Lack of Health Care For Low Income Workers
By Oliver Banson
Dallas is a bright and glamorous city, but that’s only the outside. The inside of the city however is rotting quickly and will continue to do so if nothing is changed. One of the biggest problems of the city is the lack of citizen improvement in the area of healthcare. Many of Dallas’s lower tier citizens cannot afford health insurance or afford to take sick days of their work. The city’s lower class citizens are slowly moving into poverty and homelessness while the city council looks on and does nothing. It is time something was done to help those who need it the most in Dallas
According to the Texas Medical Association, Texas has the least amount of medically insured citizens in all of the USA. That’s around 5 million Texans all across the state! No surprise is that the biggest contributions to these numbers come from Dallas and other major cities across the state. To make it worse, most of the people uninsured are those who are lower class citizens in the state. These people are people who have to go to jobs everyday just to make sure their families can eat and they are the ones who try to avoid hospitals because of the bills. This makes their condition even worse as they have to go to work even when they’re sick and when they are sick they can’t afford to go to the hospital and get proper treatment which could make them more sick and more prone to getting more sick.
According to the Dallas News, this isn’t all Dallas’s fault. Dallas is a growing city and needs to invest in roads, schools and other necessary infrastructure. It doesn’t help to hear that Texas has been listed as one of the least states to give aid to their cities which makes it worse as Dallas can’t spend as much as it needs to because of lack of funding allowing it to do a fraction of what is needed. This is slowing the city’s descent into poverty, but isn’t stopping it. Our state is pushing for annual tax revenue caps, which helps the state in general but is a devastating blow to major cities such as Houston and Dallas causing increased amounts of poverty.
As spikes go up in poverty and current COVID-19 infections increase measures to help the lower income people in Dallas are needed more than ever. In fact, a measure to require companies and businesses to pay employees while they are on sick leave fell short in the state legislature along with another measure to increase minimum wage in major cities of Dallas Houston and San Antonio also fell short of the votes needed to put it in place. The DCHHS or Dallas County Health and Human Services also has reported that the number of physicians in Dallas are shrinking. Something must be done to help those who need it the most whether at the state or city level.
However, improvements are coming slowly, but are still coming. DCHHS has implemented a new program allowing vaccine immunizations for children whose parents have low income for free or at a lowered cost. Other and new measures are working on being passed and Dallas seems to have finally recognized the need for better medical care. However these are only small steps and there is a long way to go. That is the goal for this article, to bring awareness to this problem so that the public knows what’s happening and what it needs to do. It is our turn to help those who cannot help themselves from simple things from raising awareness to helping those who need it physically it all counts.
Bibliography:
https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/
https://www.dmagazine.com/healthcare-business/2019/10/dallas-countys-growing-physician-shortage/
https://www.methodisthealthsystem.org/documents/community%20report/Richardson-Community-Health-Needs-Assessment-2013.pdf
If You Like This You May Like
Smoggy Views of Dallas
When you think of air pollution or even smoggy cities, you might think of areas such as Beijing and New Delhi, but have you ever considered how polluted our very own city of Dallas is? Dallas has a high level of air pollution due to greenhouse gases and car emissions. We, as people of the city of Dallas, can help change this problem. Let’s take a deeper dive into this problem and see what we can do to change things.
Freedom For All
Though the art of justice has been perfected over the many years of humanity, not everyone has been able to enjoy it as well as others. This is apparent in one of the most common forms of discrimination: a distaste for immigrants and people of color.
Put that Phone Away!
Using an electronic device before bed has many consequences. Throughout Dallas, TX, and even the whole world many people use their phones before bed which they consider relaxing. However, the cons outweigh the pros of using a device before sleeping. Why is it that people choose to ruin their body and health when there is an easy fix?
This is truly a major problem that is sometimes covered by the glamorous facade of Dallas, as you stated. I really enjoyed how you had so much evidence to back up what you were saying, as it shows that you are passionate about this topic and that you’re interested in it. I hope that this amazing article will bring awareness and attention to this underrated problem in Dallas.
Wow this really opened my eyes to a whole issue in our community. I loved your bibliography and all of your evidence!
It’s sad to see that even a city as financially stable and well off could have so many problems when it comes to basic necessities like health care.