Measles and Health Insurance in Illinois

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Vaccination is crucial to prevent diseases that might be dangerous. An outbreak of measles that happened in Illinois recently affected mostly children who were not inoculated due to their young age. Health insurance is an important instrument of healthcare; luckily, the number of uninsured people is decreasing in the U.S.

The outbreak of measles happened in Palatine, Illinois in February 2015. Five infants under the immunization age were reported infected on February, 5 (Yuhas, 2015). The number of cases rose to 14 on February 18 (Rodriguez, 2015). Most cases were associated with a Palatine KinderCare Learning Center (Graham, 2015). The reports about the happening explain how measles is transmitted, give some statistics on measles, and state that the cases involved mainly infants who were too young to be vaccinated (Dacy & Hanna, 2015; Graham, 2015).

Even though the daycare center was not closed, to address the problem all the children who were not immunized were told to stay at home (Graham, 2015). KinderCare, the national chain supervising the daycare center, required all the personnel who work with children under 15 months to be inoculated (Rodriguez, 2015). The officials also urged other people to have an inoculation (Yuhas, 2015, para. 11). As for the local community’s involvement, all the persons who contacted a college student who was one of the infected were contacted and notified (Graham, 2015). Besides, the local population was informed of the cases via the media and recommended to contact their doctors if they had symptoms similar to those of measles (Yuhas, 2015).

The “Healthy People 2020” program addresses the problem of measles by proclaiming an objective to reduce measles cases. 115 cases of US-acquired measles were reported in 2008; the goal is to reduce that number to 30 cases in 2020. To do that, immunization is recommended (“Immunization and infectious diseases”, n.d., para. 5). Yuhas (2015) also notes that the mass inoculations led to a significant decrease in the number of cases of the disease in the U.S. (para. 13).

I have PPO insurance, which is rather convenient because I do not have to always go to a primary health care physician or obtain referrals from them; even if I am far away from home, I can find a doctor the services of whom will be covered.

Because I only attend online classes and, therefore, am unable to collect information from my classmates, I will present statistical data about medical insurance that is available online. It is pointed out that Illinois is a state that is covered by the Medicaid expansion program, a government insurance program designed for families and individuals of any age with low income. It is also shown that Illinois had the 23^rd position among the states of the U.S. according to the percentage of the population not covered by health insurance in 2014, beginning with the states that had the lowest number of non-covered dwellers. However, the percentage of the non-covered population decreased in comparison to 2013; in 2013, ≈13.0% of the state’s population wasn’t covered by medical insurance, whereas in 2014 this figure decreased to ≈10.0% (“Population without health insurance coverage”, n.d.). These numbers are better than those in the US in general, where the percentage of the non-insured population was ≈14.5% and ≈11.5% in 2013 and 2014, respectively (“Population without health insurance coverage”, n.d.). The situation with insurance coverage is improving in the U.S. on the whole, and among people aged 18-24 (the age typical of students) in particular; if, according to different surveys, 18.9-20.6% of these people lacked coverage at the beginning of 2014, only 15.4-16.0% did not have it at the beginning of 2015 (“Comparison of the prevalence of uninsured persons”, 2015).

To sum up, it can be stated that vaccination significantly helps prevent becoming infected with serious diseases, such as measles, and inoculation is widely recommended by healthcare personnel. Statistics show that the number of people who have no medical insurance is decreasing in the US, which is a positive tendency for the health of the population.

References

Comparison of the prevalence of uninsured persons from the National Health Interview Survey and the Current Population Survey, 2014 and 2015. (2015). Web.

Dacy, G., & Hanna, J. (2015). Measles cases at Chicago-area day care center rise to 5. Web.

Graham, D. T. (2015). Two more measles cases from Palatine day care center. Web.

Immunization and infectious diseases. n.d. Web.

Population without health insurance coverage by state: 2013 and 2014. (n.d.). Web.

Rodriguez, M. (2015). Infant who attended Palatine day care the 14th measles case in Illinois. Web.

Yuhas, A. (2015). Measles cluster at Chicago daycare prompts health department investigation. Web.

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Measles and Health Insurance in Illinois

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