Analysing the communication process in McDonalds

Analysing the communication process in McDonalds I have made a document and analyze the communication process in one of the worlds successful and largest fast food chain, towards the achievement of business goal. I have chosen the organization is McDonalds situated in Manurewa. Primary data was collected by interviewing the Branch Manager, he is my relative. After the primary research, all the relevant findings were analyzed and evaluated based on the communication theories learned from secondary sources through our textbook, lecturer handouts, online resources and the organizations information resources. The research draws attention to the importance of these findings on how effective, efficient, accurate and up-to-date these communication processes that shoe great impact on the three levels of communication in the main team namely: Team Communication Interpersonal Communication Organization Communication Findings showed some communication barriers on each level that hinder the affectivity and efficiency of the communication processes towards the achievement of their Team goals affecting the organizational goals is well. Though some of the problems were being acted upon promptly, some were not; therefore, I came up with some suggestions that may be helpful to the subject organization towards the achievement of their business goals. 1. Introduction McDonalds is the one of the leading restaurant chains in the world, touching the lives of people every day. They improved their quality of products and services with the time. In the past McDonalds does not have drive through and 24 hour services. All of them are open for late nights. McDonalds primarily sells hamburgers, cheese burgers, chicken products, French fries, breakfast items, soft drinks, milk shakes, and deserts. 2. Interpersonal communication Interpersonal communication is communication between two people. Some books like to refer to it as face-to-face communication, or communication when people are physically present with each other. In the interpersonal communication, we research on communication between the manager and staff members and also research the communication between customers and staff. 2.1 Communication between managers and staff members When we research on McDonalds, it was found that all the restaurant employees are from different countries with different backgrounds. Employees are well educated and experienced. However, there are some drawbacks in the communication between managers and the staff members. This drawback is a language barrier. Because most of the employees have come from different countries, they speak different languages from each other. The meetings conducted at McDonalds involve managers and employees communicating to find out the problems being faced at the department. 2.2 Communication between staff members and customers In this McDonald, mostly women are in the front and attend the new customers. The woman who is attending customer is very friendly and has good communication. All staff members are trained well before to communicate effectively. To communicate well, it is necessary to talk politely and use gestures to convey meaning. The crew members give customer satisfaction through good customer service 2.3 Communication barriers There are some barriers in communication between employees and the manager:- ROLES: Roles are always defined in relationship to someone else and they determine the way you communicate with the other person. In any organisation, information flow depends on good relations of employees. Sometimes employees hide mistakes from manager because of personal relationship then it becomes a barrier in information flow. STATUS: Status become a barrier in motivation .Some of employees doesnt talk with other because of their status. New employees try to avoid communicate with the manager because of his status. POWER: Power becomes barrier in motivation and control. An organisation uses communication to motivate the employees. When we communicate, there is often some element of power or control being exercised by one person or the other, or by both. If power is too much used then the communication is frustrating. MIXED MESSAGES: It becomes a barrier in communication when non verbal communication not matches with verbal message. 3 Organisation communication In the interview with the manager we asked some general questions about the Mc Donald have to gain some knowledge about the Organisation with in the Mc Donalds. Organisation communication is divided into two major parts which is as follow:- †¢ Internal organisation communication †¢ External organisation communication 3.1 Internal organisation communication:- 3.1.1. Organisation goals:- Basic goal of McDonalds on the basis of yearly and they mainly consider about the customer service. It also includes the waste of the McDonalds. They also want to give the customer fast service they want to decrease their waste as much they can so. The few goals of McDonalds are as follows †¢ CSO (Customer satisfaction objective)-100 %( McDonalds main goal is to give customer full satisfaction) †¢ KVS (kitchen video system)-35% this is the time taken to make burgers and other fast food products in the kitchen area after every order and its normally 35 seconds. †¢ Labor-26% McDonalds want to save the labour up to 26% as they had given last year. †¢ Refunds- below 0.10 %( company wants to give less refund to the customer to earn more profit 3.1.2. Information flow within the organisation- In the organisation information flows from higher level to lower level as every information for instance a launch of new product or changing of rules firstly comes to restaurant manager and after that he pass on the information to the middle level manager or we can call them as shift manager and the shift manager pass on the information to the crew members by a team meeting or putting the information on the crew room so that everybody can