Medical Care for the Underserved, Personal Statement Example

Some experts believe the lack of adequate healthcare is one way the disenfranchised are marginalized. They are much more likely to need psychiatric treatment and are at significantly higher risk of dying from diseases that go untreated. As such, medical care for the disenfranchised should be challenge of primary concern for our society.

Community Psychology may approach this challenge in a couple of ways. First, it could assist their disenfranchised segments in getting government medical coverage. Second, they could work to educate the community about the problem as a whole.

This matter weighs in on the issue of universal healthcare and socialized medicine in America. Some conservatives would argue that the problem with liberal government is spending in the way of helping people too much. To this type of conservative, the government effectually cripples people from helping themselves. They reason that, if a person who is under duress is helped too much by government programs; they lose the motivation from doing things for themselves.

Another reason they oppose universal healthcare and socialized medicine is cost. They think it is simply not economically feasible. Another reason is quality. They believe that socialized medicine reduces the quality of care and that government cannot do what business does as well. What they may not fully understand is that Scandinavian countries have long-established universal healthcare systems, and their population is not plagued with the same epidemics as ours such as obesity and heart disease.

Granted, there are lifestyle issues at play, and it is nearly impossible to compare one country directly to another despite the topic simply because of socio-cultural economic and geographic differences. Nevertheless, such socialized medical systems seem to work quite well for others, and maybe we can learn something from them.