Government Health Program is Very Important

Fundamental good health is based upon the ability to fulfill basic daily needs, but often even those simplest of everyday requirements are beyond some American families to meet.

Modern corporations spend billions to promote consumer products most the world cannot afford, and yet, parts of the American populace continue to go hungry, without basic health coverage or the ability to stay afloat much less earn a decent living wage.

A growing number of American “have-nots” lack the benefits of proper nutrition, stable income or education, thereby diminishing a large percentage of the population’s overall good health, which can then in turn bloat national healthcare costs for all of us. Benefit programs are bridges that provide access to the basics that mitigates risk and future complications.

This idea is a painful cultural metaphor, and an excruciating reality threatening the livelihood of American individuals and families going needlessly without. Benefit programs create proactive opportunity for disadvantaged Americans to reinvent productive and self-reliant lives.

In the 1980’s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) under Ronald Regan created Lifeline Assistance, which serves low-income and at-risk populations through aids like Food Stamps that help span the financial gap and feed American families between paychecks that aren’t enough to live on.
More than 60 million disabled, low-income and diverse American populations including women are able to access essential health coverage, nutrition and financial assistance through federal benefit programs, even those who may already be enrolled in a government benefit program, have a pre-existing condition, or those who meet state specified income criteria.
Basic math says a static minimum wage cannot keep up with rising living costs. As such, expanding the effectiveness of benefit programs becomes a crucial concern for vulnerable American communities.

And so, as the Internet becomes the Internet of Things, and we grow increasingly interconnected, a host of ways to expand the effectiveness of benefit programs becomes viable.

Modernizing the infrastructure of benefit delivery systems through the Internet of Things would go a long way toward simplifying enrollment procedures and achieving measurable standards and criteria while dramatically reducing energy waste.

I think it would maximize benefit effectiveness using the Internet to update and streamline existing telecomm and community-based services through easy-to-use, simple language websites that any 10 year old or grandparent would understand.
My hope for the future of federal Benefit Programs working to make Americans stronger lies with an open Internet because by its very nature, the Internet of Things provides an example for how to better manage the delivery maintenance and dispersal of existing benefit systems.

In the March / April 2014 Council on Foreign Affairs article, As Objects Go Online, The Promise (and Pitfalls) of the Internet of Things, MIT Director of The Center for Bits and Atoms, Neil Gershenfeld, and Cisco Fellow, J.P. Vasseur suggest a world of wider potential and greater efficiency through the Internet of Things:

Food Stamps From the Government

Government benefit programs are an essential part of out life in America. They provide aid to those who do not have the resources to provide for themselves and that is more important than we might think. These programs give opportunities to people who otherwise would be in perilous situations. Food stamps and Medicare benefits may be helping a single father feed his family while he looks for a job. WIC, a program for mothers and their newborns, helps buy formula and child care essentials for a mother who may not have the financial stability that others have to raise her child. All of these programs have one thing in common they give to those who need help. They provide and support those who are trying to better themselves for their families or future families and they give opportunities to those who may need just that to become a successful businessperson.

Benefit programs give aid to students who are trying to complete or start their degrees for a better future. Scholarships, loan opportunities, work-study, and grants are all vital to higher education. They assure that anyone in need of financial assistance with the desire to attend or further their education at a secondary educational facility gets the opportunity to do so. With this opportunity students are assure their productive value as a working member in the American society gets perpetuated to themselves and their descendants. These opportunities invoke a national pride, which stems from the ability to achieve our unalienable rights because of the support of the government benefit programs.

All of these programs combined together make it possible for those in need to start fresh and collect themselves into some who can succeed in life. Throughout the years of constant revision to these programs they have become a great system with only a few kinks in the line. To better these programs I believe that at some point there must be a reevaluation of the recipients eligibility with proof and investigation to continue receiving the funding so as not to abuse the system. At which point the recipient is deemed ineligible for the program there should be installed a cutoff point or redirection of the recipient’s use of the program funding.

Installing a cutoff and full reevaluation would not be caused by the programs willingness to provide but by the people who are abusing the program and its funding. If the government benefit programs evaluated their beneficiaries after a certain amount of time they could perhaps cut back on their support for someone who has managed to find a job and those funds could go to someone else who is truly in need or the evaluation would provide evidence so as to keep supporting those who truly need the funding. These evaluations would also stop the abuse of the system by ruling out those who remain unemployed just to keep the benefits. Government benefit programs are an irreplaceable part of American society now and with just a few revisions they could become nearly perfect.

Government Benefit Programs

Everyone makes different choices and with those choices comes consequences. Based on people’s choices some of those consequences resulted in the needing of government benefit programs. With my own family experience in benefiting from government programs I have noticed that even though these programs are needed they are taken advantage of by the people. Just to disclose I cannot speak on all types of government benefit programs but I can speak on food stamps which is what I will be focusing on. Government benefit programs are a necessity and an important resource for the people but there should be some limits.

Government benefit programs are widely needed throughout the United States they always have been and always will be. There are social classes for a reason because not everyone has the same financial standings for reasons only they know. Government benefit programs are important because they provide assistance to those who cannot provide for themselves or their families for whatever reason.

Many families have benefited from government assistance including my own family. My mother worked two jobs and our family would not have gotten by without government aid. Even though my family needed government assistance we did not take it lightly and overtime we were able to support ourselves without government aid. When my family received government aid honestly it was embarrassing and I was so happy when we didn’t need it anymore. 

 

With my family not needing assistance anymore I started noticing how other people used their government aid and how they used it for the right reasons but still took advantage of the system. People who have used food stamps know that only certain food can be purchased but brands are not limited. One observations I have made is that people on food stance since they are not paying for their food themselves think that they have to have all made brand food and then they complain when they have no more aid for that month. Another observation I have made is I have witnessed some people try and buy dog food with food stands, which you cannot do but the people try and when they are denied they switch the dog food for hamburger meat for their dog. These two observations are loopholes in the system that should be changed.

With all of that being said I do have a couple of recommendations on how the government benefit programs can be improved. My first recommendation would be to create some type of checklist for food stamps kind of like how WIC is done. My second recommendation would be to inform people that name brand is not always better. My recommendations are simple just limit and inform. 

In conclusion, government benefit programs are needed but there are so many loopholes that can be avoided and actually save the government money. With government aid people are not motivated to improve their lifestyle because they know the government will take care of them. There are some cases where families would not survive without these programs and there are other who honestly are just running a scam.