read that information. And especially when a new product is launching They create a group training team and they trained them how to make new product and Kinds of precautions they have to consider while making those particular product 3.1.3. Organisation culture within the organisation:- In this organisation employees are from different communities. And mainly in this organisation islanders and Indians are working with very few of kiwi staff. The restaurant manager is kiwi and almost all the other middle level managers are islanders and including one manager belongs to china. And in this organisation everybody works without any racism and they are very comfortable with each other. The organisation climate of the McDonalds is very good because everybody communicates in professional way and they can understand each other way of communication very well. 3.2 External organisation communication:- 3.2.1 Dealing with customers:- This is the continuous part of the communication in the McDonalds and which is to be used 24 hours to serve the customer. And it is used to handle the problems of customers as well. In the McDonalds there is a specific pattern to deal with the customers which is described by the manager of McDonalds. In this part of communication is used to deal with every customer and this pattern is written is also written in every order taking register and this pattern is divided into part and those are as follows:- 1) First smile and greet to customer. 2) Take the order correctly by repeating the order to the customer 3) At last say enjoy your meal and good bye. 3.2.2. Communication with stakeholders:- In this organisation mainly restaurant manager and senior assistant manager communicate with the stakeholders and the organisation like McDonalds plays a vital role in communication with the stakeholders because they have to always to be ready to give the customer a better service and not to get a stock out of anything which is used within the organisation. 3.3 Communication barrier in organisation communication- 3.3.1 Barrier in internal organisation- Within the organisation there is communication barrier when in busy time of restaurant if crew and manager do not communicate with each other they cannot give better service to the customers and sometime it happens in heaps of busy time because everybody is busy in doing their task as faster as they can. So to get rid of it managers take the help of the other crew and manager which is available at that time to do a proper communication within the staff. 3.3.2. Barrier in external organisation- There is barrier which is occurs by the customers and stakeholders mainly because of there is sometime misunderstanding 3.3.2.1 Linguistic barrier- Along with this there is some linguistic barrier in the communication. as some of the employees which are from other countries they cannot speak as much good English to communicate and sometime it become barrier in communication in the organisation. 4 Team Communication 4.1. Team Goals Team goals are very simple make a plan and then follow it. In McDonalds teams are trained well to follow the pattern. Leader of the team asks the team to execute a plan and the whole team follows the plan. 4.2.Team Roles In a team each member has a role to fulfill the needs of the team. In McDonalds there is a branch manager, team leader or shift manager. Now there are three counters to serve the customers. On counter 1 there are three members working, on counter 2 there are two members and team leader working and on counter 3 again three members are working. Now cleaning team is there to do the cleanings and also to help the members of the team if anyone requires help and it consists of two members. So the information flow is from the both sides that are downward to upward and also upward to downward. Branch Manager Team Leader Counter Team 1 Counter Team 2 Counter Team 3 Cleaning Team 4.3.Branch Manager Now role of the branch manager is to give the order to the team leader and then team leader will give that order to the team and if there is any kind of problem to the member of the team he or she will let the team leader know and the team leader will let the manager know. So this way the information flows in a team that is both upward and downward. 4.4.Team Member The role of the team member is to contribute towards the goal of the organization. They just need to follow the orders and if they have any suggestions they can give it in the meetings organized by the team leader or by the head manager. 5.CONCLUSIONS 5.1. Interpersonal communication 5.1.1. Communication between manager and staff members According to the findings, we came up with the conclusion that due to the different background and culture of the stay members and managers, language becomes a barrier as far as communication is concerned. Because most employees are from different culture and they are new in this work might hesitate to talk to the manager about their problems. In the meetings, employees are always asked by the managers are they satisfied with their jobs and with the environment of Mc Donalds, which will ultimately motivate them to satisfy the needs of their customers as well. Indian and Chinese staff member hesitates a lot because English is not there first language. 5.1.1.1. Language barrier: Language becomes a barrier between manager and staff members because of employees are from different countries and hesitate when communicate with manager. 5.1.2. Communication between customers and staff members We find that the level of satisfaction depends on the quality of service a customer receives. In this restaurant, both men and women deal with the customers because they are trained well before they join the staff. While dealing with different customers of different background they have to communicate accurately to satisfy the customers needs. In this family restaurant every staff member communicates well with the customers to fulfil the customers needs. They speak well in English. 