Poverty and Children in the United States Essay

Poverty can be hard to describe at times especially when involving children. â€Å"Last year, 35.9 million Americans – including 13 million children – lived in poverty† (de Leon, 2004). There is no need for these kinds of rates, especially when it comes to our children. Children in poverty are issues that cannot be ignored in today’s society. Over coming child poverty would take enormous energy and strength from everyone in the United States. â€Å"While we are the richest country, we rank highest in child poverty rates among rich nations† (Bezruchka, 2007). The thing that most people overlook is the insufficient nutrition along with unemployment and housing that is overcrowded. Some people like to believe that these children do not exist and everyone is happy and carefree. When in most cases there could be a child living in poverty next door. There are many low-income people in the United States; a huge number of them are children. â€Å"In 2003, the government classified 35.9 million men, women, and children—12.5 percent of the U.S. population—as poor† (Macionis, 2006). A person being poor is another word for a person being in poverty. Poverty can be defined in many ways, for example, inadequate income can make a family be below the poverty line. The home environment can also add to the poverty issue because, most homes that look in disrepair mean that the family living inside might not have the income to fix things. When a family is in the poverty zone they feel bad and inadequate which can make them unwilling to ask for help. This can be harmful to the children because they do not have a say when the adults need help. A child in poorer family can also have poor health due to inadequate healthcare and routine visits. Lower income families try to buy enough food for everyone but, this does not always carry the vitamins and nutrients a growing child needs. The nutritious and healthy food is not always low cost and can be hard for a low-income family to afford. A number of nutritious meals takes time to prepare and when guardians work all day they probably do not feel like or have time to cook a full course meal. For example, a single mother works in a pizza parlor to support her children, every night the owner lets her take a free pizza home, this is good to eat but does not supply the every day nutrients a child needs. A child who does not get adequate nutrition can suffer academically. Children who live in poverty endure hardships in academics, social problems and sometimes physical problems. Children who live in low-income homes are more likely to have problems in school, making friends and staying healthy. When children from lower income families attend school they can be ridiculed due to them not having the best clothes or the right supplies. This takes a toll on their self-esteem and socializing, the children will continue to be nervous about these things. The grades will sometimes show when a child has esteem issues or is too nervous to pay attention. Healthcare is a growing concern for children because most people cannot afford coverage and sometimes make too much for programs like the medical card. Without the right type of medical visits the child will suffer. Sicknesses like colds or the common flu can go undiagnosed which if bad enough can lead to serious health problems. Diseases like Attention Deficit Disorder also know as ADD which can be easily diagnosed by a doctor can be mistaken for misbehavior. Most parents without coverage wait until it is absolutely necessary to take the child to a doctor, which at time can be damaging. Some people would think that low-income children would not have weight issues but, they do, due to unhealthy eating habits. The numbers of children in the United States living in lower income families continues to grow.   The number of children living in poverty has increased by more than 11% between 2000 and 2005. There are 1.3 million more children living in poverty today than in 2000, despite indications of economic recovery and growth† (Fass and Cauthen, 2006). Most people want to believe since the economy is growing the poverty level is dropping but, it is not. Sure there are more jobs and higher paying jobs but these require training which is costly. The other thing to remember is this occurs when wages go up the merchandise goes up also. People tend to help children in other countries rather than help their own. There are many commercials about saving the children from disease and famine in other countries no one thinks about the children here. The number of children in poverty would fall if people would recognize the troubles in their own back yards. There are people who make millions from making movies or music and do not help the children in the U.S. They would rather have the publicity from adopting a child or donating money to children in another country. In all honesty how much of the donated money, in fact goes where it belongs. To aide in the costs of healthcare for children and elderly Medicaid and Medicare were formed. â€Å"The government’s most substantial — and most successful — involvement in health care came in 1965, when it created Medicare to help the elderly and Medicaid to help the poor† (2000). Medicare and Medicaid were brought about because people were going into debt for medical attention and most children could not afford medical treatment. Medicare