Essay On Health Care Disparity

Health Care in the US is arguably available to all who seek it but not everybody has had the same experience and treatment when walking through the doors of a healthcare facility. In many cases, people are discriminated against due to their gender, race/ethnicity, age, and income and are often provided with minimal service. Differences between groups in health coverage, access to care, and quality of care is majorly affected through these disparities. Income is a major factor and can cause groups of people to experience higher burden of illness, injury, disability, or mortality relative to another group.

Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or in opportunities to achieve optimal health experienced by socially disadvantaged racial, ethnic, and other population groups, and communities (Healthy Aging, 2017). An example of a health disparity would be if women were more likely than men to die from pancreatic cancer. Anyone is capable of having a health disparity. Several factors such as gender, age, social class, race, and where the person lives can cause one to inhibit a health disparity, lessening his or her chances of obtaining good health.

According to Baldwin (2003) health care disparities are the differences in health and health care between population groups including race, socioeconomic status, age, location, gender, disability, and sexual orientation. Disparities limits the improvements of quality health care which could result in unnecessary health care expenses. Factors that are contributing to disparities within today’s society are lack of access to quality health care and the number of individuals who are uninsured. As the population continue to grow and become more diverse health care disparities will continue to increase. Patient centered care efforts will improve health care and will assist with eliminating disparities. Patient centered care will promote patient

Health care should not be considered a political argument in America; it is a matter of basic human rights. Something that many people seem to forget is that the US is the only industrialized western nation that lacks a universal health care system. The National Health Care Disparities Report, as well as author and health care worker Nicholas Conley and Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), strongly suggest that the US needs a universal health care system. The most secure solution for many problems in America, such as wasted spending on a flawed non-universal health care system and 46.8 million Americans being uninsured, is to organize a national health care program in the US that covers all citizens for medical necessities.

Many Americans were led to believe that the introduction of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2009 would put an end to disparities in health care access. While it did improve the situation for a small percentage of the population there are still many Americans who lack access to good quality health care. Health care access in America is determined by money and those in lower socioeconomic groups frequently tend to miss out on adequate care. In a recent health care report by the national health research foundation Kaiser Family Foundation, it was noted “health care disparities remain a persistent problem in the United States, leading to certain groups being at higher risk of being uninsured, having limited access to care, and experiencing poorer quality of care” (Kaiser Family Foundation). The current health care

Disparities are all around us and can account for inequality that is seen among different race, in education, business, politics and even healthcare. Inequality can affect all aspects of a person’s life. In the United States it is unfortunate that every citizen is not privy to the same quality of healthcare. This is one of the major challenges and growing issues for the United States healthcare system. The gap in care is derived from racial, ethnic, gender differences in populations. Other factors that cause disparities in health care are income, insurance status, age, religion, mental disabilities, cognitive, sensory or physical disabilities, geographic location, or sexual orientation and gender identification. Racial and ethnic minorities

Health disparities are preventable differences in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially disadvantaged populations. Populations can be defined by factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, education, or income, disability, geographic location orientation. Health disparities are inequitable and are directly related to the historical and current unequal distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental resources (CDC).

Despite improvements, racial minorities and people that suffer disabilities often face more health care disparities that lead to health inequalities including forced sterilization and an increase in cervical cancer. For instance, the American Indian/Alaska Native population is a prominent minority community that faces health disparities. In the United States, there is currently 567 federally recognized American Indian/Alaska Native tribes and 2.9 million individuals identify themselves as American Indian/Alaska Native natives alone (Dugi, 2017). These individuals continue to die faster than other Americans in many categories that can be attributed with the health disparities this population endures (Dugi, 2017). American Indians/ Alaska Natives

Health disparity are avertible health status of distinctive group of people like races, skin color, language, socioeconomic resources, gender and age (Edelman, Kudzma, & Mandle, 2014). Health disparities are arbitrary and explicit to historical and present uneven distribution of political, economic, social, and environmental resources. A disparity can also be related to education, where dropping out of school occurs associated with various social and health problems (CDC,2017). Comprehensively, person with inadequate education are more likely to struggle number of health risks such as substance abuse, obesity, and traumatic injuries, compared to individual who receive more education. One of the main findings within health disparities in history

Health disparities have been an issue all over the world. In the United States, individual and community activism have been seen in an attempt to address the health inequalities of the underrepresented groups tracing back to 1781 (Mitchell, 2015). With the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the hope for social equality and justice through insurance for all remains complex. The legislation will certainly provide better health outcomes, but health advocacy remains an important aspect in changing the landscape of our health system. A study indicated that the overall rate of insurance coverage increased and a decreased in “coverage disparities related to race and ethnicity” was noted a few years after the ACA was passed (Buchmueller,

The author also highlighted that addressing issues concerning unequal availability to healthcare is in imperative in order to reducing health disparities (McHenry, 2012). I think as APNs one thing we can do is make patient aware of what their insurance will cover and what types of services they are eligible for. For many patient, suggested interventions and treatments may be disregarded due to a lack of financial means. In addition to this many people have simply decided not to take advantage of health insurance coverage that is available to

Disparities in health are an inequality that occurs in the provision of healthcare and its accessibility across different dimensions including location, gender, ethnicity, age, disability status, citizenship status and socioeconomic group (Ubri & Artiga, 2016; Wallerstein & Durran, 2006). According to the health Resources and Service Administration of United States, health disparities are defined by population specific differences in the presence of disease, health outcomes and the accessibility to healthcare. Urbi and Artiga (2016) indicates that disparities in healthcare provision not only bring impacts to the group facing disparities, but also limit overall improvements in quality of care and population health as well as resulting

Health care disparities are unfortunate and being culturally competent is an essential step toward eliminating these inequalities. In this discussion, I will review what disparities are associated with the Appalachian culture and how they affect health status, employment, and education. I will also identify two nursing interventions that could be taken to help decrease the affect that health disparities have on the Appalachians and review what the biggest challenge would be when implementing the interventions.

Despite the growing body of work that correlates disparate racial treatment and survival outcomes to the implicit biases of clinical practitioners, the majority of research on the root causes of racial health disparities has and continues to largely focus on individual and group-level socioeconomic status (SES), cultural attitudes, lifestyle and behavioral choices, as well as access to quality care and health insurance coverage. Clinically, epidemiological studies and comprehensive healthcare data assessments consistently show disparities in quality measures for socially disadvantaged ethnic and racial groups. Racial and ethnic differences in quality measures are most commonly noted in the areas of preventive care, experience of care, chronic

Health inequalities are preventable and unjust differences in health status experienced by certain population groups. People in lower socio-economic groups are more likely to experience chronic ill-health and die earlier than those who are more advantaged. Health inequalities are not only apparent between people of different socio-economic groups – they exist between different genders and different ethnic groups (“Health inequalities,” n.d.).