Question 1: How does Scenario 1 exemplify the health impact of health-care inequality faced by the poor and uninsured, as described in the assigned reading?

Dan did not qualify for the public health insurance since he earned 150% higher than the poverty level. Nonetheless, he was not capable of affording the high medical premiums the health insurance used to charge people. There are numerous factors across the history of healthcare inequality including age, gender, social, and economical factors (Gaffney & McCormick, 2017). In this case Dan decides to take the opportunity of not paying for health insurance. After becoming injured, Dan knew he won’t get any medical services since he is not capable of affording the fee to the visit the doctor. He decides not to visit the doctor making the situation to worsen. This made him not to be able to work again. This is such a prevalent issue in most developed countries. From the research, it is evident that lack of insurance ultimately compromises the health of a person (Kcomt, 2019). Dan’s situation exemplifies the research report. Dan being an independent contractor does not have an employer who can provide him with insurance. He has to purchase the premium insurance at a higher price than if he had an employer. There are no affordable health care services to contractors like Dan and other people of the same poverty level.

Question 2: Analyze the direct costs of the uninsured to the health-care system and government likely to arise in this scenario.

In this scenario, Maria worked on multiple part time jobs to settle her bills. Nevertheless, she is not qualified to obtain insurance cover through her employer since she is only part time and she earned too much to qualify for public health insurance. She did not visit the doctor when she had a sore on her finger that most likely became infected. It is because she knew she could not afford the medical charges. Due to this, her condition worsened and ended up in an ambulance to go to an E.R. This is when she was diagnosed with diabetes, a disease that could have been diagnosed earlier if she was able to access medical services. Her finger was cut off and she had to stay in the ICU. Maria is now unable to afford the bills that came with the ambulance, going to the E.R. and staying in ICU, the bill ends up going to the government. Many people who can’t afford health insurance cover and end up going to a hospital and can’t pay their bills, the government ends up paying for the un-insured’s medical bills. So, the government might as well lower the premiums, co pays or bills so the poor people will be able to afford medical services (Crowley et al., 2020) so in that case, they’re able to afford basic medical services that in turn, avoids them ending up in a hospital with bigger bills.