5.2. Organisation communication After going through all the aspects of McDonalds organisation communication we come to conclusion that both the internal and external communication of McDonalds is very necessary to run the business and earn profit. Without the proper communication, organisation cannot achieve the goals. In the McDonalds Manurewa, the staff got good communication skills and they are doing well in their business by communicating very well professionally in internal organisation as well as external organisation. 5.3 Internal organisation communication- In nutshell the McDonalds main aim is to earn profit and give the customer better service and for that they are achieving their aim by targeting this point of view. McDonalds Manurewa is very multicultural organisation so the employees enjoy each other occasion very happily. And along with this all the important information in this organisation flows from top to bottom level. 5.4 External organisation communication- In McDonalds external communication is mainly with the customers and stakeholders. And this communication is done by both the crew and managers .The dealing with customers is done by both the managers and crew but the communication with the stakeholders mainly done by managers of McDonalds. And on other side a better communication skills in the staff leads to profit of the organisation as if they can communicate well to the customers and as well as in the organisation they can achieve their goals easily. Now in McDonalds different ages, cultures and nationalities are working there together. So everybody is looking to give his idea which is good that shows there commitment towards the work but they all have different thinkings. So problems occurs in between the crew members just because they think that there idea is good but still not followed by the other members or by the group. 6. RECOMMENDATIONS 6.1. Interpersonal communication 6.1.1. Communication between customers and staff members Communication between staff member and customers is main part there. In this restaurant mostly women attend the customers. The staff is well trained and experienced. If the staff members are happy with their work environment, they can serve the customers better. Managers should also encourage members to deal with the customers to avoid any gender bias. 6.1.2 Create a positive climate The communication become better by creating a positive climate (Joan, 2001).The employees try to understand the roles of communication and working for win-win outcomes. They also enhance their communication by self disclosure. The employees should try to understand needs of the customers. Therefore, McDonalds good customer service is generated through employee satisfaction and a healthy work environment. Employees also try to learn more from old employees. 6.1.3. Communication between managers and staff members Communication between managers and staff members can be better if the meetings are held at least once a week in the organization. The managers should ask the staff members questions about their culture and background to get to know them better and to understand their behaviour, so their work environment could be set up according to their preference and comfort. Managers should also try to talk to the staff members as much as possible. 6.1.4. Making contacts Manager and employees try to make contacts with each other. We all need to be treated with respect and inclusion. These are basic human needs. Manager tries to give help to new employees who do not know about the work plan of the McDonald. New employees should make contacts with the experienced employees. Manager can help the employees who are best in communication but hesitate when they are speaking. 6.2. Organisation communication Organisation communication is vast area where everyone has to be including to targeting the aim and achieving that aim. In the organisation communication the important aspect is the organisation goals and the goals can only be achieved if the staff understand it and communicate about the goal by each other. In the organisation every individual employee has to contribute to the main organisation goal. Manger should do proper meeting with crew members to overcome communication gap in the organisation. They must take opinions of crew before implementing a new rule in the organisation so they can work as a team all the crew members must speak English with each other apart from any other languages. 6.2.1 Team communication 6.2.1.1 Conflict in Group If groups are to function well, there needs to be some conflict, because the value of group is that they bring people with diverse skills and ideas together. There, conflict is inevitable and necessary. If there is too much conflict, a group will cease to function, whereas too little conflict can lead to groupthink. Now in McDonalds a team needs to have a proper conflict shows in the diagram. If they discuss more than there is a problem and if they discuss less than there is a problem. If the team performance is not good enough then there will be a problem in Synergy. So they need to have proper to the point discussions rather than too short and to bigger meetings or discussions. 6.2.1.2 Group Dynamics Communication in a group is infinitely more complex than communication between two people. See Figure below. When two people communicate, there are two possible interactions. A B B A Now in McDonalds teams split in to four parts that is counter 1, counter 2, counter 3 and the cleaning team. On the bases of counter one there are three members that is A, B and C. Now A talks with B and B talks with C but there is no communication between A and C. If C does not talk with A then there is no interaction between team member A and C. They need to interact with each other to maintain a proper communication inside a group. If they interact with each they will automatically follow the group dynamics and the outcome will be good or improved.

