Inequality In Health Care Essay

Oh Lord, help all of the black communities to fight back against poverty and give them strengths the disparities around of their communities. Martin Luther King offered his life and died for the cause of inequality, hoping that one day there would not be any discrimination, disparity, poverty and the segregation among the people of color. Nevertheless, people who lived in the black community receive less attention than the elites.

The U.S. healthcare system is remarkably complex, and even healthcare workers struggle to understand it. The U.S. population gets health coverage by government programs, employers, and private insurance. Notably, because of the complexity and fragmentation of the health care system, there is a percentage of the population that remains uninsured. According to CNN Money, the uninsured rate in the U.S. dropped from 18.2% in 2010 to 10.3% in 2016, this drop was under Affordable Care Act(ACA) (). The goal of the ACA was not to give health coverage to all the uninsured population, rather it was to try to decrease the percentage of the population that remained uninsured(). There is a lot of inequality in the distribution of health among the U.S. population

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social wellbeing, and not just the absence of disease” (WHO, 1974). Health inequalities are the differences in health or healthcare opportunities in different societies this may be due to income,

There is a strong correlation with an individual or group SES and the quality of health care received. Social Economic Class relates to what group of class an individual fit in based on their income, which can include wages, investments or other source. The quality of care depends on the facilities that is offering the services, the staff, accessibility to the service and the kind of health insurance that the person has. Affording health care is expensive and the lower or poor class has to decide between being able to afford food or other daily needs and going to a clinic for screening. Most of the time, individuals who fall in the class will ignore the health signs while

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,

Environmental Racism and Health Disparities are two of the many issues that affect the African American community. Environmental Racism occurs when people of color, who disproportionately live in lower income communities, are revealed to dangerous materials consisting of waste and toxins which are used or disposed of in their communities. Health Disparities occur when a group of people suffers inequalities of health advantages when compared to the access to quality health care and health advantages of another group besides the African Americans. Factors that contribute to issues of health disparities are the lack of health care coverage and vulnerability to toxins in the air. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity are common health disparities that deals with heart disease within the

In “Prevention is Primary” (2010), health disparities are described as “conditions that are avoidable, unjust and unfair” (p. 36). The situation in Florida, with pain clinics on every corner of Broward County handing out prescriptions and/or dispensing copious amounts of extremely potent pain medications, is certainly avoidable. Today our national pain medication abuse has reached epidemic proportions forcing our president to declare a national emergency. As highlighted in the film, the OxyContin Express, anyone is susceptible to the lure of abusing prescription drugs. Todd, a younger, white male, had been abusing oxycontin for years despite the loss of both his brother and wife. The availability and sheer number of pills with little restrictions or regulations in place has brought unfavorable conditions to Florida that promote abuse (Foster, Tanner, & Van Zeller, 2009). The fact that anyone can walk into a clinic and purchase an MRI, have strong medications to regulate “pain” prescribed, and walk out with copious, deadly amounts of drugs speaks to the fact that anyone can and is impacted by health inequalities.

Everyday people have to deal with healthcare issues, and often time the healthcare system cannot understand the needs of these people. Considering a young adult woman, unemployed suffered from a chronic disease, has no health insurance, and unable to pay for her medication. She goes to a clinic in desperate need of help. A nurse tries to assist her, but because of healthcare barriers and lack of insurance, it takes several months to get her the help she needs. Some people could have health insurance and cannot have access to the care they needs because their insurance company does not want to pay the cost. Unfortunately, it is the reality that facing many Florida residents. Many studies have identified and addressed the factors that lead to

Disparities in health care are significant in the United States and the root causes are multifactorial. Social determinants of health such as poverty, socioeconomic status, access to resources, and patient education influence health outcomes. Emerging data has shown health literacy as a potential contributor to health disparities that impact health and lifestyle choices (Yee, 2017). Health literacy, characterized as a skill set necessary to understand health information, involves communication skills of both patient and health professionals as well as cultural factors. For example, low health literacy has been shown to contribute to health disparities, especially in racial and ethnic minorities (Hill-Briggs, 2012). As a result of an increasingly diverse ethnic/cultural and racial

Another challenge is addressing equity in the social determinants of health. Income shapes medical care, housing options, nutrition, physical activity, neighborhood conditions and stress (Braveman, 2012). Education is another important social determinant, which affects higher-income attainment, knowledge on health, literacy problems, problem-solving and coping skills (Braveman, 2012).

classes are perhaps not as clear as they used to be. But it is just as

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.

The Behavioural or Cultural Explanation: places emphasis on the individuals and the consequences of their behaviour, when they choose to eat, drink and live healthily the inequalities will be reduced.

The purpose of this study is to examine if childhood socioeconomic position (SEP) affects the health of the adolescents. Socioeconomic position is the social class of an individual based on education and income level (American Psychological Association, 2016). SEP effects health, psychologically and physically. Lower SEP is the cause of negative psychological and physical health results. Low SEP affects children and adolescents the most. Lack of access to health care, poor housing, interpersonal violence, and food insecurity affects an individual’s health and are related to increases in hospitalizations of adolescents, emergency room visits, and non-adherence