Matthew Ward
Senior lecturer in American History. Office is Tower Extension 4.6. Drop in hours Monday 4:00-5:00. My interests are in the early American frontier and the relationship between colonists and Native people. I did my postgraduate work at William & Mary in the USA and I've been at Dundee for 32 years. My most recent book is Making the Frontier Man: Violence, White Manhood, and Authority in the Early Western Backcountry. It is the perfect gift for all occasions...
9th March 2020 at 1:30 pm
I have been aware of the issues with regard to the USA’s health care since a child. My Great Auntie Hazel who lived in Arizona ( an aunt through marriage) had fallen in love with Great Uncle Tom when nursing him through TB after the First World War, had been left a widow prior to meeting him.
This lady had been exceptionally generous to all the children of her 2nd husband’s family and then their children. They were “very well off” as “they owned property” was the talk in the family however I remember very clearly my parents talking of the difficulties they were experiencing in their latter years as their medical insurance now was not covering them as illnesses became chronic and more medications were required. This lady ended in her days in a”Pioneer Home” not a private facility as she would have thought previously.
Currently my sister-in-law who is American pays for her mother’s medication as she is on a limited income and would find paying for the medication difficult and may have to cut back on essentials. I believe my sister-in -law has done this for some years. Her mother is ninety and I presume may require further financial support in years to come.
As always in the USA the poorest most vulnerable people receive a poor quality health care.
I was shocked at the young people who were filmed whilst demonstrating against poor care and the cost of their medication when suffering from AIDS in the 1990’s were born around the same time as me. A large percentage who spoke at the rallies had died in the 1990’s, many unable to afford their medication or receiving very poor care due to their diagnosis.
I think we are exceptionally lucky in this country with our health care as although it is not perfect we so far do not have the disparities which the most vulnerable in society in the USA have to cope with on a daily basis.