What shocked me most about Laura Ungar's article, "Poverty fuels medical crisis: Access to care is difficult for rural, urban residents," was the extent to which I was unware of the dismal circumstances in Kentucky. Prior to reading the article, I did not associate severe poverty with any specific states nor recognize that poverty can be localized to this level. Of course I understood that different areas of a state vary economically, but I did not realize that Kentucy (seemingly in its entirety) is suffering from chronic poverty related deprivation.
In both rural and, to a lesser extent, urban Kentucky, poverty is being passed down from generation to generation. Hand-in-hand with general poverty, unhealthy habits that correlate to low incomes are also being transmitted. With little income: there is little access to education necessary to obtain a higher paying job, there is little access to centers for exercise and quality grocers due to poor location and lack of finances, there is little access to healthcare because of money and general ignorance, and there is increased access to fast-food joints because they are affordable. Poverty-stricken individuals rely on emergency rooms for primary care (and end up with bills they can by no means pay). As a result of this interrelated web of cause and effect, businesses are not attracted to poor counties of Kentucky, and consequently the cycle will continue. The intial cause that triggers such widespred deprivation is hard to discern.
Ungar's article differs from our previous class readings in some obvious ways. The formatting is clearly different and allows for a general listing of factual evidence that is largely unanalyzed. Ungar's heavy reliance on quotes from Kentucky citizens and economic analysts allows her to write from a remote standpoint. She simply provides us with the views of the people, much as a news-reporter conducting interviews. On the down side, the heavy emphasis on statistic after statistic does not ultimately point to a solution to the problem (arguably not even a suggestion for improvement). Returning to the cause-and-effect interrelatedness of poverty, income, education, and access to healthcare, the article leaves the reader wondering "what can be done?"
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I think that the question you bring up in your last paragraph is one that most people wonder after reading the article, seemingly even Ungar. I talked about some of the issues that need to be addressed in order for any change to come about in my blog post about Breathitt County. People will continue to struggle in poverty unless there are drastic changes. Ungar mentions this as well. If the economy of the community is dead, it's hard for any progress to be made. Not to say that it's an all or nothing deal though because I don't believe that. I think that small steps is the best place to start because the goals are feasible and may be able to improve the immediate and pressing situations and issues facing these thousands upon thousands of people living in poverty. Yet it's important not to loose sight of big picture. Without a thriving economy there's little hope of turning around an entire community that's impoverished. The thought of trying to fix/revitalize an entire economy whether all of Kentucky, one county or even one town seems overwhelming and dare I say nearly impossible.
While I refuse to believe that it's impossible or a hopeless situation, the long term solution seems to lie on a larger scale than one might have hoped. The issues that are creating the Kentucky we read about in Ungar's article isn't just a problem with Kentucky, it's a problem with how the country as a whole is run, how wealth is distributed and the policies regarding all types of social services. It's completely overwhelming to think about trying to tackle all of these problems, that doesn't mean that nothing can be done. There are groups whose sole purpose is to work on helping Kentucky and the rest of the Appalachia region, which is another topic I mention in my post. While the situation may seem hopeless and daunting, the important first step is exactly what we're doing here, bring the issue to people's attention and making it an issue that's on people's minds-that's the only way any change will come about.
When I read Laura Ungar’s article, “Poverty fuels medical crisis: Access to care is difficult for rural, urban residents” my eyes too were really opened up to the terrible plight that is faced by so many impoverished in Kentucky. As you say, I never had any idea that poverty could be so localized in such a area, that a variety of counties are suffering from states of poverty as well as the state as a whole. This cycle of poverty that you mention is something that I am familiar with as well.
One of the requirements of my social justice class in my senior year of high school was that we each volunteer in the city of Philadelphia. The point of this volunteer work was so that we could first hand observe the vicious cycle of poverty that plagues our society. I spent my time volunteering at the veteran’s clinic where so many individuals came in with frostbitten extremities. The doctor’s and nurses at the clinic were able to treat each of the patients primarily because of the promptness with which they attended the clinic.
After reading this article I began to wonder. What would have happened to those men and women at the clinic if they had to travel hours to reach to hospital where they could be treated? Living in a city individuals have the best hospitals and heath care facilities at the tips of their frost bitten extremities; however, in rural areas such as Kentucky, poverty stricken individuals do not have regular access to health care and are forced to rely on distant emergency rooms for primary care. I think to solve this problem we need to improve daily healthcare in rural areas so that as Laura Ungar says there is not a build up of health issues, which creates an imminent health threat to the problem.
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