Hamlet’s Sanity Answered Through Freudian Theories Essay

Sigmund Freud was the founder of modern psychology. and throughout his life he produced theories about the human mind that were revolutionary for his time. His thoughts about human sexuality, the conscious and subconscious mind, the structure of the mind, and psychotherapeutic techniques are the basis of human psychology. (Thornton) Freudian theories about human behaviour and the human mind are commonly used in psychology today. His theories, in one way or another, can apply to every person living or dead. Although Sigmund Freud lived centuries after William Shakespeare wrote his play Hamlet, Freudian theories can also be applied to the main character Hamlet and explain his sometime erratic behaviour. Through his theories of the Oedipal Complex, transference psychology, and the defence mechanisms, Hamlet’s behaviour can be better understood, and therefore help answer the question of his sanity. According to Freud, men and boys go through what he calls the Oedipal Complex, the theory stating that they subconsciously have sexual feelings for their mothers. (â€Å"Oedipus Complex (psychology)†)According to this theory, these feelings grow from the strong connection that children already have with their mothers from infancy. Mothers provide protection, love, and support that makes a young child automatically attached to them. (â€Å"Oedipus Complex†) When a child hits the age of sexual awakening, aged three to six, children will create an erotic attachment to the parent, generally, of the opposite sex. (â€Å"Oedipus Complex (psychology)†) Although the feelings are not fully recognized by the child they are present in their subconscious mind. (â€Å"Oedipus Complex†) Once this attachment is developed, a young boy will feel like they are competing for the affection of their mothers with their fathers. Boys may become jealous of any affection given to their fathers and may lead to them wanting to exclude their fathers so that all attention is on them. Once they hit puberty, the boy will learn to change the way he loves his mother to be less romantic, and not be as concerned with the competition with his father. However, through this transition, a boy will find that anyone he feels sexually attracted to, may remind him of his mother. (â€Å"Oedipus Complex†) Also, for some boys the relationship they have with their mother is the first close female relationship they have. Any  female relationships boys have, sexual and otherwise, will always be compared to the relationship that they have with their mother. (â€Å"Oedipus Complex (psychology)†) The Oedipus Complex has many parallels to Hamlet because of Hamlet’s relationship with his mother Gertrude. Hamlet’s father dies and Gertrude marries his uncle Claudius. Hamlet has a strange connection to their marriage and often talks about their sex life. â€Å"She married. O, most wicked speed, to post/With such dexterity to incestuous sheets!† (Shakespeare I.ii.156-7). Hamlet begins to struggle with the thought of his mother having sex with another man, and goes back to his competition for affection because of his feelings. According to Freud’s theory, by losing his father, Hamlet feels he should no longer have to compete for Gertrude’s affection because his only other competition is now dead. Claudius ruins this by marrying his mother and Hamlet, has to start the whole competition over again. This leads Hamlet back to a sexual awakening, this time with a much more disturbing, more complex version. This new sexual awakening heightens Hamlet’s affection for his mother to real romantic feelings. This also leads Hamlet back into jealousy of the other parent. Hamlet becomes jealous of the fact that Claudius gets to be with Gertrude because it is a desire that he will never be able fulfill. Hamlet tries to make Claudius look bad in front of Denmark because when addressed Hamlet only answers with â€Å"A little more kin and less than kind† (I.ii.64). Hamlet takes his jealousy and sarcastically answers showing his feelings towards both Claudius, and Claudius’ marriage to his mother. His passive aggressive attitudes towards Claudius show that he feels threatened and jealous of him and therefore representing the Oedipal Complex against his stepfather. His relationship with Ophelia also shows an Oedipal Complex because the relationship he has with his mother changes how he feels about Ophelia. As said previously, Hamlet does not approve of his mother’s marriage and often thinks of her marriage as being â€Å"incestuous† (I.ii.157). During the third act, Hamlet verbally attacks Ophelia because he sees similarities between her and Gertrude. Hamlet has lost Gertrude’s main attention and affection and therefore feels betrayed by his mother. He thinks that his mother is  deceptive and that she is betraying his father. He sees these same qualities in Ophelia and yells at her â€Å"God has given you one face and you make yourself another† (III.i.148). Even though Ophelia is not being deceiving he connects her to Gertrude just because she is female. This parallel the Oedipus Complex because the relationship with his mother affected his relationship with Ophelia. His connection with women will never be strong because of