Why Do African Americans Have Health Care

In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in which Title VI specifically forbade the distribution of federal funds to organizations that practiced discrimination. Enforcement of Title VI was a major priority within the Johnson administration as they implemented the Medicare program (Reynolds, 1997). Despite a mandate of equal treatment, significant patterns of segregated health care utilization have remained to the present. In an analysis of Medicare beneficiaries, Bach and colleagues found that their was a small proportion of physicians – 22% - who provided the majority of visits - 80% - by black patients (Bach, Pham, Schrag, Tate, & Hargraves, 2004). This may represent a pattern of racial concordance, patients choosing providers of their own race, but the physicians seeing the majority of black patients did not the same resources available as those seeing the majority of white patients. Compared with physicians seeing the mostly white patients, physicians seeing mostly black patients were 33% less likely to report always having access to high quality specialists, and 40% less likely to report always having access to high quality diagnostic imaging. In short, black patients are using a different health system than white patients on average and the health system black patients are using has fewer resources (Bach, et al., 2004).

Large populations of Americans are uninsured mainly because of the high cost of insurance. Majority of the uninsured are the low-income working families’. The adults represent a higher percentage of the uninsured than children. Before the law, you could be denied coverage or treatment because you had been sick in the past, be dropped mid-treatment for making a simple mistake on your application, hence, the Affordable Care Act was implemented into law on March 23, 2010 by President Barrack Obama to make sure that every American irrespective of their status will be insured and have full access to proper health care benefits, rights and protection(1). To understand the

Health Care reform is a major topic of discussion in today’s society, especially with the relatively novel release of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) by the Obama administration. Historically, the health care system has disproportionally favored those of higher class and income, resulting in diminished health care for those that could not afford it. The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) 2002 report, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, states that a lack of insurance substantially contributes to the proliferation of healthcare disparities. Furthermore, racial and ethnic minorities are most subject to these healthcare disparities because they are significantly more likely to be uninsured. (1) The history of health care reform in the United States, as it pertains to under-insured urban populations, will be discussed, with a specific emphasis on its impact on African-Americans; in addition, the modern resolutions to healthcare disparities will be assessed.

Health disparities among African-Americans is a continuing problem that has been seen over many years. African-Americans have higher poverty rates, have lower rates of insurance coverage, and are more likely to be covered by Medicaid, than the White population (Copeland, 2005). This lack of insurance has led many of these individuals, to not seek treatment for illness, due to problem accessing health care (Kennedy, 2013). This leaves African-Americans with little to no treatment, which causes an increase of medical care that will be needed further on in their life or a sooner than expected death, caused by illness (Copeland, 2005).

The Affordable Care Act otherwise known as Obamacare or the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law in March 2010 and it has not been without its share of problems, debates and controversies. One of the main points of the debates and controversies with the PPACA has been the legality of the individual mandate. The individual mandate “requires that most Americans obtain and maintain health insurance, or an exemption, each month or pay a tax penalty” . The whole purpose of creating PPACA was to “achieve near-universal coverage and to do so through shared responsibility among government, individuals, and employers” and to be able to “improve the fairness, quality, and affordability of health insurance coverage” also to be able to “improve health-care value, quality, and efficiency while reducing wasteful spending and making the health-care system more accountable to a diverse patient population” .Those were the top three goals that were the foundation when drawing up the policies for The Affordable Care Act to develop what was hoped to be universal healthcare system for the citizens of the United States. While The Affordable Care Act does have its benefits, such as it would cover pre-existing conditions where most private insurances do not do, more people have the ability to get what they call affordable medical insurance, costs of prescriptions are lower and it even offers tax credits for those that purchase the insurance but it also

The primary purpose of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to improve both access and quality of health insurers with reformed payment strategies, and coverage expansion (McMelland et al., 2014). The act was designed to provide better insurance coverage to low-income American citizens, which also include undocumented immigrants. Currently, undocumented immigrants are excluded from the ACA, and there has been some debate whether or not to include this specific group. They should be denied ACA benefits because of the overcrowding of healthcare facilities, already being covered by government healthcare aids, and placing additional financial burdens on the American economy.

The ACA is made up of a series of additions of and changes, to the multiple laws that are made up from the legal framework of the U.S. healthcare system. This act establishes the basic legal protections that have been nonexistent to the United States, will now guarantee access to affordable health insurance coverage for Americans, from when they are born, all the way through his or her retirement. The act hopes in cutting the number of uninsured Americans by more than half of the U.S. population (Rosenbaum, 2011, p.130). This law hopes to result in health insurance coverage for about 94% of the American population (Rosenbaum, 2011, p. 130). This will reduce the population of uninsured Americans by 31 million people, and increase Medicaid enrollment by 15 million recipients (Rosenbaum, 2011, p. 130). Approximately 24 million people are still expected to remain without a coverage plan. The act has several goals. For instance, one goal of the ACA is to have a close to universal coverage system, with the help and responsibility among individuals, employers, and largely, the government. The second goal is to improve the fairness, condition, and affordable prices of health insurance coverage for Americans (Rosenbaum, 2011, p. 130). Lastly, a third goal is to improve the quality of health care through value, excellence, and effectiveness while trying to reduce inefficient spending and making the healthcare system more reachable to a diverse population (Rosenbaum,

