MEDICAID Essays - Healthcare Reform In The United States

MEDICAID Essays - Healthcare Reform In The United States MEDICAID I. ANALYTICAL EXPOSITION History Medicaid is a Federal - State entitlement program that pays for medical services on behalf of certain groups of low income persons. (O'Sullivan, 1990) Title XIX of the Social Security Act provides for the medical assistance commonly known as Medicaid. (O'Sullivan, 1990) This means-tested entitlement program became part of federal law in 1965. Medicaid makes direct payments to medical providers for their services to eligible persons. It is the largest health program providing medical assistance to the poor. Eligibility In order for one to be eligible for Medicaid, one must meet very strict requirements. These requirements vary from state to state, but in this paper the Federal requirements will be discussed as well as the general state requirements The correlation between those receiving public assistance and those receiving Medicaid seems to be directly related. "Medicaid has generally been linked to actual or potential receipt of cash assistance under a welfare program. Thus, eligible individuals have to meet the welfare definitions of age, blindness, disability, or membership in a family with dependent children where one parent is absent or incapacitated." (O'Sullivan, 1990) These stringent requirements leave out part of the population such as singles, childless couples who are not elderly or disabled. Besides falling into one of the above mentioned categories, they must also meet specified income and resource criteria which vary by State. "While the link to cash assistance has been the primary way to establish eligibility, states have been able to extend coverage to children who meet the income and resources requirements, but do not meet the definition of dependency." (O'Sullivan 1990). The other group that is affected by this institutional policy are the providers. Providers can be defined as those who perform services for the Medicaid patients. They include, but are not limited to physicians, hospital, dentists, pharmacies etc. "Low medical fee schedules, relative to physicians' usual charges to other payers, are a major deterrent to participation." (O'Sullivan 1990) Recent data suggests that the gap continues to widen between Medicaid and private rates. Virtually all hospitals participate in Medicaid. However, a Medicaid patient will more than likely be transferred to a public hospital for in-patient treatment. II. CRITICAL CONTEXT Social Impact It is merely impossible to try to obtain an actual number of people affected by Medicaid. If the picture was painted with a broad brush you could say that virtually every person in the United States is affected by Medicaid. For example any person who pays taxes is affected, any doctor who accepts Medicaid is directly affected by the low fee schedule that is put into place. Any person receiving public assistance is affected as well. The amount of people who are currently receiving Medicaid will be broken down: 6.2 million or 24.9 percent adults in families with dependent children, 10.4 million or 41.8 percent dependent children, 3.5 million or 14.1 percent aged, .4 million or 13.7 percent disabled or blind, 1.4 million or 5. 6 percent fall into the category of others. (O'Sullivan 1990) The total amount of people on Medicaid is 24.9 million. It's obvious that practically everyone is affected by this program. Problems With the System The Medicaid program was one of many programs designed to help the poor and disadvantaged enjoy the benefits of receiving the type of medical care provided to those who could afford it. According to Karen Davis, author of Achievements and Problems of Medicaid, from its initiation the Medicaid program has had two major objectives: insuring that covered persons receive adequate medical care and reducing the financial burden of medical expenditures for those with severely limited financial resources. Before the introduction of Medicaid most poor persons had little or no private insurance and many went without needed care. Medicaid attempted to alleviate this situation - if not for all poor persons, at least for those on welfare and the medically needy. (Davis, 1996) A Lack Of Equality Perhaps the greatest flaw in the Medicaid program is that it does not treat people in equal circumstances equally. Davis goes on to say that the inequitable distribution of Medicaid benefits is caused in part by the joint Federal - State nature of the program and its tie to the Welfare system. As stated previously the Medicaid eligibility is linked to the

Business Ethics and Organizational Culture Essay - 2

Business Ethics and Organizational Culture - Essay Example The article stipulates that the organization theory along with the concepts of business ethics usually reflects on the organization of man’s cooperative activities and how they should actually be organized. However, the article suggests that the probable symbiosis that exists between the fields of business ethics along with organization cultures has not yet been fully identified. The article does provide a brief summary of organizational theories for the purpose of providing non professionals in the field of business ethics with appropriate information on the running of business. This article additionally provides information concerning the four research subjects that are applicable in the organizational culture field along with the business ethics one. It also offers several diverse theoretical perspectives on the business ethics along with organizational culture fields (Heugens & Scherer, 2010). Finally, the article also explores what organizational theories have to offer to the field of business ethics along with what could be the potential boundaries of this contribution. The author provides an upbeat description of the relationship that exists between these two fields while insisting that the latent symbiosis that exists between them is inspiring and enormous. It is relevant to business ethics since to the employees of an organization; their management utilizes them in setting the firm’s tone along with their general working environments. This is done by helping to state their professional rights along with private rights within an organization. They also greatly assist in determining how employees should behave in the course of performing their duties. In addition, they also help in ensuring that the working environments are safe while making the organizations work schedules to be fair and thoughtful of their welfare. This article states that when the management of an organization fails to uphold the employee’s ethical rights,

