Growing up a lower income community of Atlanta, Georgia allowed me to see 1st hand the perpetual cycle of absent public healthcare policies, and inadequate health awareness. My mother and aunts were results of this neglect and misguidance, consuming unhealthy diets, and sedentary lifestyles not realizing the damages they were causing to their bodies. Their actions quickly turned into day to day complications from high blood pressure, heart disease and other health disparities that ran ramped within the African American community. Just like many other people, they were within the grips of illness that could have been avoided, or even treated with preventative health services, and quality risk reduction strategies.
Not only was I exposed to the ineffectiveness of “equal healthcare”, I also got to see their consequences or the lack thereof. My senior year of high school, before my 1st year of college my mother became ill with what the family thought was just a simple stomach virus; but in all actuality her kidneys were failing. Summer of 2006 my mother was diagnosed with End Stage Renal Disease. Over the years her uncontrolled high blood pressure, which could have been prevented , had destroyed the arteries with in her kidneys leaving them functioning at 10%, leaving her needing dialysis for the rest of her life. Listening to her diagnoses left me with questions of how this could have been avoided, what could have been done, what I could have done? The only way I knew to get
There are many factors that contribute to the current health status of Black Americans, but “Poverty may be the most profound and pervasive determinant of health status” (Edelman & Mandle, 2010, p. 39). Health care is expensive and can only be purchased by those who can afford to pay, so those below the poverty level are those who lack insurance. Without insurance their access to healthcare is limited, especially preventative care. No preventative care means more expensive care that comes with illness.
After watching the documentary Sick Around America, I have to say that it depressed me. I do not believe that everyone has equal access to healthcare in the United States. I believe with the Healthcare Reform things have improved slightly allowing more Americans to have the opportunity to have healthcare; however, there are those families who make slightly more than the cutoff bracket to receive the cheapest premiums through the government and then are forced to buy healthcare that is still too expensive, and if they do not have healthcare they will receive a large penalty. I believe a lot of families in the working and middle class populations will still have difficulty affording healthcare premiums. Also, just because families can pay the
The health of a nation plays an integral part in the overall success and economic well being of a particular country. The United Stated, while pouring more money into the healthcare system than any other country, still stands as a broken system with inadequate care for many citizens. One of the most marginalized groups of people, African American women, continually score alarmingly low on basic measures of overall health. The healthcare discrepancies between white and black women in the United States are alarming, and they reveal flaws in the American health care system as a whole.
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,
This case study is based on the Metrolina Health Center, which was started by Dr. Charles Warren. Williams and several medical colleagues with a $25,000 grant typically from the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Williams is the first African American to have services on this category of staff; Charlotte’s Memorial Hospital, which is undoubtedly the Charlotte’s largest hospital. The main concern of Dr. Williams is the health care needs of poor people in the area. He had always focused on making the word a better place, especially for the people who feel less fortunate. The doctor also went ahead with enlisting the aid of a local dentist, Dr. John murphy among other professionals including the director of the Sickle
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
I assume that in today’s world, there is a lot of information and scholarly research available that shows factors such as economic status, income, social situations, education, ethnicity, employment, availability of affordable housing and geographical (place where one was born and lives) conditions have a tremendous impact on the health and well-being of individuals, countries and communities (Amaro, 2014). Inequalities in health and well-being are created by social determinants and economic conditions for many in our community (Brannigan &Boss). The people that are affected the most are people with low income and minority groups here in the United States. This creates health disparities and unequal care (Brannigan &Boss). In many developing and under-developed countries, the situation is dire: lack of modern health services, illiteracy, poor economic conditions has created a cultural situation of desperation and unhealthy behaviors. Corruption by African governments is rampant. To improve the health and wellbeing of communities, we need to start thinking of how we can create a culture of health.
