Effects Of Social Inequality

It is not just the poverty-stricken population that can’t afford insurance. The cost of U.S. health care and insurance is out of reach even for those who do not live in what we technically classify as “poverty”. By the 2003 Federal Poverty Guidelines, released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, poverty

Healthcare inequality mainly revolves around the disparity in the quality of health and health services among different population groups in the society. It touches on the accessibility of health insurance and thus the accessibility of quality healthcare services among the different population groups. There disparities in the access to quality healthcare among the different races and ethnicities, social classes and between the two genders. These disparities are mainly influenced by and are reflective of the differences in access to health insurance among these population groups. These disparities ultimately lead to similar disparities in healthcare services access, health outcomes and the presence of disease among these different population groups. There are several factors that influence access to health insurance and quality health services, referred to as determinants of health among the populations. There are cultural, environmental social and economic determinants to health which create an unfair playing ground for the different population groups in American society. This paper examines the social determinants to health, the extent to which they affect access to health insurance and quality healthcare and ways in which they can be reversed to enable equal access to health insurance and health care services among these populations. The issue of disparities in access to health insurance and by extension access to quality healthcare services is important because it affects

Widening economic inequality in the United States is being accompanied by increasing health care disparity. While the health care system seeks to provide health care as a human right, it fails to do so often worsening the disparities (Dickman, Himmelstein, & Woolhandler, 2017). While health care today has made major strides, there are many people who are still suffering from health care system injustices. Of the people who are still uninsured a majority of them are in the middle-working class or those living in poverty. Poor Americans have less access to health care than wealthy Americans. The life expectancy gap between the rich and poor continues to widen. Health care in poor communities is too often neglected. This issue has been a trend in the United States for many years. In Abraham’s book, Mama might be better off dead these very same inequalities are evident for the Banes family. Because of these inequalities, preventive illness becomes life threatening causing care to then become extensive and even more expensive.

. Addressing health inequalities and health care is not only important from the point of view of social justice, but also to improving the health of all Americans by improving the quality of care and health of their children. People. Moreover, the difference in health is expensive. An analysis estimates that about 30% of total direct medical expenses for blacks, Hispanics and Asians are excessive costs due to inequalities in health. The difference also leads to economic losses due to indirect costs related to loss of productivity and premature mortality. (Artiga,

These are a few potential links between social inequalities and the health of the population: income and wealth distribution, unemployment, the ageing society, gender and health, mental illness and suicide and disability and dysfunction. I am going to discuss each of these and see the health impact on people in each group.

Living in a society that does not help its people to live comfortably and provide facilities for them to achieve their demands, is harmful. One of these harmful affections is “social inequality” in each diverse society. Social inequality occurs when resources in each society are distributed unevenly, typically through norms of allocation, that engender specific patterns along lines of socially defined categories of persons. The United States contains one of the most common social inequalities for its population and that is “social stratification and mobility” and the government should strictly investigate this social inequality for people who are living in the United States.

Despite the improvements made toward health reform, there are still problems that need to be address. There are still cost related access problems among insured adults, particularly among people with lower incomes. According to the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey of 2014, 33 percent of adults who had been insured all year with incomes under 200 percent of poverty and 25 percent with incomes above that level said they did not get needed care because of costs in the past 12 months (Collins et al., 2015). The high deductibles and cost sharing in both employer and individually purchased private plans lead many adults to delay or avoid needed care (Collins et al., 2015). Also there is still a large share of adults who were insured all year but still struggle to pay their medical bills. People with lower incomes reported these problems at the highest rates. One third (34%) of adults with incomes under 200 percent of poverty who were insured all year

Although the overall health of the United States population has improved, large disparities in terms of health outcome and access to healthcare exist between wealthier Americans and their “poorer counterparts primarily because of differences in education, behavior, and environment.” (Longest, 2015, p8). Access to health care and other services is associated with wealth, employment, education and power. Higher education, which translates to higher income, allows people to buy healthier food, live in safer, cleaner neighborhood and access the best healthcare possible. Power on the other hand permits people to secure health for themselves and their families, while others without power have limited or no access to the resources they need to be

For decades, a person’s socioeconomic status or SES has affected the healthcare that people receive due to race and “wealth”. This problem has plagued American society because of these factors leading to many receiving inadequate healthcare. All of these factors for someone’s SES has changed a lot in the healthcare domain that is unfair to many who are not the “ideal”. Due to this the perception, experiences with healthcare waver and are different between the stages of these SES’s. No matter the status of a person they should receive the same amount of care, treatment, and closer.