INTERNATION FINANCIAL MARKETS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

INTERNATION FINANCIAL MARKETS - Essay Example nternational financial markets would lead to improvement in the economies of developing, less developed countries, and it would automatically enhance stability among developed countries. The major benefit accruing from international financial markets is more financial interconnection among different nations of world. It can also lead to a deeper integration of developing economies with the international financial markets. Especially the developing economies would be able to revamp and develop their financial system with the introduction of more complete, deeper, stable and better-regulated domestic financial markets because of their affiliation to international financial markets. Levine, (2001) suggests a better functioning financial system with more credit is likely to lead to faster economic growth. Apart from direct growth benefits, development of international financial markets is likely to result in other collateral benefits like promotion of the development of domestic financial sector and imposing disciplines on the macroeconomic policies of the governments. It also leads to generation of more efficiency by encouraging competition and results in enhanced corporate governance and functioning of better governments. Since these benefits occur over a longer period, it is usual that the costs of globalization are detected more easily. The collateral long-term benefits of international financial markets can be traced through equity inflow and increased foreign direct investments into the domestic financial markets. However, it is difficult to identify the benefits of international financial markets, which enhance the productivity through empirical studies. An analysis of structural, institutional and macroeconomic policies across the country leading to growth of GDP or productiv ity would prove the benefits resulting from international financial markets. At the micro level, the positive impact of international financial markets can be felt in the capital account

