Healthcare Disparities In Healthcare

Healthcare disparities within racial minority groups are an ongoing issue in the United States. Factors that affect these disparities are overall quality of care, access to healthcare, and access to insurance. Numerous efforts have been made to decrease the access and quality of care for minorities. The current intervention being used is the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This act was initiated by President Obama in 2010 and has had much controversy in the past years. The main arguments are the ACA increasing the taxes for Americans and the fact that all Americans must obtain insurance if proper funds are available. In 2014 the ACA Medicaid expanded and each state had the opportunity to expand if the state believed it appropriate. Out of the 50

A proponderance of statistics derived from scholarly sources corroborates the notion that minorities who have a low socioeconomic position or have an significantly low income suffers many atrocious health disparities this includes obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases thus projecting a direct correlation between the two variables. In addition, minorities, specifically African-Americans that live in low income neighborhoods have less access to fresh, healthy and organic foods. In particular, supermarkets are sparse in their area and sometimes is not within walking distance or within the vicinity of their homes. On the flipside, these neighborhoods have the highest levels of fast-food restaurants and convenient stores. These barriers

Race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic position are social determinants that lead to disparities in healthcare. Despite declining death rates, African Americans have consistently had higher mortality rates than Whites. For example, breast cancer is more prevalent in whites however the incidence of mortality from breast cancer is higher in black women. Black women are also likely to have more advanced cancer at the time of diagnosis than their White peers. Williams (2002) proposes that racial categories are more alike than different in terms of biological characteristics and genetics. Furthermore, they do not capture patterns of genetic variation. Thus, it is not biologically reasonable for genetic differences alone to play a major role

Hospitals in the United States offer top quality care to its citizens but regrettably not everyone receives equal access to this care. There is an alarming difference between qualities of care received by some population groups relative to other population groups.

A few important points, Parks (2011) found that, “As of 2013, there are approximately 44 million Americans that are not able to afford the costs of health insurance” and Epperly (2012) found that, “In 2014, six in ten Americans without health insurance could get coverage for $100 or less a month”. Now I am very open to the fact that ObamaCare has its many flaws that can negatively impact others, therefore I do not want to take this opportunity to force my opinion on others. It is important to know how much the health care system has been greatly affected by ObamaCare and to share the benefits, know the rights and protection of the people that ObamaCare also has to offer.

Before beginning the WebQuest, I felt that it is ridiculous that health disparity is a common problem in the United States. Healthcare should be available to everyone who needs it and should not be so expensive that families go into debt because of their medical bills. Now, I did not believe health care should be free, but I did believe that there should be affordable insurance for individuals of all social classes. I would say there are many factors that can play a part in promoting my feelings, for example, I am a young white female that has never been without health care, and has no chronic illness. I also work in the healthcare system, which is a factor that could influence my attitude and view about this topic. After completing this assignment,

Americans seek healthcare to prevent, diagnose and treat most diseases. However many Americans do not get the coverage or practices that are guaranteed by the doctors oath. Insurance plays a major role on the type of care a person receives. It can also effect the type of medications prescribed by a doctor. The type of care can depend on if the individual seeking care has insurance or if they go to the community clinic for free healthcare.

The United States health care system has its own unique way of delivery, unlike many other developed countries where health care is a right for all and almost all the citizens have access to basic health care services. In the United States, health care is market based. If you cannot afford it, then you shouldn’t expect to receive coverage. This causes a human right crisis and deprives millions of Americans from receiving the care they need. The privatization of the U.S. health care system results in a substantial number of Americans who are without health insurance. The health care system is constantly undergoing changes, in response to fears of access, quality and cost. Despite all of these changes, there are still significant disparities

There are several disparities where health care is deprive between minorities African American, Hispanic and low-income communities. Healthcare quality and access to care are unequal among racial and low-income groups. Black American and Hispanic have face with poor access to health care among any other race, and the low- income family who have been offers low stander of care according to the American Medical Association eventually suffer from” higher mortality rates, higher incidence of major diseases, and lower availability and utilization of medical services” (50-I-95).

In a study done by Praphul et al. (2012) health disparities collaborative were implemented in three federally qualified health centers in Louisiana in order to improve the delivery of quality care and improve the outcomes of patients diagnosed with diabetes and heart failure. A qualitative study was conducted with interviews done with the chief operating officer, lead physician, and nurse coordinator. Data was analyzed by interpretative coding. The study was limited by staff turnover, learning curves of employees, remote location of facilities, lower economic status meant limited ability for follow-up visits. Despite these limitations the study concluded that in order to use a collaborative approach in order to improve patient outcomes several

The definition of disparity is the circumstance or fact of being unequal or having a difference in (Dictionary, 2011). When I think of disparity, I view the word as a negative or undesirable, but when I researched the word I found it to just mean imbalanced. Unequal does not necessarily mean the context is negative, just that it does not match in similarity. Although in this situation, disparity is pertaining to the lack of care towards patients with minority health and health disparities. At the hospital I am currently employed at, I do not witness this type of behavior towards patients too often. Although, I have seen it, I have witnessed employees treating a certain patient as an annoyance or an unequal. I will call this patient Jill. Jill

According to a poll completed by Gallup Minority Rights and Relations, "one in five (20%) blacks feel that during just the past 30 days, they were treated unfairly in a healthcare situation because they are black" (Coleen McMurray 2002). In our modern day society, it is very redundant to treat blacks differently from whites especially regarding medical reasons. The disparity between these two races eradicates the vision of most hospitals in general. For example, the Rochester General Health System (RGHS) in New York states that their mission is to "improve the health of the people served by providing high quality care, a comprehensive range services, convenient and timely access with exceptional service and compassion" (Rochester General Health

An area in health disparities that I find to be interesting is the disparities among those who are aging. I selected this particular topic due to my interest in working with the elderly population. My goals are to eventually own my own assisted living and memory care facility. Therefore, I want to make sure that I can provide the best care for my residents and make sure they stay healthy. “Aging adults experience higher risk of chronic disease. In 2012, 60% of older adults managed 2 or more chronic conditions. This is something to be aware about, especially while having my own assisted living and memory care facility to make sure that we are being aware of the symptoms to better the elderly’s health. Some chronic conditions are heart disease, stroke and cancer.

According to Freudenberg and Olden, one way to reduce the health disparities is by making the availability of primary care physicians better. (Buchbinder, 2012, p. 327) A primary care physician in the United States make less money than a specialist, so the amount of doctor's choosing to go in to primary care is significantly less than those who choose to enter a specialty. A primary care physician is like the captain at the head of a person's health they are in charge of screenings and counseling and to address the burden of chronic disease. In addition, which specialists if any are necessary to help manage the patient's disease if it is outside of the scope of practice for the primary care. Raising the amounts insurance pays to primary care

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.