Healthcare Inequality : How Should America Handle This?

The U.S. is an industrialized nation that continues to be behind on providing health care coverage to all citizens. However, the German health care system came up with a plan that ensured all citizens are provided with some form of health care coverage; nevertheless, the U.S. continues to dispute health care reform and how to provide coverage to all citizens. “Health spending per capita in the United States is much higher than in other countries – at least $2,535 dollars, or 51%, higher than Norway, the next largest per capita spender. Furthermore, the United States spends nearly double the average $3,923 for the 15 countries ("Health Care Cost," 2011, table 1)”.

Many people believe that the current of health care in the United States is the best health care in the world however it has major shortcomings that has become more visible for the whole world to see. The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world based on health expenditure per capita and on

The disparities in healthcare amongst minorities, elderly, and the poor are mind blowing, but in order to help reduce disparities, there needs to be an awareness and accurate data available to assess and implement a plan to bring better quality healthcare to communities.

The United States has a very unique healthcare system. Does this mean that we are simply leagues ahead of the rest of the world in healthcare? Unfortunately, not at all. The ideal of American exceptionalism is apt to describe our healthcare system. That is, our current system is exceptionally bad. Per capita, the United States spends “twice the average of other developed countries” on healthcare ("United States Per Capita Healthcare Spending Is More Than Twice The Average Of Other Developed Countries"). Yet, in the World Health Organization’s ranking of healthcare systems by nation, the U.S. comes in at a dismal 37th place, despite spending the most per person of any country on Earth on healthcare ("World Health Organization’s Ranking of the World’s Health Systems").

Contrary to what many people believe, America’s health status is not quite “up-to-par,” to say the least. Over forty-seven million people in the United States lack health insurance; that is more than 15% of our nation’s population! At first this disturbing truth seems impossible to believe, being as America is one of the most technologically advanced and economically developed countries in the world. “We spend trillions of dollars per year on medical care. That’s nearly half of all the health dollars spent in the world. But we’ve seen our statistics. We live shorter, often sicker lives than almost every other industrialized nation. “We rank 30th in [global] life expectancy” (Adelman 2008). Knowing this brings rise to the question: why are

As an oncologist at Grady Memorial, an inner-city hospital located in Atlanta, Dr. Brawley witnesses the disastrous effects of healthcare disparity first-hand. Healthcare disparities are vast differences in quality and access to care between socioeconomic classes. "health care disparities refer to differences in health and health care between population groups. Disparities occur across many dimensions, including race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, location, gender, disability status, and sexual orientation "(KFF, 2016). As Brawley describes to us, Grady is a hospital that demonstrates health disparity at its worst. Brawley describes Grady as " a monument to racism, Racism is built into it, as is poverty, as is despair." (Brawley, 2011).

The article, “When Cutting Access to Health Care, There Is a Price to pay” in the New York Times and written by Eduardo Porter highlights the health crisis that is being experienced in the United States. This has contributed to the low economies due to low productivity since the sick people cannot work. The article states that in a research conducted by experts, the United States is ranked as having the highest mortality rate (Porter, 2017). Conditions such as heart diseases, diabetes, and infectious diseases also top in the list. Early deaths have become the norm in teenagers and young adults, due to health conditions related to obesity, chronic diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, and hypertension among others.

Equality is the state of being equal, while equity is the state of being fair or impartial.  In terms of the video “A primer of Racial Ethnic Disparity in Health Care and Outcomes”, this would be the absence of disparity.   In healthcare the difference is that equality refers to equal access and availability of care while equity which relates to equal results and outcomes achieved.  In order for there to be equal outcomes increased resources and care may actually need to be given to a particular groups.  As Pappas (1997) discussed, “Residents of middle- and lower-income areas are more likely than residents of the wealthiest areas and Blacks are more likely than Whites to be hospitalized with conditions for which hospitalization is potentially

In addition, health care industry can affect every living person in United State in one way or another. For instance, the uninsured are excluded from services, charged more for medical services and die when medical care could have saved them(Berkin, 2012). America is known to have some of the best doctors, and healthcare facilities in the World, however two thirds of our country do not have an access to health insurance, or cannot afford it(Berkin, 2012). The Right to Health Care notes that the United States is one of the few, if not, only, developed nation in the world that does not guarantee

Studies show that "Hispanics are less likely to receive care and are more likely to receive inferior care" (Durden 2007:537-538) when compared to whites. Minority citizens in general are less likely to receive adequate health care, leading to a rise in disease among areas with high populations of minority citizens. You are not wrong to worry about the children that are affected by this as "Hispanic... children all display significantly lower odds of having access to a usual source of health care in comparison to non-Hispanic white children" (Durden 2007:539) even when taking current welfare programs aimed at providing health care to children, such as CHIP. It is important that we consider the effect of inequality in the health care system on

According to Squires and Chloe, the United States of America is considered as the greatest country in the world, with the largest economy, military powers, freedom of religion and speech, and one of the most successful democrats (2). However, the United States in the only western modernized nation that does not offer free healthcare services to all its citizens. Apparently, the costs of the healthcare services to the uninsured individuals in the US are prohibitive, where the insurance companies are interested in making higher profit margins than providing adequate health care to the insured (Squires and Chloe 4). These conditions are unexpectable and incompatible with the United States

The United States is known as one of the greatest world powers: however it is held back by its weak healthcare system. As of 2010 the US healthcare system currently ranks the 37th best out of 190 countries (Murray). Before the introduction of the Affordable Care Ac in 2010, the United States had an individual insurance market. It was the responsibility of the individual or their employer to take care of their healthcare costs. On top of this, millions of people could be denied insurance by different agencies due to pre-existing claims. Healthcare was expensive, but the costs were nothing compared to the medical bills owed by an uninsured person. Universal healthcare is a basic right not a privilege. Everyone should be given the

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.

Access to health care in the United States is not guaranteed by the government, unlike the United Kingdom and all other industrialized nations (Sanders, 2002). And it is the only industrialized country that does not offer universal health care to its population (Ruger,

Everybody talks about how bad the US healthcare system is, which it might be a little bad, but it is not all bad. In the last one hundred years, the life expectancy went from 47 to 78, and 3.5 years in the last decade. That is a huge difference. Since 1960 heart disease went down 56 percent. Doctor visits used to be for when people knew they were going to die, but now they will not die when they go to the doctor. Even though all of those good things have happened, there is still a lot of bad things about the US healthcare. There is an average of 101,000 preventable deaths per year in the US. Most of those deaths happened because of the way the healthcare system is organized. Race, income, and environment influences who gets access to healthcare and who does not, which is just wrong. Even though the life expectancy rate went up, it is still significantly lower than other countries. Over half of people who do not have healthcare are African-American. There are more hospitals in wealthier area, and public hospitals are closing where they are most needed.