Dorian Gray And Death In Venice Analysis English Literature Essay

Dorian Gray And Death In Venice Analysis English Literature Essay In chapter one I have shown that both Aestheticism and Nietzsche promote art for arts sake and believe that art justifies itself and does not need to have a purpose since art is purpose in itself, the purpose of life. Nietzsche urges artists to look inside themselves and give importance to both the Apollonian, that is, the rational and the Dionysian, that is, the passionate side of their personality. According to him, only by achieving equilibrium between these two opposite and, in the meantime, complementary forces will artists be able to create authentic works of art. This chapter centers on the analysis of The Picture of Dorian Gray and Death in Venice from the Aesthetic and Nietzschean perspective. In both novels, the protagonists are artists that cultivate beauty in their works and lives and that oscillate between the Apollonian and Dionysian. Since Nietzsche points out that both the Apollonian and the Dionysian govern the human existence, I will show how these two forces compet e in each character in their search for beauty. Both Oscar Wilde and Thomas Mann struggled against what was prevalent and what was expected of an artist in their eras. They fought against becoming what Lord Henry criticises in The Picture of Dorian Gray: Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of ones age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality (Wilde 92). Wildes new version of the old aestheticism deploys subjectivity, individuality, and the autonomy of art against the supposed objectivity and professionalism of nineteenth century science and its offshoot in literature, that is, realism. In Oscar Wilde, Thomas Mann discovered much of the essential Nietzsche, his furious war on morality and his transvaluation of moral into aesthetic values. As affirmed in The Decay of Lying, Oscar Wildes philosophy on art insists on the fact that art should find perfection in itself, that it has as its object not simple truth, as Victorians expected it to express, but complex beauty. As he points out in the preface of the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the artist is the creator of beautiful things and those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated (Wilde 5). A common feature of The Portrait of Dorian Gray and Death in Venice is their celebration of beauty in artistic creation. Thus, Lord Henry Wotton believes that Beauty is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It has its divine right of sovereignty (Wilde 29) and Aschenbach thinks that nature itself shivers with ecstasy when the mind bows down in homage before beauty (Mann 460). The artists pursuit of beauty constitutes both their inspiration, the purpose of th eir creation and their perdition. Through their celebration of art as a main theme, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Death in Venice share some common points in their analysis of the artist. In his work, The Birth of Tragedy, Nietzsche affirms that artistic creation depends on a collaboration between two opposite forces which he terms the Apollonian and the Dionysian. He believed that true artistic creations have to be generated by people that were not only highly civilised and cultured, but also passionate. According to him, only in the balance of these forces could art arise. Nietzsche described the good artists as maintaining a balance between two forces, the Dionysian, or those associated with the god Dionysus and the Apollonian, those associated with the god Apollo. While Dionysus was the god of fecund nature, spring, regeneration, wine, and intoxication, and orgiastic extravagance, Apollo was the god of light, of form which shapes drives and instincts into clarity and order. While Dionysus was often associated wi th music, a passionate, engrossing art form, Apollo was associated with sculpture, a rigid, detached art form. Like Nietzsche, Oscar Wilde and Thomas Mann believe that the conflict between conscious will and uncontrolled passion, between rationality or morality and passionate art represents a very serious struggle in human existence. This is the reason why the artists trajectory towards death in both fictional works is a descent to either extreme and a failure to maintain equilibrium between these two opposite forces. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, the three major characters, Basil Hallward, Lord Hnry Wotton, and Dorian Gray are at the same time different aesthetes and parts of the same self. In Death in Venice, the poet Gustav von Aschenbach is the only protagonist and artist in the novella, but he has common features with all three different characters from Oscar Wildes novel. Each of these artists, unique in their mode of thinking and personality, undergoes serious changes provoked by factors beyond their control. Aschenbachs resemblance to Basil is manifested in his Apollonian concern with exhausting work. They both believe that hard work leads to perfection and that perfection is the key to the artistic talent. They both reject passion because they think it blocks the pursuit of excellence. Hallwards aestheticism is manifested in his complete devotion to exclusive artistic creations. His ambition and struggle is to become one with his art. He searches in the outside world for the perfect manifestations of his soul and when he finds them, he can create masterpieces by painting them. His fatal misake is that in creating the portrait of Dorian Gray, Basil puts too much of himself into it, (Wilde 18), which Lord Henry criticises for at some point in the novel, by arguing that an artist should create beautiful things, but should nothing of his own life into them (Wilde 25). Gustave von Aschenbach is introduced as the extreme case of the civilised Apollonian, neoclassical artist who becomes a hero of the times given his self-controlled manner of labouring on the edge of exhaustion: Gustave Aschenbach was the poet-spokesman of all those who labour at the edge of exhaustion; of the overburdened, of those who are already worn out but still hold themselves upright; of all our modern moralizers of accomplishment with stunted growth and scanty resources. (Mann 426) He is, thus, the prototypical modern artist. However, the fact that he has spent his entire life without acknowledging his passions and desires foreshadows possible problems in the future because, according to Freud, repressed passions will sooner or later rise to the surface. Thus, he gradually abandons his commitment to Apollo when he first journeys to Venice and, later, when he decides to remain there. He passes beyond balance and reason, substituting beauty for morality, even though the cost of such a choice is death. Far from being fruitful to the artistic purpose of their lives, their vulnerability to the perfect classic beauty of both Dorian Gray and Tadzio overshadows the resulting art itself. Both Basil and Gustaves worlds start revolving around their muses and, unawares, they grow dependent on their presence. Thus, Hallward admits that: I couldnt be happy if I didnt see [Dorian] every day. He is absolutely necessary to me (Wilde 18) and Gustave, once he meets Tadzio, can no longer leave Venice, even though the city does him serious harm: He felt the rapture of his blood, the poignant pleasure, and realized that it was for Tadzios sake the leavetaking had been so hard (Mann 455). The obsessive admiration for the perfect physical beauty is what binds Basil Hallward and Gustave Aschenbach and what leads them towards destruction. Once they discover perfect beauty, the Dionysian force is unleashed and it can hardly be controlled. Both artists worship beauty in their creations. As Aschenbach declares, in almost every artists nature is inborn a wonton and treacherous proneness to side with the beauty that breaks hearts, to single out aristocratic pretensions and pay them homage (Mann 441). The ideal of beauty is represented in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Death in Venice by the youthful Dorian and Tadzio. Basil confesses that Dorian is all my art to me now (Wilde 16) and Gustave decides that [Tadzio] should be in a sense his model, his style should follow the lines of this figure that seemed to him divine (Mann 461). However, the beauty of the two young men is not only a source of artistic inspiration, it very soon starts exerting influence on the artists. Basil argues that [Dorians] personality has suggested me an entirely new manner in art, an entirely new mode of style. I see things differently, I think of them differently. I can now recreate life in a way that was hidden from me before (Wilde 17) and in Aschenbachs case, [Tadzios lovely apparition] was that filled him with content, with joy in life, enriched his stay, and lingered out the row of sunny days that fell into place so pleasantly one behind the other (Mann 457). Once conscious of the serious role beauty plays in their lives, Basil Hallward and Gustave Aschenbach become concerned to hide it, fearful that if they reveal it, they will in fact, unveil their souls. Thus, Basil tells his friend, Lord Henry, that he will not exhibit the portrait, his grand masterpiece, because I will not bare my soul to [the worlds] shallow prying eyes. My heart shall never be put under their microscope. There is too much of myself in the thing, too much of myself (Wilde 18). Aschenbach, too, feels a strange relief because the world sees only the beauty of the completed work and not its origins nor the conditions whence it sprang; since knowledge of the artists inspiration might often but confuse and alarm and so prevent the full effect of its excellence (Mann 461). The tragic ending of Basil and Gustave is a consequence of their inability to find a balance between the Apollonian and the Dionysian sides of their lives. Lord Henry warns the artist that the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful (Wilde 26). Accustomed to resist any other thoughts than those related to artistic creation, Hallward and Aschenbach find themselves incapable to control their excessive admiration for beauty and they are, therefore, destroyed by it. Lord Henry Wotton is an aesthete of the mind. If Basil is an artist who uses the brush, Lord Henry is an artist who uses words. Lord Henrys philosophy on life and art resembles in a great measure that of Nietzsche, in that they both celebrate the primacy of individual senses and feelings over reason and morality. Lord Henry, like Nietzsche, urges the artist to accept his Dionysian, dark and mysterious world of the instinct, to live his life fully and take advantage of its pleasures, for art is a form of exaggeration, the product of spontaneity: I believe that if one man were to live out his life fully and completely, were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream, I believe that the world would gain such a fresh impulse of joy that we would forget all the maladies of medievalism and return to the Hellenic ideal, to something finer, richer than the Hellenic ideal, as it may be. (Wilde 25) Lord Henry, like Nietzsche, believes that the unsatisfactory status of modern art is due to the individuals fear to acknowledge their passions, that is, the Dionysian side of their own selves, and turn them into something beautiful and authentic: The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poison us (Wilde 25). The influence that Lord Henrys philosophy exerts on Dorian Gray can be compared to the influence that the trip to Venice has on Gustave Aschenbach. Both Lord Henry and Venice represent the voice that alerts the repressed side of Dorian and Aschenbach. Both Dorian Gray and Aschenbach change completely when they come in contact with the delightful influence of Lord Henrys magic words and the exoticism of Venice. When he meets Henry Wotton, Dorian feels that the few words that Basils friend had said to him had touched some secret chord that had never been touched before, but that he felt was now vibrating and throbbing to curious pulses (Wilde 26). The perspective of travelling to Venice unleashed in Aschenbach a craving for freedom, release, forgetfulness which the artist admitted to be an impulse towards flight, flight from the spot which was the daily theatre of a rigid, cold and passionate service (Mann 420-421).