the respect he lost for his mother when she married Claudius. Freud’s transference psychology theory can also be applied to Hamlet and help better comprehend his mind. The transference psychology theory says that your unconscious mind will redirect feelings for one person subconsciously to the next. Freud thought that this transfer of feelings was an â€Å"important part of psychotherapeutic work† (Vollmer). The redirection of feelings also occurs through the loss of a vital person in one’s life, such as a parent, sibling, or other role model. By losing one of these, the mind attaches these feelings onto another. Parental transference is when father or father-figure feelings are transferred onto a person. Fathers are meant to be authoritative, wise, powerful, and protective. By projecting father feelings onto a person, the expectation is that they will provide this comfort. (â€Å"Transference†) Hamlet’s relationship with Claudius represents this theory because after the death of Hamlet Sr., Hamlet subconsciously places his fatherly feelings on Claudius. This has a negative affect because of his conscious hatred for Claudius and the way he acts towards him. â€Å"How is it that the clouds still hang on you?† is fatherly comforting that Claudius tries because he knows that he is now a father figure to him (I.ii.65). He knows that Hamlet is lacking this role and tries to step into the role for him but fails. Hamlet refuses to acknowledge Claudius as his father and only acknowledges Gertrude as a parental role, â€Å"Ay, madam, it is common† (I.ii.73). He can’t accept Claudius as his father and therefore only chooses to use his maternal role model instead. This leads to negative transference because he begins to lose the paternal role that is essential in his life. Hamlet also has a negative transference because fathers are always meant to make you feel safe. Hamlet is unable to feel safe because his father, Hamlet Sr., was a much better  protector in Hamlet’s eyes. He compares Claudius to his father and can not understand how Gertrude can be in love with them both: Where every god did seem to set his seal To give the world assurance of a man: This was your husband. Look you now, what follows: Here is your husband, like a mildewed ear, Blasting his wholesome brother. Have you eyes? (III.iv.69-73) The fact the Gertrude could be in love with a man as great as Hamlet Sr. and then move onto a failure like Claudius is a complete mystery to Hamlet. The transference of feeling will never be able to be positive for Hamlet because he has no faith, trust, or respect for Claudius. Even though transference is a part of the subconscious mind, Hamlet’s conscious mind will not allow these subconscious feelings to come to the surface. Freud developed theories with his daughter Anna as well, and together they created the defense mechanisms humans go through to protect themselves from anxiety and stress. (McLeod) Your mind can go into these defenses to protect itself from too much grief, or anxiety and through the different stages of defense your body will behave in different ways. The mind will do this to ward off any feelings that are unpleasant to deal with. They are called defense mechanisms because they are methods that the brain goes through to protect itself from anything unpleasant. One of the earliest stages of defense is displacement, which means placing feelings on someone who the issue has nothing to do with. An example can be, having a bad day at work and taking out anger on family and friends at home. Often this results in anger against the innocent person and may go farther than expected. Another form of defense is repression which occurs when bad memories are blocked from the mind to forget about bad memories. Children often do this if they grow up in abusive homes and may lead to them remembering nothing from their childhood. One of the final stages of defense is regression, which often helps a person get over the grief that they are facing. Regression is when a person goes back to child-like behavior to mask their true feelings and what they are thinking. This can lead to middle-aged men behaving like toddlers just to hide their feelings and protect themselves against more painful or  stressful thoughts. (McLeod) Throughout the play Hamlet goes through these stages to protect himself against dealing with the recent death of his father. Hamlet is told that his grief over his father’s death has been â€Å"unmanly grief† meaning that he needs to be a man and get rid of the feelings he is having (I.ii.94). Hamlet can not simply get rid of the feelings of grief over the loss of his father so he goes through the defense mechanisms to mask his feelings. The first that happens is displacement, when he gets angry at Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Hamlet is so angry with Claudius he insults his childhood friends and gets angry with them. â€Å"I am glad of it: a knavish speech sleeps in a foolish ear† is the intelligent sarcastic remark used on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in which Hamlet calls them unintelligent (IV.ii.21-22). Although the king fools them into spying on Hamlet, they do not realize what they are doing and do it anyway. When Hamlet finds