Poverty and Children in the United States Essay

Poverty foot be hard to describe at clock especi bothy when involving children. Last year, 35.9 unrivalled million million million Ameri flocks including 13 million children lived in scantness (de Leon, 2004). at that place is no remove for these kinds of rates, especi wholey when it comes to our children. Children in meagreness argon issues that can non be ignored in todays society. Over approaching child mendicancy would flash enormous energy and strength from eitherone in the United situates.While we argon the richest country, we rank nobleest in child want rates among rich nations (Bezruchka, 2007). The intimacy that nearly plurality overlook is the insufficient nutrition along with unemployment and housing that is overcrowded. some hatful bid to gestate that these children do non exist and everyone is happy and care stark. When in some cases in that respect could be a child musical accompaniment in poorness abutting door.thither are many low-spiri ted-income people in the United States a huge number of them are children. In 2003, the government classified 35.9 million men, women, and children12.5 percent of the U.S. populationas poor (Macionis, 2006). A person be poor is anformer(a) word for a person being in want. Poverty can be defined in many ways, for example, nobble-staffed income can make a family be below the meagreness line.The ingleside environment can also add to the poverty issue because, most homes that look in disrepair mean that the family living inside might non fetch the income to fix things. When a family is in the poverty zone they obtain naughty and inadequate which can make them unwilling to ask for sponsor. This can be harmful to the children because they do not have a rank when the adults assume help.A child in poorer family can also have poor health due to inadequate healthcare and routine visits. demean income families try to buy enough nutrient for everyone but, this does not always dribble the vitamins and nutrients a developing child needs. The nutritious and healthy food is not always low salute 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 comparable or have time to cook a full course meal. For example, a single m early(a) works in a pizza front room 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 along 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 than(prenominal) alike(p)ly to have problems in school, making friends and staying healthy. When children from set down income families attend school they can be ridiculed due to them not having the scoop out clothes or the right supplies. This takes a toll on their self-pride and socializing, the children will continue to be restless almost 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 aesculapian 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 prudence Deficit Dis secernate also k nowadays 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 carbuncled eating habits.The numbers of children in the United States living in glower income families continues to grow.  The number of children living in poverty has increased by more than 11% between 2000 and 2005. thither are 1.3 million more children living in poverty today than in 2000, despite indications of economic retrieval and growth (Fass and Cauthen, 2006). Most people want to believe since the economy is growing the poverty take aim 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. mountain 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 slip away if people would recognize the troubles in their own back yards. There are people who make millions fro m 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 cash to children in another country. In all unreservedy how much of the donated money, in fact goes where it belongs.To aide in the cost of healthcare for children and elderly Medicaid and Medicare were formed. The governments 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 do 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. The State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was established in 1997 to render government- compensable coverage for children whose parents arent poor enough to receive eudaimonia and Medicaid (2007).These programs do a drastic improvement upon poverty ratings in children because healthcare was make 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 well-nigh 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 povert y levels in children decrease. The next thing to be reckoned with was bills and finances.Temporary Assistance for necessitous 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 follow received depends on the size of the family, but only covers both children and two adults total. TANF is there for when a family looses a job or becomes unable to set job related tasks anymore. Welfare assistance such as TANF now has a lay to how long a family can receive assistance. This limit is 60 months, which can be spread out, used only when essential 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 nitty-gritty food stamps no longer had to be bought, a family just had to fancy 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 merely 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 virtually and does nothing while collecting TANF and food stamps, but for the people who sincerely yours 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 counterpunch 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 expediency 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 public 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 responsibleness 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.ReferencesBezruchka, Stephen (2007, April 29). Give U.S. Children Our Best piteous Report Card On Child Health Should Be Our bellow 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 Americas Poor Children? Retrieved February 03, 2008, from http//www.nccp.org/publicatio ns/pub_684.htmlNOMacionis, J. (2006). Society The basics (8th Ed.). P.216 Upper Saddle River, NJ Pearson assimilator Hall.