Free Things They Carried Essays: The Girl Next Door :: Things They Carried Essays

The Girl Next Door in The Things They Carried The Feminist Approach Method to critical analysis examines the feminism implied within the text. In Tim O'Brien's, The Things They Carried, the story, "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong," is a story about the changes in a female when she is exposed to war. But, more importantly it is a story that illustrates how women are more than sex objects. "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong," proves that female and male stereotypes do not always apply. "Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong," is a story being told by Rat Kiley to Mitchell Sanders, two soldiers of the Vietnam War. Mark Fossie's girlfriend, Mary Anne Bell, comes to stay with the soldiers in their perimeter. She arrives to Vietnam by a helicopter with the daily shipment of supplies for the soldiers. When the soldiers meet her she is identified as an innocent blond with "white culottes and this sexy pink sweater" (90). Even her name is a direct reference to the Virgin Mary, a sign of purity. The men in the perimeter are attracted to her, because they see her as a sex object. They view her as a daily source of survival. In the beginning of the story, Mark Fossie guides Mary Anne around by the arm, but after a while, Mary Anne begins to guide herself. Slowly, she becomes curious about the equipment and the war. She begins to adapt to life in Vietnam by eating with her hands, and using the phrases she hears from the soldiers. She becomes less concerned about her appearance and her cleanliness, and she begins to use weapons. Her voice becomes lower, her body becomes firmer, and her eyes become colder. She is becoming less of a sex object to the soldiers, because she is more masculine. One night Mary Anne does not come back to Fossie. He begins jumping to the conclusion that she is sleeping with other soldiers, when actually she is just hanging out with the guys. Mary Anne explains to Fossie that the war is like an appetite. On page 111, she states: "I can feel my blood moving, my skin and my fingernails, everything, it's like I'm full of electricity and I'm glowing in the dark-I'm on fire almost-I'm burning away into nothing- but it doesn't matter because I know exactly who I am." This statement is referring to the idea that Mary Anne has found a part of her that was always missing.

