11/06/2016
SAMPLE ESSAY PAPER FOR UNIVERSITY STUDENT USING APA REFERENCING
Affordable Care Act
Name:
Institutional Affiliation
Functionalism approach
Functionalism is a framework for building theory that sees society as a complex system whose parts work together to promote solidarity and stability
According to this approach, for the society to run well there has to be effective health care to ensure people’s good health. The approach stipulates that sick people in a given society have to play the sick role for them to be considered legitimately ill. A Sick person is consideredunproductive in the society and has to seek medical attention from a physician (Protection and Act, 2010).
Being ill by an individual is seen as disturbing the social function of the society. However,for these people to be able to benefit the society they need the resources necessary for good health. Healthcare has for long been not affordable to many as per the findings of sociologists’ studieswho sought to examine the effects of affordable healthcare on the society.
When we hypothesize that society is only able to function well when all of its members are provided with the means necessary to obtain proper health care, we are theoretically taking a functionalist perspective. This theoryargues that we need all members of society to be as healthy as possible in order for them to fully contribute to society through their normal social and economic rolesthey play(Koh and Sebelius, 2010).
The Affordable Care Act provides low cost insurance to the 44 million Americans who are currently uninsured. This is a deliberate move by the US government aimed at lowering and expanding the healthcare costs,to make it more readily available to every American citizen.The act is beneficial to individuals and society at large in ensuring a healthy and productive American population. Regardless of the one’s social background, Affordable Care Act makes it easier for all people from all backgrounds to be able to access quality medical care(Protection and Act, 2010).
Conflict approach
The social inequality has played a big role in affecting the access of good healthcare. People from disadvantaged social backgrounds tend to get ill easily at the same time find it hard to access proper healthcare. controlling the practice of medicine has created a positive and negative impact on the positive side qualified professionals are believed to have been able to treat these problems, on the negative side they have realized that they can improve their financial status by characterizing the social problems to medical problems and monopolizing treatment.
Interactionist approach
This emphasizes that health and illness are social constructions. This means that various physical and mental conditions have little or no objective reality but instead are considered healthy or ill conditions only if they are defined as such by a society and its members (Koh and Sebelius, 2010).
This approach also shows the interaction between the patient and the healthcare professional as the physicians tend to keep their patients waiting for long and at the end use technical terms to describe the patient’s illnesses rather than using layman language.
The Affordable Care Act is made toexpand Medicaid eligibility and it requires that all Americans have health insurance it also offers cost assistance and affordable quality premiums to all. The act allows young adults to stay on their parents plan until age 26.
the good thing it’s that it ends lifetime limits on health insurance coverage and no longer allows healthcare providers to drop you if you become ill as its illegal to be denied coverage because of a past illness or be charged more because you are a woman(Protection and Act, 2010).
In my own view I believe that the ACA should be able to cover all individuals regardless of gender, race or class.
Class should not be a problem or hindrance for one to acquire good healthcare as all the medical care should be affordable.
Reference
Protection, P., & Act, A. C. (2010). Patient protection and affordable care act. Public Law, 111, 48.
Koh, H. K., & Sebelius, K. G. (2010). Promoting prevention through the affordable care act. New England Journal of Medicine, 363(14), 1296-1299.