The Affordable Care Act was created to make an attempt to reduce the amount we pay for healthcare. “Healthcare premiums were too expensive for many families to afford,” is a common issue among citizens today, and we have come to the conclusion that Obamacare can help reduce that amount. Ever since this has been put in place, many Americans deny this, but it says that even if you aren’t 100 percent healthy it will still cover you, unlike regular healthcare premiums opposed that. Another benefit that is presented, it that you don’t have to have a high income or good health to be covered, the act says that it will cover you no matter what condition or state you are in.

It has been six years since the Affordable Care Act has been implemented into the United States healthcare system. As the pieces and provisions of this monumental federal statute become understood and executed, it is transforming the demand for care. Prior to the ACA, a significant number of Americans were marginalized and unable to obtain coverage. This system was faced increasing healthcare costs, placing greater financial strain to everyday Americans, businesses, and public health insurance systems. The ACA did not only help ensure health coverage for all (almost

Racial segregated healthcare is not new in America it can be traced back to beginning of slavery. “The emergence of theories such as polygenism, and movement such as anthropometry, phrenology, and craniometry in the early 1800’s as early as the Jim Crow laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 only helped to reinforce these disparities.” (Source 3) Also between 1876 and 1965 laws are created equal facilities for minority’s black and white creating it prohibited for minority physicians to follow or receive education in white facilities. (Source 3) In 2011 reports on healthcare quality and disparities, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) finds that low-income individuals and people of color experience more barriers to care and receive poor quality care. (Source

This is a part of healthcare disparities which is a crucial issue in the United States. Healthcare disparities is in effect when there are differences in accessibility to coverage, access, accessibility and use and quality of care in health insurance between population groups. Per (Gibbons, 2005) blacks, other minorities and poor Americans experience disparities in health. These disparities are not just unfortunate but may result in major illnesses and even death (Gibbons, 2005). America is considered the land of the great but your race, culture and even disability can affect how you receive healthcare. Equality among healthcare should not be dependent on your culture nor income. Thus, the ACA helps with this. It creates equality no matter who you are. Even if your income is low, the government provides a subsidy. The ACA also allows adequate access and quality for all.

The affordable care act truly contains over a thousand pages of reforms to the insurance and health care industries in order to combat rising health care costs that are manifesting all around the country. Throughout the developing statistics pertaining to the American that did not receive health care insurance, it was stated that as of 2013 there were close to around 44 million Americans who went without health insurance, this can be a little less than sixteen percent of the United States population (Cite). So let’s take a look at the majority of those individuals that are unisured, they

The Affordable Care Act which is also known as Obamacare and Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010 and it has not been without its share of problems, debates and controversies. One of the main points of contention with the PPACA is the individual mandate. This paper will look at the worldviews that are involved in the individual mandate, the worldviews of those that oppose the mandate, the roles and limits of the government’s side of the mandate issue and the conflicting views and ideas that have come about. The individual mandate “requires that most Americans obtain and maintain health insurance, or an exemption, each month or pay a tax penalty” . The whole purpose of creating PPACA was to “achieve near-universal coverage and to do so through shared responsibility among government, individuals, and employers” also to be able to “improve the fairness, quality, and affordability of health insurance coverage” and to be able to “improve health-care value, quality, and efficiency while reducing wasteful spending and making the health-care system more accountable to a diverse patient population” .Those were the top three aims that were pointed out in drawing up the policies for PPACA to develop what was hoped to be universal healthcare for the citizens of the United States. While the PPACA does have its benefits, such as it would cover pre-existing conditions where most private insurances do not do, more people have the

The Affordable Healthcare Act is has improved our health care system in many ways. One of the most obvious improvements is in America today we have more people with healthcare coverage than ever before. Per the video we have 90% of Americans have health care today, which is an increase in 20 million Americans with health insurance. Per Health and Humana services (March 2016). That part of this increase can be contributed to ACA many changes. One change in particular is allowing young adults under the age of 26 to stay on their parent’s health insurance plans. This change alone enabled 2.3 million young adults to now have affordable insurance though their parents. This change resulted in reduction of 46.5% of young adults from 2013 to 2016. In addition, Health and Humana Services statists point out that the uninsured rate for Blacks dropped more than 50% which equals 3 million black Americans now have health coverage. Health and Humana service also noted that with the Hispanic population there was also an increase of 4 million Hispanic adults obtaining coverage and an increase of 8.9 white adults obtaining health care coverage. In addition to the increased numbers of Americans obtaining insurance those who utilized their health insurance also experienced that additional preventative health service were now covered at 100% and would not go towards one’s deductible, thus forcing and individual to pay out of pocket for said services. One item that I have benefited from is

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