Gwen Harwood “Father and Child” Essay

The poem â€Å"Father and Child† by Gwen Harwood shows Harwood’s father teaching her the concepts of life and death, from when she is a young child in â€Å"Barn Owl† up to when she is around forty at the time of his death in â€Å"Nightfall†, coming to accept the idea that life is not never-ending. In part one called â€Å"Barn Owl†; she has learnt to accept death as a component of life. The persona of the poem experiences a loss of innocence with the discovery of the tragedy of death. Before shooting the owl, the child believes they are the â€Å"master of life and death,† with the noun, â€Å"master,† reflecting the power that the child feels and the ignorance that the child has about the nature of death. This description of the child is later contrasted in the fourth stanza, â€Å"I watched, afraid by the fallen gun, a lonely child who believed death clean and final, not this obscene bundle of stuff.† The emotive term, †Å"afraid,† represents the change in the persona’s attitude after being exposed to the harsh reality that is mortality. However, the rhyme and last line â€Å"what sorrows in the end, no words, no tears can mend† releases an element of inexpressible sadness that she has towards the death of her father showing that although she accepts death, it still upsets her as it did in â€Å"Barn Owl†. Father and Child† Nightfall† is more metaphorical and symbolic suggesting a more mature persona like an adult. The poem represents a human’s journey over time of learning to mature and accept death. The poem â€Å"Father and Child† explores the reversing roles of fathers and children’s roles as time goes on. Nightfall† is more metaphorical and symbolic suggesting a more mature persona like an adult, and is about a child grown to adult age spending time with her father before he dies. The symbolism of the imagery presented through the poem is of the passing of time, this is shown in words like â€Å"temporal†, â€Å"transience†, â€Å"late†, â€Å"night and day†, â€Å"grown† and â€Å"ancient†, this represents the ageing of the father and child and emphasises how they have grown both physically and mentally. The use of the word â€Å"angel† in â€Å"Barn Owl† suggests the closeness of the father-daughter relationship. Also the line â€Å"I leaned my head upon my father’s arm, and wept,† shows the caring and comforting nature of the father. However, â€Å"Nightfall† shows the childish nature towards her father starts to disappear and that she has developed great respect for her father. This is first implied through the phrase â€Å"Father and child, we stand in time’s long promised land† which shows they have a united front facing death  together. This is further emphasised through the rhetorical question of â€Å"Who can be what you were?† showing the appreciation for her father, as she recalls her father’s â€Å"marvellous journey†. Also, the use of direct speech from the father asking, â€Å"Be your tears wet?† is an allusion to Shakespeare’s play â€Å"King Lear†, where King Lear asks this same question to his upset daughter Cordelia on his death bed, this is where King Lear discovers that Cordelia was the only child that truly cared for him, suggesting that the persona has been faithful in caring for her father up until his death. â€Å"Old king† is a similar allusion again implying that the persona appreciates her father’s life thinking it was great and it needs to be treasured. â€Å"Nightfall† is suggesting that although loved ones pass, it is important to hold the memories shared close; so spiritually, they are never really gone even though physically they have passed.

Mary Joyce s Eveline The Classical Signs Of A Victim

Children do not have the option to come into this world. They come into this world because of either of their parents’ choice or because of their mistake. However, once children are born, their parents have the opportunity to write whatever they wish to write on their clean slate –â€Å"life.† Indeed, some kids grow up in a safe environment and have loving parents, but some children are reared by the parents who themselves grew up in an abusive family and do not know how to raise kids. Abuse does not see race, gender, or stature, yet it happens every day in a close - knit relationship. Abuse can be so subtle that it slowly chips away a person’s identity, and the person does not even realize that they are in an abusive relationship. In James Joyce’s, â€Å"Eveline,† Eveline exhibits the classical signs of a victim to abuse. She lacks self-confidence due to her father’s verbal, emotional, and financial abuse. Eveline lacks confidence due her father s verbal abuse. Eveline is nineteen years old, yet she is afraid of her father. Although Eveline s dad does not abuse her physically, he threatens to beat her. Eveline believed he would do so because, since childhood, she witnessed â€Å"her father used often to hunt them in out of the field with his blackthorn stick† (Joyce 597). When Eveline s dad finds out about her affair with Frank and forbids Eveline to meet him, Eveline lacks the courage to profess her love for Frank openly to her father. She starts meeting Frank secretly. Her father