America's Biggest Scam
Project 4
My last project of my 11th grade year is America's biggest scam. The medical system.
ArtFor art I did a two part series with a skeletal theme. The research for these pieces brought on personal emotions of being dismissed in situations within the medical field. I found many stories about people being denied service over language barriers, people almost losing their children treatment expenses, peoples conditions getting worse due to a misdiagnoses and so on. The system is broken. You'd think thats one of my favorite things to say with how much I say it but it breaks my heart each and every time. The system is broken. I wanted to demonstrate pain in my final products to bring together these ideas of mistreatment, equal opportunity, and human beings together using synthesis. The first piece has a multitude of colors to show various indicators of pain. Waves of pain that can be hard to deal with or can even be fatal. The position of a skeleton makes you realize how your body moves. You think about whats missing around the skeleton where the skin, muscles, tissue and all the rest should be. You don't realize that it could be you or me. You almost instantly think about yourself in the same position and you will likely get uncomfortable. At least I hope you do. I want everyone who looks at my pieces to feel the pain of those who have been failed by a system supposed to help them. I want an understanding that these pieces are more than they seem. They are you and me and the old man down the street. The second piece is supposed to show the humanity of that political figure. Yes they can bleed like you and me. Yes of course they have the same rights as you and me. They live in the same country as you and me. But do they have the same struggles? This shows the difference between opportunity and equality. There is no same start and some make it farther than they should and others don't make it as far as they should. But we all have the opportunity to. Don't we? These figures have access to a world we my never know for various reasons but we can get there too can't we. Just work that minimum wage job all the time don't have a life at all. Pay all your bills, rent, and necessities, and don't forget to take care of yours. Save your extra money that you don't have because your daughter just broke her arm (and you don't have health insurance) to invest in yourself and other areas to make more money. Don't forget you have the same opportunities and they will tell you that makes it fair knowing you may have to work twice as hard. Because the problem isn't opportunity its this insane idea of equality that has never been present but they'll tell you otherwise. This is the idea that no one understands and yet try to label a country with. Equality.
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This project was one that made me feel a lot. For the simple fact that sometimes things are broken and no matter how hard you try you can't fix a system that has always been broken. I know my projects all talk about if you don't know the root of the problem it can't be fixed. But how can you fix something that's never actually abided by what it says it does. The U.S. constitution and legislation is a prime example. We the people...feel ways that are right but we are told is wrong and we can't exercise our rights because we are seen as angry or violent. That doesn't mean we stop trying though.
CivicsFor this project I looked at pain assessment and the gap between treatment and diagnoses. I also looked at the financial bias, bankruptcy, and how medical billing and cost affects lower income Americans. I found so much information about so many people being mistreated. When it comes to racial bias and implicit bias many people believe it is simply a general incompetence and has nothing to do with race. However, several studies show that pain assessment has been drastically underestimated when discussing African Americans vs White Americans. Overall there is a consistent gap between medication, diagnoses, and pain assessment. This implicit bias stems from physicians trying to find differences (thicker skin, skulls, and high pain tolerance) to justify the torture of African Americans during slave times. Over the years the ideas just got lost in the medical field and became an assumption for many healthcare workers even without trying. Hence the term implicit bias. This truly narrows down the idea of everyone having the same opportunity. Along with racial bias there are examples of lower income patients who don't have a private insurer the way others do and they are just rushed out because they don't pay as much and will more likely be in debt. The cost of healthcare is overly high for people with insurance so they can reimburse the doctors and employees for their labor and tests along with a copay from the patient. Mind you this only works if you can afford it otherwise you are stuck with medical bills that will have you drowning. In my final product I wanted to show that not everyone has the privilege of healthcare or top notch service like our fellow rich celebrity's. In this case former president, Donald trump. In the final product I wanted to incorporate a political figure who got corona and was able to be treated immediately with no care for expenses. This project wasn't just to talk about the injustice in the medical field just like none of my other projects were ever to just point things out. These topics go into a much bigger issue that being the idea of equal opportunity in a country that was only built for one kind of person to advance. America says they hold everyone equal as every man is made. They do not tolerate discrimination of any kind in any part of the country. They do not allow the enslavement of other human beings. They allow freedom of religion. They do not allow bias in their systems. Along with these things so many others stand up for human rights and yet little girls are kicked out of school for their hair not being perfectly straight, parents struggle with poor paychecks to support families with no benefits, religion is brought up in political discussions, innocent unarmed black men are shot to death over being suspicious while just doing normal tasks, and people still think America has got it right. Yes, these laws are in place but America has shown its never cared for its own legislation or its own citizens. How is it equal? How has it ever been equal? People don't know how to answer this because to so many think the problem was solved with the 13th amendment. Which begs the main question..How do you fix something that has always been broken?
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