Growing up in the Bronx, NY I have witnessed first-hand and have even experienced what it is like to be on Welfare – specifically Medicaid. Harrington Meyer’s piece on Medicare use among the elderly, (http://gas.sagepub.com/content/8/1/8.full.pdf), examines data on what characteristics lead to Medicaid use, specifically looking at income, gender, race, class, education and marital status. I was surprised to read that elderly people in nursing homes are more 6.5 times more likely to receive Medicaid. I thought that since they lived in somewhat secluded areas, with most of their needs met, they would not need Medicaid – however, I was wrong. In contrast, I was not surprised to read that women of color are more likely to be on Welfare than their counterparts. Yet, I was surprised that this fact was true regardless of income.
Another article I looked at was Lowenstein’s “Nursing homes serving minorities offering less care than those housing white” (2015) [http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/11/17/16275/nursing-homes-serving-minorities-offering-less-care-those-housing-whites]. As the title suggests, this article zeros in on the difference between the care received by whites and people of color in nursing homes. An interesting fact pointed out by this article is that Nursing Home Compare, a source that is widely used, is reporting statistics that contradict what is actually happening in nursing homes caring to largely black and Latino populations. For one, they reported that registered nurses spent more time with patients than they actually did, which affects the quality experienced by a patient.
These articles are decades apart, yet they both demonstrate vast differences among Americans depending on their gender, race, and income levels. These texts further prove that America has a ways to go before being able to provide an equal playing field for both whites, people of color, the rich and the poor.
2. The author of, “Gender, Race, and the Distribution of Social Assistance: Medicaid Use Among the Frail Elderly,” is heavily dependent on research throughout her text. Meyer gathers her data from the National Long Term Care Survey conducted in 1982 and 1984. She uses and breaks down this research in multiple ways, through her use of tables, descriptions, and inference. By being able to break down the numbers and describe them in specific ways that correlate to each issue being faced by the elderly, Meyer eloquently uses the research to her advantage. In doing so, she helps get her purpose across, through explaining the importance of the data, and she is able to subtly draw conclusions by applying the research to real-life circumstances.
1. The author of this text is Jeff Kelly Lowenstein, a journalist across multiple platforms, who focuses on drawing out social trends through databases. His audience is people who are interested in addressing the disparities present in many nursing homes, and even people considering placing a loved one in a nursing home. He wants to reach this audience to let them know that there is currently a disparity present at nursing homes that serve a majority of people of color. He wants to bring to light this disparity, and highlight that the reported amount of time nurses spend with the elderly does not equate to reality. This article was written after a woman was reportedly treated horribly at a nursing home, where she lost 60 pounds, and was found to have gangrene on her legs and torso. This history overlaps with both the text’s context and exigence, in that it motivated the author to write this text, and it sets the scene for the rest of the substance in the text.