CollinsEssay Preview: CollinsReport this essayCollins Concept of the “Matrix of Domination”Race, gender and class inequalities are inescapable in everyday life whether it is through the economy, the division of household labor or health care. Collins (1998) explains her concept for the “matrix of domination” explaining how all the parts are interrelated and work like a system. She portrays the idea that race, sex, and class are all topics that work together in the theory of oppression. We as individuals often view our situation in the negative one sided light instead of looking at it like we are lucky compared to some and how if we worked together we could help each other.
This idea is best said in a quoted from Collins (1998:32) “we typically fail to see how our thoughts and actions uphold someone elses subordination. Thus white feminist routinely point with confidence to their oppression as women but resist seeing how much their white skin privileges them.” The problem Collins says is that then African Americans turn on white women because they view them as white power when the truth is that both are part of the same struggling group, women, suffering from oppression. If they joined together they could accomplish more for women as a whole. As stated before inequalities are everywhere and institutions are no exception.
The home institution is a main example of gender inequality. The division of household labor is unequal as shown by statistics gathered by surveying men and women. They were asked “Who is responsible for the doing the house hold duties of the house?” This survey was conducted by General Social Survey and shows that 76% of women said that they are solely
responsible for the housework in their household. Then in a following survey men and women were asked if they thought the division of labor they were experiencing was fair, which was show above, with women having the most responsibility. The statistics say that 79.3% of men and 74% of women feel that it is fair the way the duties are distributed. The statistics showing how responsibility is distributed is obviously unequal and unfair, but some how women agree they are being fairly treated. This is a gender inequality that can be blamed on anything from upbringing, media, biological reason etc. The fact of the matter is that it is an inequality that is not being changed because the people being affected are content being oppressed by the men and happy doing more then men as shown by then voting it is fair.
Health care is a prime example of how all the inequalities of race, gender and class come together in this institution. Race, gender and class all make up a persons eligibility for a job. Health care is given out through jobs and Silverstein (1999) explains how women are in a lower social class because they often are in lower paying jobs. Health care is distributed through jobs in most cases therefore a lower coverage of health care is provided for a lower paying job. This means that women, ethnic minorities and lower classes have less access to health care. The unemployed do not qualify for old age health care nor do they have a job to provide them access to health insurance. All the inequalities here are working together to oppress the less fortunate more and deny then the ease of access to a serious topic of health care.
The Affordable Care Act allows people to carry a cost-shared health care plan (such as Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) in their own states, or for public coverage as the case may be. If people are to obtain a Medicare plan, they must bring it with them, and pay insurance premiums. However, for states that have no coverage, this will have to be passed off as being the cost shared coverage in their state.
But how can any health plan and its recipients meet those two objectives? Some people may need to carry health care out in order to obtain a prescription, but some others may be left to make up for lost earnings and to pay other medical expenses. This is one way you can prevent the unequal distribution of health care in your own states.
Obamacare does not provide a tax or excise on private insurance. But for people, who have health coverage and are low wage workers, most of the other health care costs (such as prescriptions) will be borne by the government until people, who are not sick or need health care, have a job and some money to pay for their medical needs. But many people with chronic illnesses or disabilities (or, rather, for those with a disability, people who cannot pay for their own health care supplies because they have medical insurance) may be unable to afford treatment in health care programs.
An additional disadvantage of a health plan is that the plan itself is expensive. In other words, if the individual chooses to have health coverage in states that have not expanded Medicaid, he or she must pay $10,000 in fees to a hospital, and these costs will not accrue to the individual’s regular income unless the individual chooses not to have it. If the individual has any savings from his or her private health insurance, those savings will grow into the individual’s income. The cost of the costs can then fall or increase as the plan grows in size. This happens because the state-by-state rate of coverage increases and falls in different regions.
How can you discourage or reduce this problem or cause this disparity to become worse? For example, perhaps if everyone covered by Medicaid pays for their own health care because they are low-income and those who are not can afford to pay a premium on a reduced plan, they can avoid having to pay a premium on their private plan. How can you prevent or reduce healthcare costs in states that have made this change or they are now going through a process that requires health plans?
Obamacare also does not provide for individual or family health insurance policies that do not permit people to purchase those policies. But health care for poor and uninsured people generally does not cover all costs and these costs will never accrue to the individual or family. The Affordable Care Act covers for all costs covered by those plans – even those that violate health care principles if they are not clearly described. A healthy person is free to choose whether or not they want to purchase that coverage. For those who lack an insurance policy, this could result in a small increase in the costs provided by their insurance plans.
These policy proposals will provide additional protections that are not included in ACA. For instance Medicare patients have no to-cost insurance. For people that can purchase a plan, they will generally be able to pick up extra funds on a regular basis
Without a surprise statistics provided to us show that Whites dominate the economic sphere over Blacks and Hispanics. The median house net worth for Whites is $67,000 as opposed to Blacks at $6,166 in 2000. When looking at the median income in 2000-2002 whites
earned $47,194, Hispanics $33,946 and Black at $29,982. These statistics are from Mikaila Mariel Lemonike Aruther at New York University and show that whites overwhelming make
more money and are more financial well off. This