Health Insurance Policies, Cultural Influences, And Accessibility

In “The American Health Care Paradox”, Elizabeth H. Bradley and Lauren A. Taylor explore why the American health care system achieves mediocre results, despite spending a higher percentage of its gross domestic product than any other country in the world on health care. They explain that health care is more than just getting medical treatment, but there are social factors that affect a person 's health. The authors claim that more government spending on medical treatments is not the solution to the health care paradox, but we should focus more on social needs that have a greater impact on health. Case studies and interviews with physicians, other health care providers, and social service providers are used to support the authors’ claims. Though the authors do not explicitly state the path they believe the American health care system should follow, they give examples of foreign health care systems and domestic health care projects that may point in the right direction.

The big issue with healthcare is the quantity and quality care. The victims that are punished and receive low quality care are low income families(NAHQ,2014). Socioeconomic status plays a large role in health treatment and diagnosis(ESSENTIAL). The quality care gap between low income individuals and the high income individuals makes the healthcare very controversial. One of the biggest debates that are discussed during elections are healthcare policies. Low income families that are highly prone to more variables such as poor air qualities, exposed water contamination such as the Flint Michigan and much more. The correlation for these low income families often avoid going to doctors before a larger health issue is presented due to many factors such as time and

The issue with health care in the United States is similar to a domino effect. Each sociological factor such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender all inter twine. This domino effect occurs when one factor connects to another factor in which creates a cycle. This cycle involves inequality, discrimination, and unequal distribution of quality. According to multiple research and scholarly articles, the health care system displays many issues and flaws when it comes to the care and coverage for people depending on their social status.

In assessing the current pitfalls of society that have resulted in an unjust health care system, income and medical knowledge are at the forefront. In an attempt to hypothesize a just system for health care, fair income and equal state-of-the-art medical knowledge seem

Indeed, equality in health care is far from perfect in America, there are a number of socio-ecological factors- educational level, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and demographics- which commonly cause disparities between the healthcare qualities of different peoples, nations, cultures, and other classifications. In the case of my focus area of HIV, despite deterrence efforts, some sets of people are not only affected by HIV/AIDS, STDs, but faces higher mortality rate compare to others. Majority of these cases can be linked to disparities

The United States healthcare system is one of the most expensive systems in the world with 16% of its gross domestic product (GDP) assigned to it, it is expected that this spending may increase up 20% of the US GDP by 2016.1 Unfortunately, despite the large amount of money delegated to this system there are still widening gap in health disparities existing in the US, based on geographical areas, race/ethnic groups or class.2 Other factors such as genetics, social circumstances, environmental exposures, behavioral patterns, and lopsided access to opportunities encourage such disparities.1,3 The number of people that do not have access to healthcare in the US is alarming, for instance in 2005 about 40 million Americans did not receive healthcare services because of their inability to purchase health insurance policy and/or pay out of pocket.1

As populations around the world continue to grow, it becomes more evident that health services provided worldwide are not growing at the same rate and instead will continue to put further strain on existing health disparities, and create new ones. In the United States alone, access to healthcare is a crucial topic of discussion principally as the American government continues to create initiatives and legislation such as the 2010 Affordable Care Act. Although, the United States has come a long way to legally create access to care to all its citizens, there is a disparity in the number of individuals that in actuality receive healthcare due to the geography of cities and the nation.

Historically, Americans were treated with medicinal herbs and anecdotal information in their homes. Doctors were sole decision makers about admissions, length of stay, resource use, and referrals. The U.S health care system changed by having hospital fiscal penalties for lengths of stay, admissions require payer approval, and readmissions carry penalties. As well as, people are getting treated in hospitals, primary care office, and rehabs, instead of their homes. Having access to hospitals, and getting treated with these new drugs and new technologies, one would think that everyone would get the same kind of health care. However, gender and ethnic disparities contribute to many individuals having access to health care.

The United States is lucky to have thousands of compassionate well-trained physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other health caregivers who provide up-to-date medical attention to patients seeking their assistance. This is the successful aspect of the healthcare system but that is only a portion of reality. Healthcare in the United States includes an extensive range, spanning from the highest quality and most considerate treatment of those with various illnesses, to the turning away of very ill individuals due to the lack of payment. Access to healthcare is the ability to obtain health services when required. Millions of people in the United States are in a crisis because of the lack of access to healthcare (Bodenheimer & Grumbach, 2009).

Social Economical status is one of the major risk factor to health and health care disparity. In the past few years the death rate in the United States has decreased but, there exists a widening gap between the death rates of blacks compared to whites (Japanese National Health, n.d.). It has been documented that people that are poor or not well educated have poorer health than rich people or well educated people. Social Economic status effects not only the individual but the entire family and community as a whole. If one is living in poverty they may not have the money to seek out appropriate medical care and they may rely on home remedies due to affordability. They may also wait until their condition has reached an emergency level and seek out care in the emergency

Despite all of the exertions and objectives in the United States to lessen or get rid of disparities going on in healthcare by 2012, important disparities, such as risk factors, admission to healthcare, illness, and death, lingers in populations that are considered to be vulnerable. For instance, many investigations have discovered that Americans that are living in poverty are much more probable to be in poor or fair health and have incapacitating environments, and are less likely to have utilized different kinds of healthcare (Smedley BD, 2011).

When dealing with the health care system, the socioeconomic status of an individual can influence the quality of service they receive. The Health and Wealth theory shows that the amount of money someone has determines how well they are treated medically. Money gives individuals access to health care and for those who have very little amount of money or none at all are at risk of not receiving quality health care. In many instances, individuals with poor health are more likely to live in low end areas, have minimal education, and a low income (Hutchison, 2015). People who have a low income usually have more health problems than those with high incomes because they are exposed to hazardous environments and partake in unhealthy habits like smoking and not exercising (Hutchison, 2015). Affordable health care can be hard to come by. Having insurance can help give people access to health care, but the cost of health insurance can hinder some people from having it (Hutchison, 2015). Also, just because someone has health insurance does not mean they have automatic access to health care

The social of demography of health are divided up into four important variations, social class, gender, age, and race. I also believe religion plays an important role as well. Within the social class in the U.S, the lowest working class’s health and longevity are affected tremendously. The poor do not obtain equal access to healthcare compared to the upper class. They also live in disorderly neighborhoods which increased the risk of major health problems. The type of health insurance or level of healthcare do not depict what type of health status a person will have. These are a few important key fact congress should consider while they redesign our health care system.

For Americans to relish optimal healthcare service, both as individuals and a community, there have to be high-quality healthcare systems. Establishing quality healthcare delivery systems involves designing of an expertly coordinated strategic system that accounts for both the financially gifted and the economically marginalized. In considering the function of socialized and private health systems, individuals need to be assured that the services will satisfy their needs. With the private system, people with financial ability to purchase insurance and companies see coverage for all their medical needs, while socialized healthcare is provided through Medicare and Medicaid for all populations. However, the latter covers the disadvantaged like

Currently, our nation is experiencing a vast socioeconomic disparity in access to primary and preventative care. Studies have shown, “the