Based on the data, there are certain patterns that appear frequently throughout. The overarching theme is that healthcare is not easily accessible for the lower class of america. The upper class can bothy afford easily access health care through its money while the lower class unfortunately has to deal without it the majority of the time. Graph one clearly shows us a the the lower class does not have healthcare(with an unusual spike in the middle class). We also see that there is a rather large “gap” in between those that earn 25,000-35,000 and those that 35,000-55,000. The latter group has a vastly superior amount of people with health care. Almost to a doubled amount. The reasons for no health care? The CTSIP study surveyed a numerous number of possible rationale including: “healthy and don 't need insurance”,”employer does not provide coverage”,”self-employed and the cost is too high”, among many others. The findings can be striking. The majority of those surveyed said that they simply cannot afford the premiums of health care so

In 2010, the Affordable Care Act, hereafter referred to as the ACA, was signed into law. Even though the reformed healthcare system allowed more Americans to access to quality affordable health insurance, it still has many flaws. We focus on solving the problem that the current health care policies are based on a hierarchal system, where the higher one is placed in the socioeconomic status, the better quality and access to healthcare him or her will get. As a result, people who are in the lower socioeconomic status will more likely to be stuck in a cycle that continues to perpetuate itself. This group of people is most

According to the Census Bureau approximately 49 million Americans didn’t have coverage in 2011. The Patient Protection Affordable Care Act has only been extended to cover 32 million uninsured individuals mandates. The main issue of access to affordable care will be to exacerbated by limited community- based resources that provide preventive services, primary care access and the continuum care for patients with chronic conditions. There is a need to increase capacity to serve more patients, while improving outcomes and reducing cost. Health disparities in the U.S. range from HIV/ Aids to obesity. The minority population typically has a disproportional burden of the HIV/ Aids epidemic ( Wetle & Scanlan 2013). Disparities in healthcare are among the lines of access to care, treatment, preventive measures, and medicine. Several research projects were used to examine how ones race, neighborhood, or social classes affect their quality of care, and health outcomes ( Wetle & Scanlan , 2013). It was found that people who lived in lower income urban areas were found to have a lower quality of care. The study also found that these people were also prescribed stronger more dangerous medicine, and also paid higher co- pays. The Affordable Care Act was created to target, and eliminate health disparities (Adepoju , Gonzales , and Preston 2015). The ACA planned to improve health disparities by increasing access to care for minorities. In addition to improving access to care the ACA

The United States, as a developed, wealthy nation, possesses the largest disparity between social classes in relation to health care and access to health care services (Wright & Boorse, 2014). Because of this disproportion and regardless of spending the most health care dollars per person, the United States ranks lowest amongst developed nations in life expectancy, has the most children living in poverty, and the most people in prison (Wright & Boorse, 2014, p. 200). President Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed by the U.S. Congress and the Senate in 2010, sought to correct the imbalances that exist between the classes in relation to both health care and health insurance with socialized medicine. While the Affordable Care Act has contributed to cost savings, reductions in fraud, abuse, and misuse of health care resources, along with health insurance for all, the Affordable Care Act has had an untoward, negative effect on the delivery of primary care (Mori, 2016). Hence, decision-making authority over primary care has shifted from the physician and into the hands of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO’s) created by the government, insurance companies, and private health care systems (Mori, 2016).

The United States is world renowned for having the best health care if not the most accessible. Citizens have at their disposal a plethora of hospitals, physicians, and therapists to improve their well-being. Statistical data was taken back in 2010 under the Central Texas Region and studied health care coverage and income in regards to the community. The data displayed in the surveys heavily suggest that income/ health in general have a high correlation. The issue that arose with the given data imply that those who are on the lower end of the income spectrum subsequently have no health care coverage and poorer health than those with higher income. In any case with high correlation there are a number of factors influencing the statistical evidence, and in this case sociological barriers are present in regards of inequality and health care.

Changes in access to health care across different populations are the chief reason for current disparities in health care provision. These changes occur for several reasons, and some of the main factors that contribute to the problem in the United States are: Lack of health insurance – Several racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and other minority groups lack adequate health insurance coverage in comparison with people who can afford healthcare insurance. The majority of these individuals are likely to put off health care or go without the necessary healthcare and medication that is needed. Lack of financial resources – Lack of accessibility to funding is a barrier to health care for a lot of people living in the United States