is a health insurance program made for people over 65 and Medicaid, which is funded by federal and state governments, is for children who cannot afford coverage. As for the ones who do not qualify for either Medicaid or Medicare there is SCHIP which is for low to middle class families. â€Å"The State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was established in 1997 to provide government-paid coverage for children whose parents aren’t poor enough to receive welfare and Medicaid† (2007). These programs made a drastic improvement upon poverty ratings in children because healthcare was made affordable. These are good things, but there are some problems with the plans and people do not qualify. Some medications are not approved to be covered along with needing tests done that have to wait for approval. There are cracks in the system as well, because the Department of Health and Human Resources does not take into the account the medicines family members are on and how much out-of-pocket cost they are covering. For example a family may bring in roughly eight hundred dollars a month and have to spend one third on medications. The DHHR just sees they make too much money to qualify for different types of assistance. However, for the most part Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP have made poverty levels in children decrease. The next thing to be reckoned with was bills and finances. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families helps with the financial responsibilities of the household. TANF is for families with children who have no income or ways of supporting themselves. The amount received depends on the size of the family, but only covers two children and two adults total. TANF is there for when a family looses a job or becomes unable to perform job related tasks anymore. Welfare assistance such as TANF now has a limit to how long a family can receive assistance. This limit is 60 months, which can be spread out, used only when needed or for 5 years straight. Food Stamps aide in the families food needs, these pay for food only. Like TANF there is a set income level to receive these. The Food Stamp program was first started as a type of supplement, a person would buy stamps with cash and use them in a store but, they would be worth more than what the person had paid in cash. Later on the food stamps became free to qualifying families. This means food stamps no longer had to be bought, a family just had to meet certain income requirements. There are a number of people currently receiving food stamps because the cap for income is high, which helps a number of families out with purchasing food. There is no limit to how long a family can receive food stamps as long as they continue to qualify. A regular yet harmful part of the welfare system is that some of the public which do not try have a tendency to take the low road and receive assistance when the assistance is not needed. While other people put forth immense effort to make an honest livelihood end up paying taxes to help maintain the welfare system. Some people believe that the food stamp program has made it too easy on some people to sit around and does nothing while collecting TANF and food stamps, but for the people who truly need it they are wrong. There are many people who go to welfare for assistance who truly need help for a short time while they get back on their feet. There are also people who are temporarily disabled, parents who have lost their counter part and have nowhere else to turn for financial help, or other unforeseen circumstances, these are the people who need these types of assistance. However, for the people who take advantage of these systems they make things harder for the people who need help. Low-income families with children need these services in order to survive; some make it difficult for them. Without the help from agencies child poverty would continue to rise drastically. Child poverty in the United States is high right now but guesses how high the rates would be without programs like TANF, Medicaid, Medicare, and food stamps. Low-income children would be unhealthy and without the minimal requirements needed to sustain normal life. Even though there have been improvements to the programs which help children in poverty there is still a long way to go. Sometimes children fall through the cracks because they are right on the cusp and do not qualify for government assistance or have enough income or medical coverage. Policies need to be changed and assistance groups should look over qualifications better. The responsibility of the United States residents is high because these children who live in poverty is our future and need to be taken care of. People in the United States need to take better care of their own and worry less about what is going on in other countries. References Bezruchka, Stephen (2007, April 29). Give U.S. Children Our Best; Poor Report Card On Child Health Should Be Our Call To Action: [FINAL Edition]. Seattle Post – Intelligencer, p. J1 Retrieved February 03, 2008, from Business Dateline database. (Document ID: 1262409031). Fass Sarah and Nancy K. Cauthen (December, 2006). Who are America’s Poor Children? Retrieved February 03, 2008, from http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_684.htmlNO Macionis, J. (2006). Society: The basics (8th Ed.). P.216 Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.