Healthcare disparities are a significant issue in the U.S. with factors such as quality of care, access to care, and insurance playing a role in discrepancies. Statistics have shown that healthcare disparities have improved but are still an issue in the United States. These disparities have been improving throughout history with efforts made by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. The leading cause of the disparities is insurance coverage. The current intervention being used is the ACA, which was put into place by President Obama. The ACA has been making advances in decreasing the amount of uninsured Americans and trying to minimize the amount of healthcare disparities. With the advances throughout history there is still a long way to
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,
Expanding accessibility to affordable healthcare insurance is one way in which our country can begin to increase healthcare that is patient and family centered. One reason for existing disparities are the expenses associated with seeking healthcare. For some people, while the actual monthly payments of their health insurance is affordable, patients still face high deductibles or high out of pocket maximums. By making health insurance attainable for the majority of Americans, this alone is only the first step toward reducing some of the existing health disparities. Money alone is a factor that can deter people from seeking preventive treatment and screenings. I too suspect that the results of the affordable care act will not be seen for a few more years. Hopefully, as more people become insured and as health insurance is more in demand, accessibility and affordability will continue to improve.
There are significant socioeconomic disparities in the greater Atlanta area. The average mean income for the area is $27,000 per family per year. Of these numbers more than half live below the poverty line and happen to be 80 percent minorities. Minority populations have a higher rate of Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and stroke and tend to have lower birth rates than White Americans. This could be contributed to a lack of access to adequate healthcare and healthcare systems. In conducting reviews of research related to health disparities and lack of access to healthcare for minorities, there are several articles that cite data and methods that show the relationship to minorities with low SES are significantly impacted. According to the peer reviewed article, “Reducing Health Disparities in Underserved Communities” there is a significant disparity in access to healthcare for minorities health services among whites, blacks, and Hispanics over the past two decades. The article also cited several causes to this lack of access such as
Health care disparity according to U.S National Library of Medicine (2017) “typically refers to differences between groups in health insurance coverage, access to and use of care, and quality of care”. The purpose of this research was to identify the different factors that prevent San Bernardino County residents from accessing quality healthcare and identify specific groups affected. Our research has concluded , social economics status, gender, race and ethnicity to be major factors in San Bernardino County that have created these healthcare disparities. According to the Kaiser Permanente Community Health Needs Assessment San Bernardino County (CHNA 2013 ) the impact of economic instability, unemployment, homelessness and transportation,
Around the world, people ought to enjoy their life to the fullest without bounds constraints. They live their life healthy and productive. Be that as it may, health disparity persist in their life at a certain point. Numerous individuals struggled this in light of the way that they would prefer not to persevere through the hardship their whole life yet occasionally however now and again things doesn 't for the most part goes as they wish.
Disparities in health care have been an ongoing issue for more than two decades. Evidence suggests that disparities in women and minority population continue to be problematic, with little progress being made to eliminate them. Ethnic and disparities exist for several different reasons. However, several national organizations have made efforts to reduce health disparities, including the Institute of Medicine, (IOM), and the Agency for Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) as well as Healthy People 20/20.
Indeed, you mentioned an important aspect of disparities and it is one related to the disparities affecting racial groups. The United States is a multicultural country so for a healthcare professional to treat a disease or to approach a group is necessary to consider their cultural background, traditions, and beliefs. Despite all the United States effort to eradicate the racial differences in the Country, race continues as one of the most significant factors to take into consideration when we are evaluating health care services or high quality of care. Health disparities among Hispanics most the time is caused by the type of food they consume, and the lack of access to healthcare services. In addition, some Hispanic are not the United States
While many argue that minorities and ethnicities face health care disparities due to racial backgrounds, other argue that these disparities instead occur because of a large range of dimensions. The populations most vulnerable to health and health care disparities are often referred to as priority or vulnerable populations. Vulnerable populations include groups that are not well integrated into the health care system across a variety of characteristics, including race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, geographic location, language, gender, disability status, citizenship status, and sexual identity and orientation. Disparities also occur within subgroups of populations. For example, among Hispanics, there are differences in health and health
With the ongoing changes on policies in healthcare, it is imperative to consider the legal and ethical issues in health disparities and access to care based on the socioeconomic status. Research have shown over the past 25 years that disparities in the quality of care are highly influenced by individual characteristics such as race, gender, ethnicity, education, income, and age. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) recognized that providing care is not simply a “one size fits all” approach especially with the diverse population in today’s society. As healthcare professionals, we need to be alert and know how to properly intervene with such disparities so that the care provided is tailored to the individual.
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
Sources define the term health disparities as differences between different communities and their health care, as well as the health differences that are linked to disadvantages in communities including age, gender, racial or ethnic group, and geographic locations. Health disparities are directly related to the distribution of social, political, economic, and environmental resources. The CDC explains multiple factors health disparities are caused by including poverty, environmental threats, inadequate access to health care, individual and behavioral factors, and educational inequalities (William, 2011). Inequities in education have a key relationship with health disparities. Adolescents associated with social and health problems tend to drop out of school. It has been proven that good health is associated with academic success. Many health risks have a major impact on how well a child performs in school. Studies show that children lacking education have a higher chance on
Socioeconomic status (SES) in recent times has been defined as “a broad concept that refers to the placement of persons, households and census tracts with respect to the capacity to create or consume goods that are valued in our society.” More specifically, it is the access an individual or group has to rudimentary resources that are required to obtain and preserve good health (Shavers, 2007). Socioeconomic status has been shown to impact physical health, with escalations in SES being linked with prominent benefits to health (Schreier & Chen, 2013). The fact that our culture’s poorer and less advantaged individuals live with inferior health and die earlier is a problem that needs to be
The lack of financial resources can be a big problem to access to health care. The lack of available finance is a barrier to health care for many Americans but access to health care is reduced most among minority populations. The irregular source of care is another reason why access to health is a disparity. Compared to white individuals ethnic or racial minorities are less likely to be able to visit the same doctor on a regular basis and tend to rely more on clinics and emergency rooms (News Medical Life Sciences).
Social justice, the fair distribution of resources amongst the population, strives towards bringing equality to all, in this case, in the form of healthcare. The reasoning behind healthcare reform stems from distributive justice, which attempts to correct the disparity between readily accessible healthcare for the insured and the unavailability under and uninsured (Lachman, 2012, p. 249). The passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, opened up access to basic healthcare for a wider range of the population, many who had no healthcare access previously (Kelly, 2014, p. 1). With the wide distribution of healthcare access brings the duty of responsibility. This paper will explore and present the rationale