Health care has become a form of governmental oppression. There are little to no funding for preventative care as Shipler points out in his scathing review of the bureaucratic nightmare of merely staying healthy enough to go to school if you are poor (Shipler, 2004). America’s private health insurance industry makes it almost impossible for those of lesser financial means to have access to good health insurance (Shipler, 2004). Our economic state makes it impossibly expensive to eat healthy, let alone to practice healthy lifestyle habits that are not taught regularly. In addition, the health care providers themselves and those individuals with forced health care plans are faced with the enormous expenses of crooked insurance adjustors and giant malpractice insurance regimes (Shipler, 2004).
Although the United States is a leader in healthcare innovation and spends more money on health care than any other industrialized nation, not all people in the United State benefit equally from this progress as a health care disparity exists between racial and ethnic minorities and white Americans. Health care disparity is defined as “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social or economic disadvantage…adversely affecting groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social and/or economic obstacles to health and/or clean environment based on their racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion” (National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities [NPAEHD], 2011, p. 3). Overwhelming evidence shows that racial and ethnic minorities receive inferior quality health care compared to white Americans, and multiple factors contribute to these disparities, including geography, lack of access to adequate health coverage, communication difficulties between patients and providers, cultural barriers, and lack of access to providers (American College of Physicians,
The disparities are around us every day and unless we educate ourselves and our communities these disparities will continue to wreak havoc on our neighborhoods and in the future, we will just be putting our kids and their kids in a continuing cycle of ignorance when we could have done more if it’s just educating the community we leave in, that alone could be enough to turn the tides in our people favor. In turn, I would hope this paper enlighten you on what is going on in our neighborhood and what we can do to correct this issue to preserve our autonomy. Racial and ethnic health disparities undermine what a healthcare system should stand for. Although the top three causes and seven of the 10 leading causes of death are the same for African Americans and whites, the risk factors and incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates for these diseases and injuries often are greater among blacks than whites (MMWR, 2005). Health disparities refer to differences in disease risks, incidence, morbidity, and mortality but most of all for the sake of this paper unequal access to quality health insurance amongst African American in the United States, which will also go hand and hand with the social and economic disadvantages. The disadvantages of health disparities usually affect people of African American descent who have systemically experienced a greater social and economic obstacle to health care.
The purpose of this paper is to exemplify the healthcare crisis of African Americans within the broader context of American healthcare reform. In order for one to appreciate the depth of necessity for healthcare reform in the African American community, he or she must have a general understanding of the history of healthcare for African Americans. As stated by the institute of medicine in a study assessing the health and mental health disparities of African Americans, “The sources of these disparities are complex, are rooted in historic and contemporary inequities, and involve many participants at several levels, including health systems, their administrative and bureaucratic processes, utilization managers, healthcare professionals, and
Improving the health of the socially and economically disadvantaged is a major task. Many Americans are living with poor health because of their socioeconomic statuses and it has many negative effects on their long term health. Improving access to health care is not enough to help fix the lower death rates among low income families. Our social status in our economy has large effect on our lives including how we are able to live our lives and in tern it has large measurable effects on our health. San Antonio is no exception, in low income areas the mortality rates by diabetes are stunning and need to be changed in order to help improve the lives of so many people. In my essay I will be proposing a plan to help lower
It is also clear that there is evidence that shows a great need in improving people of low-socioeconomic status health because the government has been making efforts. However, what have not been addressed are the barriers that people in low-income communities still face even with government resources. Furthermore, it is also clear that the government saw the importance of making sure that low income families had access to health care when they created Medicaid, Medicare, and the Affordable Care Act. While access to health care is also a very important piece to a healthy lifestyle, it also becomes counterproductive when people still continue to have a poor diet and end up having to seek medical help at some point. Giving people the chance to have a better nutrition would also help decrease the number of doctor visits for those who do seek medical attention, and for those who don’t seek medical attention it would at least keep them
Changes in access to health care across different populations are the chief reason for current disparities in health care provision. These changes occur for several reasons, and some of the main factors that contribute to the problem in the United States are: Lack of health insurance – Several racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and other minority groups lack adequate health insurance coverage in comparison with people who can afford healthcare insurance. The majority of these individuals are likely to put off health care or go without the necessary healthcare and medication that is needed. Lack of financial resources – Lack of accessibility to funding is a barrier to health care for a lot of people living in the United States