out that Claudius is behind it, however gets angry at his friends instead. Freud would look at this and realize that Hamlet is taking his anger out on them because he does not have the option or the time to get angry with Claudius. He displaces his anger on the wrong people, who are left confused and hurt. He also goes through repression because of his high expectations and ideas of his father. Hamlet Sr. never appears in the play and therefore only Hamlet’s view of him is known. Hamlet Sr. may have been an awful father and may have paid less attention to Hamlet than Claudius. Since this would be a horrible and painful way to remember him, Hamlet chooses to think of him on the same level as â€Å"Hyperion† or as â€Å"Mars† both are strong, powerful men who are looked up to in their society. It is much easier and less painful for Hamlet to remember his father this way (III.iv.64) (III.iv.65). The stage Hamlet is in at Ophelia’s funeral is regression because of his behavior and fight with Laertes. Laertes has just lost his father and sister within a short period of time and is overcome with grief. Hamlet finds out the news of Ophelia’s death and instead of respecting Laertes in a difficult time for him, Hamlet acts like a child and tries to make all of the attention on him. He makes a foolish argument that â€Å"he loved Ophelia: forty thousand brothers/Could not† (V.i.261). He resorts to a childish argument to hide his grief that he has now lost the love of his life Ophelia. Through Freud’s theories of the Oedipal Complex, transference psychology, and the defence mechanisms, Hamlet’s behaviour can be better understood, and therefore help answer the question of his sanity. Hamlet has not lost his sanity in the way he is perceived because Hamlet is simply behaving in the simple human psychological ways that Freud claimed to be normal. Hamlet’s relationship with his mother is just an extreme version of the Oedipal Complex; his hostility to Claudius was because he fails to fill the paternal role he needs, and the way he behaves towards others were simply his mind protecting him from anxiety and grief he felt after the loss of his father. Through the eyes of Freud, Hamlet’s behaviour would be just normal human behaviour.

National Health Care Spending Essay

Introduction Health care in the United States is provided by many distinct organizations. Accordingly, the US Census Bureau (2010) reported that health care facilities are largely owned and operated by private sector businesses. While sixty-two percent of hospitals are non-profit, 20% are government owned, and 18% are for-profit. Furthermore, 60–65% of healthcare provision and spending comes from programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Veterans Health Administration. Most of the population under 67 is either insured by themselves or a family member’s employer, buy health insurance on their own, and the remainder are uninsured. Health insurance for public sector employees is primarily provided by the government. Still, the United States has a life expectancy of 78.4 years at birth, up from 75.2 years in 1990, and is ranked 50th among 221 nations, and 27th out of the 34 industrialized countries, down from 20th in 1990. Of 17 high-income countries studied by the National Institutes of Health in 2013, the United States had the highest or near-highest prevalence of infant mortality, heart and lung disease, sexually transmitted infections, adolescent pregnancies, injuries, homicides, and disability. Together, such issues place the U.S. at the bottom of the list for life expectancy. On average, a U.S. male can be expected to live almost four fewer years than those in the top-ranked country (NIH, 2013). Thesis Statement As dismal as the statistics are, in recent years, policy makers as well as leading economists have focused a considerable amount of attention on  aggregate spending increases in health care and how health care spending impacts the United States economy. Thereby, specific emphasis has been given to identifying and examining distinctive factors that have contributed to spending growth, and proposing solutions for reduction. Seemingly, factors that have contributed to spending growth encompass changes in health care utilization, population demographics, price inflation, and advances in medical technology. Thus, as more and more advanced scientific technology is developed the costs associated with providing quality health care increases. With that said, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the United States spent more on health care per capita ($8,608), and more on health care as percentage of its GDP (17.2%), than any other nation in 2011. Yet, the United States ranked last in the quality of health care among similar countries, and notes United States care costs the most. Similarly, in a 2013 Bloomberg ranking of nations with the most efficient health care systems, the United States ranks 46th among the 48 countries included in the study. The U.S. Census Bureau reported that 49.9 million residents, 16.3% of the population, were uninsured in 2010 (up from 49.0 million residents, 16.1% of the population, in 2009). In addition, a 2004 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report said: â€Å"The United States is among the few industrialized nations in the world that does not guarantee access to health care for its population.