Health Care Reform Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Health Care Reform - Essay Example Public policy addresses a wide range of issues ranging from crime to education to health, and social welfare. Many policies are similar in countries with similar structure of governments and ideals. Creation of public policy is a long well checked and all- inclusive process that ensures that only the best policies are formulated. Some scholars have simply defined public policy as the action, laws measures of regulation, and funding priorities covering a given topic put into action by a government or its proxies. Public policy is in many cases enshrined "in constitutions, acts of parliament, and judicial decisions. Public policy is divided into domestic and foreign policy. Domestic policy Domestic policy is the area of public policy concerned with government programs, laws, and administrative decisions that cover the happenings within a country’s borders and that attempt at bettering the lives of the citizens within the country. Health care Health care is an important sector th at affects the whole population and which governments ought to give due weight when formulating policies on the same. It is the duty of every government to ensure that the general populace is in good health. This ensures not only people having faith in the government, but also maximum productivity in all other sectors. In formulating policy, the government must consider accessibility to health care where all citizens need to be in a position to physically access health facilities. The government must also consider the affordability of the same and ensure health care is not too costly for the general populace. The government must also ensure that the quality of care for its citizenry. Recent times have seen many governments attempt to reform their health sector. Among the reforms that have been attempted most is broadenings section of the population that accesses health and medical care coverage through use of either public sector or private sector insurance programs or companies res pectively. The governments have also put in place measures to expand the choice of health care providers such that consumers have the opportunity to choose. Efforts to improve quality of health care through use of up-to-date equipment and proper training of Health care providers have been put in place. Various attempts have also been put in place to ensure reduced costs of health care. The United States is one of the countries that have put in place innumerable measures to ensure that its citizens get high quality, easily accessible and affordable health care. Health care in the United States. There are a wide range of health care providers in the United States. The United States domestic policy makers place a great emphasis on the country’s health care systems. The United States government is ranked fourth in the world in the per capita spending on health at $3,426 behind. The only countries ahead of the US in this respect are Monaco, Norway and Luxembourg, all of which have a higher GDP per capita than the US. However the efforts have not had enough effect as the country is ranked 50th in the world life expectancy at 78.49. This falls behind the life expectancies of most developed and some developing countries. Life expectancy is one of the biggest indices of health care quality. The country has higher infant mortality rates than most developed countries.

The Ethnic Groups in Southeast Asia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Ethnic Groups in Southeast Asia - Essay Example But there are oral accounts in the form of folk tales, out of which some suggest that Burma is indeed their original home, but there are some folk tales which point towards their origin being China. The Karens have script of their own as well, which is often termed as 'chicken scratch script' because the script resembles the scratches made by the movement of a chicken when it moves on sand or soft soil. Smith (2003) stated that, "until the annexation of Burma in the nineteenth century, the Karens were largely a hill of forest-dwelling people without a written literature.as a result, the Karens appear as an ethnic group very much on the fringes of the recorded history." Myanmar has at least 15 major ethnic groups with Burman (Bamar) comprising about half the population. The population of Karen is the next highest with 6-7 million people. The last comprehensive census with ethnicity count was held in the year 1931, under the British Colonial government. Thereafter the Burmese government avoided the questions about separate ethnic identity (Bowles, 2000). Basically, the Karen tribe is known to be agriculturists, with Buddhism being the predominant religion amongst the tribe. A belief amongst the Karen tribe is that historically they have come from a place called "Thibi Kawbi". This is termed as their representation of Tibet and southern Gobi desert. As time passed, gradually during the 18th century, Karen began to move down south towards Thai Payap (old northern kingdom of Siam)1. The Karen tribe have been demanding an independent identity and land for them since early 1880s, with the formation of Karen National Association. At that time, Burma was under the colonial rule of Britain. After independence of Burma in January 1948, they tried to have a peaceful existence under the banner of Karen National Union (KNU), with some important posts in the government offered to Karen people. Situation started changing after the Military junta took over the country in 1960s. Subsequently, the demand for a separate land for Karen became more voc al. The military junta started adopting oppressive measures after it took over. As a result, a large number of Karen people were forced to leave their homes and fled into bordering Thailand with the result that many thousands of Karen are now living in Thailand, Australia and elsewhere as refugees. The strength of Karen fighters depleted with Burmese army declaring a full scale war against them in early 1990s and by 1995 the KNU headquarters at Manerplaw fell to Burmese army. Culture and Religion The brass rings around the necks of Karen tribe people are stated to be because of a number of reasons2. Some say it is done to prevent tigers from biting them; appears to be a credible defense, because the tiger prefers to pull the life out of a human being with a firm grip around the neck. Another version is that it is practiced to make women less attractive, so that there is less likelihood of them being captured by the slave traders. But, there is still another version which finds that this is being practiced to make women for attractive, so that they are able to attract a better husband. Besides the neck ring, large sized ear-rings also make an important component of the beauty products of the womenfolk. As the age of young girls increases the size