Health Disparities In America

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.

With this increased research and effort, Americans would be able to intervene and make positive impacts with the state, tribal, and local levels to best address health disparities and inequalities. In efforts to thwart ethnic and minority disparities, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) passed the HHS Disparities Action Plan in order to establish “a nation free of disparities in health and health care, (Cooper 97)” and to implement a series of priorities, strategies, actions, and goals to achieve this vision. States, local communities, private organizations, and providers have additionally engaged in efforts to reduce health disparities. With the HHS Disparities Action Plan, the Department continuously assess policies and programs on racial and ethnic health disparities, watching to see which policies make an impact on the level of health care received by minorities. Similarly, The Affordable Care Act (ACA) health coverage expansions significantly increase coverage options for low and moderate income populations and particularly benefit the “vulnerable populations.” The ACA also includes provisions to strengthen the safety-net delivery system, improve

Healthy People 2020 discusses a number of special population’s that have barriers to care including; race, age sex, sexual identity, age, disability, socioeconomic, and location; this post will discuss race (ethnic) group.  There are a number of races mentioned in healthy people 2020, such as, Asian, American Indian, Alaskan, Latino and African American (Healthy People 2020, n.d.). Access to health care in an ethnic group is multifaceted from the lack of trust, lack of health care education, discrimination and cost of care including health insurance. According to Howard, Peace, & Howard (2014), African Americans have a greater risk of three preventable diseases, hypertension, renal failure and bacterial infections stating; “no other disease

In today’s society, there are many different factors that can contribute to one’s overall health and well-being. Since there are so many different factors that can affect one’s health, there are inequalities that exist among people and this is knows as health disparity. "Health disparities are differences in the incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific population groups in the United States” (Nhlbi.nih.gov, 2015). Health disparities can be associated with factors such as: socioeconomic status, education, gender, race, ethnicity, age, mental health, and religion. There are certain health problems that can affect different groups more than others, such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and HIV/AIDS (Surgeongeneral.gov, 2015). One example of a specific population in the United States that is affected by health disparities is the African American Population. While African Americans are affected by various health disparities, one that affects this population more prominently is heart disease.

Many factors contribute to differing racial and ethnic health needs, including culture norms, religious mandates, and health disparities. The health disparities refers to specific differences in disease incidence, health outcomes, quality of health care and access to health care services that exist across racial and ethnic groups (Mandal, 2014). Disparities may result from inadequate access to care, poor quality of care, cultural issues and social determinants.

Health disparities endure tenacious issues in the United States of America, setting certain groups at higher risk of being uninsured, limited access to care, facing a poorer quality of care, and overall negative health outcomes. The high incidence of health disparities reflects the range of individual, social, economic, racial/ethnic and environmental magnitudes. Among the minority groups, African-Americans disproportionately access health care and the health disparities clearly glow in the nationwide.

The United States is a melting pot of cultural diversity. For a country that was founded by individuals fleeing persecution, it has taken us many years to grant African-Americans equal rights, and even longer for those rights to be recognized. Despite all the effort to eliminate inequality in this country, health disparity among this minority group remains a significant issue. Research in this area has pointed to several key reasons for this gap that center on differences in culture, socioeconomics, and lack of health literacy.

Young Hispanic children experience multiple disparities in health status, insurance coverage, barriers to healthcare access and the quality of health care received. There have been multiple studies that have researched racial/ethnic disparities among adults, however few studies have examined the racial/ethnic disparities in the health care of children. The United States is experiencing a demographic surge in minority children, particularly among the youngest age groups. "Estimates indicate that, by 2030, there will be more minority children than non-Hispanic white children" (Flores, Olson & Korman, 2004, p. 192). This alarming statistic has caused a national concern. This paper will discuss the

Healthcare access is a major public policy initiative to improve mothers and children's health access and utilization which began with Medicaid expansions in the 1980s and then came along (CHIP) Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997. Greater access to prenatal care provided by Medicaid has not contributed to the declines in infant health disparities (Dubay, Joyce, Kaestner, & Kenney, 2001: Epstein & Newhouse, 1998). Studies suggest that Medicaid and CHIP the expansion has contributed to the declines in most mortalities for the external causes for children 6 to 17 years of age, but has not been resulted in the decrease in the mortality diseases between the white and black children (Howell, et al., 2010). Access to high-quality health care still remains an important goal for infants, children, and young women. To get high-quality care, Maternal Child Health population needs health insurance to help cover most of their benefits when it comes to providers and

Racial and ethnic health disparities undermine our communities and our health care system. Our infographic shows some of the more common health disparities that afflict Latinos in the United States (compared to non-Hispanic whites). See our infographic series for data about other communities of

Krieger, N., Chen, J. T., Waterman, P. D., Rehkopf, D. H., & Subramanian, S. V. (2005). Painting a Truer Picture of US Socioeconomic and Racial/Ethnic Health Inequalities: The Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project. American Journal Of Public Health, 95(2), 312.

Healthy People 2020 (2015) defines health disparity as a difference in health that is associated with a disadvantage in either social, economic, or environmental aspects. Furthermore, these disparities can affect unfavorably on those who may have obstacles secondary to their gender, age, race, religion, income, mental health, or any other characteristics that can be discriminated upon. The context of disparity can be understood better when you break down the

The Boston Public Health Commission (n.d.), states the terms, health disparities and health inequalities are interchangeable and refers to them as the differences in the presence of disease, health outcomes, or access to health care between population groups injustices, which contribute to certain populations susceptibility to substandard health care, in comparison to other populations. Similarly, Dilworth-Anderson, Pierre, and Hilliard (2012) define health disparities as “differences in treatment provided to members of different racial or ethnic groups that are not justified by the underlying health conditions or treatment preferences of patients” (p. 26), and are prevalent in many facets of health care in the United States, including eldercare.

Health disparities refer to the differences of the health status, injury and diseases prevention, and optimal health opportunity achieving, which are experienced by different groups of people (CDC., 2008). These groups of people can be defined by such factors (determinants) as the gender, ethnicity and race, social and community networks, living and working conditions (education, income, unemployment, work environment, housing), and socioeconomic position (Hernandez & Blazer, 2006). In addition, the health disparities are directly related to the historical and current unequal distribution of the political, social, and environmental resources. These factors could guide to think that crediting the individuals for having good health or blaming them for

Health inequality can be described by the similar but distinct concepts of health disparity, healthcare disparity, and social determinants of health (SDH). Health disparities are characterized by a disproportionate burden of disease among a particular population; these are often contributed to or caused by healthcare disparities, which refer to