† Further, â€Å"with the exception of Mexico, Turkey, and the United States, all of the other countries had achieved universal or near-universal (at least 98.4% insured) coverage of their populations by 1990;† and recent evidence demonstrates that lack of health insurance causes some 45,000 to 48,000 unnecessary deaths every year in the United States. In 2007, 62.1% of filers for bankruptcies claimed high medical expenses, and 25% of all senior citizens declare bankruptcy due to medical expenses, and 43% are forced to mortgage or sell their primary residence. On March 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) became law, providing for major changes in health insurance. The medical system has been forced to change normal procedures to meet federal regulations. The law includes a large number of health-related provisions  to take effect over the next four years, including expanding Medicaid eligibility for people making up to 133% of FPL, subsidizing insurance premiums for peoples making up to 400% of FPL ($88,000 for family of 4) so their maximum â€Å"out-of-pocket† pay will be from 2% to 9.8% of income for annual premium, providing incentives for businesses to provide health care benefits, prohibiting denial of coverage and denial of claims based on pre-existing conditions, establishing health insurance exchanges, prohibiting insurers from establishing annual spending caps and support for medical research. The costs of these provisions are offset by a variety of taxes, fees, and cost-saving measures, such as new Medicare taxes for high-income brackets, taxes on indoor tanning, cuts to the Medicare Advantage program in favor of traditional Medicare, and fees on medical devices and pharmaceutical companies; there is also a tax penalty for citizens who do not obtain health insurance (unless they are exempt due to low income or other reasons). The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the net effect (including the reconciliation act) will be a reduction in the federal deficit by $143 billion over the first decade. Conclusion In conclusion, in contrast to the argument that rising health care spending at the Federal and State level decreases economic growth, and employee health care costs decreases job growth, a reasonable argument, could also be made that rising health care spending has important benefits, often outweighing the increased costs. I submit that improvements in quality may produce a cause and effect whereby, the cost of medical care is decreased. Subsequently, increased health care spending improves increases in access to new technologies, providing both new options of treatment and treatment for a greater number of individuals; which provides for healthier employees. Moreover, health care spending growth is more likely to create health care jobs, increases wages for health care workers, expands local tax revenues, and increases demand for related goods and services. We, as Americans, profess to be the richest, strongest, and greatest country, yet we stand by and watch homeless citizens sleeping on the streets, children going to bed at night hungry, and citizens dying because they lack health insurance. The Affordable Care Act is a good start, however we must keep legislators who oppose the bill from chipping away at it. Health care should be a human  right, not a privilege. For example, in May 2011, the state of Vermont became the first state to pass legislation establishing a Single-Payer health care system. The legislation, known as Act 48, establishes health care in the state as a â€Å"human right† and lays the responsibility on the state to provide a health care system which best meets the needs of the citizens of Vermont. The state is currently in the studying phase of how best to implement this system. Of the 26.2 million foreign immigrants living in the US in 1998, 62.9% were non-U.S. citizens. In 1997, 34.3% of non-U.S. citizens living in America did not have health insurance coverage as opposed to the 14.2% of native-born Americans who do not have health insurance coverage. Among those immigrants who became citizens, 18.5% were uninsured, as opposed to noncitizens, who are 43.6% uninsured. In each age and income group, immigrants are less likely to have health insurance. With the recent healthcare changes, many legal immigrants with various immigration statuses now are able to qualify for affordable health insurance. We need to push for more. The cost for individuals that use emergency rooms as port of entry to medical care far exceeds obtaining a primary care provider. References Institute of Medicine (2004). Retrieved from http://.www.institutesofmedicine, May 09, 2014. National Institute of Health (2013). Retrieved from http://.www.nationalinstituteofhealth, May 10, 2014. U. S. Census Bureau (2010). Retrieved from http://.www.uscensusbureau, May 10, 2014. World Health Organization (2014). Retrieved from http://.www.worldhealthorganization, May 10, 2014. www.healthcare.gov (2014). Retrieved from http://.www.healthcare.gov. May 10, 2014

Timeline of the 1990s, Last Hurrah of the 20th-Century