Health Inequality

Figure 1. Non-financial barriers to receiving health care between men and women (2013) Retrived from

ABSTRACT Background: In 2005, WHO Member States adopted a resolution to encourage all countries for achieving and/or maintaining universal health coverage without the risk of severe financial consequences. Access to health care is one of the major components of universal health care. Access is complex and multidimensional concept. Gender influence on access and use of health care is one of the key determinants to achieve universal health coverage in India.

Age discrimination in health care is primarily hidden and individual rather than institutional (Lievesley, 2012), where statistical evidence demonstrates this relationship with registered nurses and the severity and presence of discrimination towards patients of the older generation. Furthermore, patient outcomes are indirectly affected by ageism (Nelson, 2005). For example, health care workers who are biased towards the elderly often result in a reluctance to trial certain treatments which could benefit the individual along with the dismissal of older patients from clinical trials (Nelson, 2005). It is evident that registered nurses distance themselves from seniors due to feeling powerless to help or the patient might be at the end stage of life (Kane & Kane, 2005). Additionally, it has been found that people of the older generation who suffer a disability, such as a hearing of visual deficit, tend not to choose to receive rehabilitation in order to assist with day-to-day life (Kane & Kane,

Henrietta Lacks’s daughter Deborah once stated “If our mother cells done so much for medicine, how come her family can’t afford to see no doctors?” (Skloot 9). The lack of ethics also points to another theme of Henrietta’s story, discoveries are more than the discovery itself, there are always people behind them. Deborah’s words also emphasize the human side

There are countless families with impoverished, single mothers with many children of a minority race that are discriminated against. Especially around the 50s and 60s when the novel is set, immigrant women did not have high chances of being hired for a stable enough job to support their family. This then causes the mother to grow tired and weary, too drained to take care of their children like they should. After a while, the neighbors stop caring and ignore them rather than help them, and the children run about without any care for the consequences of their actions. Some of these consequences aren’t that bad; however, in cases like the Vargases’, the lack of proper supervision, guidance, and care can lead to horrible occurrences like the death of a

It is evident that Melinda was depressed as she was biting her lip and cutting her wrist with the end of a paperclip. Due to her depression, she was not fully understood by many people, such as her parents and Heather. For example, when Melinda cut her wrist, her mom said, "I don’t have time for this Melinda" (88). Since her mom does not bother to take the time to comprehend her situation, it is clear that she does care about how Melinda feels. Moreover, Melinda’s behavioural issues stem from her depression and lack of desire to actively engage in her life.

According to the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at the Elizabethtown College, the Amish forbid the use of cars because they fear it will tempt some to drive away from the localization of their town. Instead, horse-drawn buggies are used so the Amish can get around easily while not venturing off too far into modern society. Electricity from public utility lines is also forbidden. Instead, the Amish use batteries, which are much more independent and rarely rely on the outside world. However, they do comply with the use of gas grills, camping and farming equipment, and shop tools (http://www2.etown.edu/amishstudies/Technology.asp).

Due to these sorts of racial discriminations in the medical and scientific setting, minorities have a higher death rate than the majorities in the United States. It is because of the mistrust of healthcare providers, and the lack of health insurance. Although Henrietta Lacks helped cure different diseases and viruses, without informed consent, her family was suffering. Just like the victims of the Tuskegee study, Henrietta was also a poor patient.

To understand how to reduce these imparities, they need to be identified. The purpose of this essay is to explore what these inequalities are and how they have come to manifest in health care. This will be done through addressing subjects such as economic status, accessibility for service users, gender and ethnicity. How have Inequalities Come to Manifest in Healthcare?

It is said that, “Labor pain is one of the most severe pains which has ever evaluated and its fear is one of the reasons women wouldn’t go for natural delivery”(US Nat’l Library of Medicine, 1). There would be no medicine available for the mother to assist her at the house. Some women can handle pain, but for others it can cause severe problems. If the mother can’t handle the pain during childbirth, it may cause fatigue and may put too much stress on the body.

It is very difficult to think that the parents I work with do not see how others are also victims of the system. In one account, a woman “did not socialize with neighbors, usually kept her curtains closed, and generally did not allow her young daughter to play outside.” This ideology, which has been inherited from the days of Raeganomics, creates distance within the communities we work with and further isolates our clients. However I think that this propaganda worked to discourage the creation of communities and further isolate welfare recipients. When we contract with our clients, we talk a lot about their support system and community supports are really lacking in their lives.

Race or ethnicity, sex, sexual identity, age, disability, socioeconomic status, and geographic location all contribute to an individual’s ability to achieve good health (Disparity, 2016). As history has depicted, most strategies directed at eliminating disparities and achieving health equity have been focused primarily on diseases or illnesses and on health care services. However, as most experts will agree, the absence of disease does not necessarily equate to good health. Therefore, for a society to continually exuberate healthy attitude and status, the impact of the social determinants on the health outcomes of specific groups must be adequately addressed by the government and all the health agencies across the country.

Sociologist David Williams states that all policies impact health policy. This is exemplified across a wide rage of policies in the US. These policies are flawed and corrupt, polarizing the nation racially and by socioeconomic status (SES) and resulting in great disparities in health. Although policy and law has evolved, presenting a more progressive and “color-blind” front, it remains an obstacle to ending disparities in health. Many of these policies, such as housing, environmental, and labor, are interconnected and have many aspects to them that affect health policy.

This webinar is a presentation on the race associated differences in health, how they come to be, and some flaws inherent in the available initiatives to address these issues. First to speak was Kumanyika (2015) who utilized health outcomes parameters such as excess deaths, Life Expectancy at birth, Low birth weight, Infant mortality and Years of potential life lost before 75years, in order to illustrate the overall improvement in the health outcomes of the general populace between 1985 till 20012. However quite glaring in these data is the persistent racial disparity in health existing with the minorities having health outcomes that are worse than the white population. Shamika attributed this trends to the inadequacy in the initiates that

In the early 1900s, women’s health was non-existent. It was not taught in school, it was never spoken about in the media, and many women themselves had no knowledge about reproductive health. During this time it was common to see women with ten, fifteen, even twenty pregnancies throughout their lives. Men and women both were often unaware on how to plan or prevent a pregnancy and birth control was pronounced illegal. Consequently, this was also a period of high childbirth mortality, as well as a time where many women were dying due to self-induced or “back-alley” abortions.