable healthcare, while one
hundred percent of Mexicans in Mexico do, and they are an under developed country
compared to us. We just need to figure out how to solve this problem without making it
worse (Renter, 2014).

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In the end the government needs to spend more money on health care because it is
getting way overpriced and becoming almost unaffordable for most citizens of the United
States. The government is using too much of its power to pay for things that the United
States shouldnt be involved in. We need a break from this war because its hard enough
living in this world, why make it harder? Sending Americans to foreign countries and
getting them killed is making this situation worse. The picture has a meaning that is very
powerful to me. Our people should come before our status in the world, and the fact that
she is a woman of African American descent makes her more unheard because of her
status in this world. Health cares costs do need to be lowered and we should look at other
countries and see how they make it so affordable for their people. Our money is definitely
not going to all the right places, and we need to take it one step at a time and fight for
whats right. Power comes in numbers but it starts with one.

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Citations
Cane, J. (2012, October 22). Health Costs: How the U.S. Compares With Other
Countries.RetrievedApril7,2015,fromhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/health
costshowtheuscompareswithothercountries/
Renter,E.(2014,December15).UninsuredUndertheACA.RetrievedApril7,2015,
fromhttp://health.usnews.com/healthnews/health
insurance/articles/2014/12/15/uninsuredundertheacamillionsofamericanscant
affordcoverage
Wesely,D.(n.d.).HowCountriesSpendTheirMoney.RetrievedApril7,2015,from
http://visualeconomics.creditloan.com/howcountriesspendtheirmoney/
Newstab.net. (2014, December 16). Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
http://newstab.net/uninsuredundertheacamillionsofamericanscan39tafford
coverage3.html