In a theoretical standpoint, everyone in the world has the right to a standard of physical and mental well-being. However, there are many challenges that hinder this goal. According to World Health Organization (2015), there are at least 400 million people do not have access to one or more essential health services. Therefore, I believe inequality access to health care is the greatest global health problem in the century.
Inequality access to health care mainly relates to poverty. High proportion of the population in developing countries has inadequate resources to spend on basic health services (Peters et al., 2008; Smith & P., 1999). For instance, 60% of the Cambodian women have to give birth at home and assisted by unskilled birth attendants
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.
Integrated healthcare is key to eliminating mental and physical health disparities by addressing the needs of people based on their differences in their race, socio-economic status, and culture. An integrated healthcare organization is competent of responding to a community with challenges of long standing health disparities. Healthcare professionals in an integrated system are cross-trained in both physical and behavioral health to handle the challenges of mental and physical health disparities. It improves the quality of care of the population by lowering costs, enhancing patient access, and improving the life of both individuals and families. The con of addressing the long standing health disparity is managing the care of patients and
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
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.
At the end, I will suggest methods to solve the health inequality. Definitions of ‘Health’ ‘Absence of diseases’ is a common definition of health within our society. However, it cannot completely express the definition of health since health is affected by many factors but not only biological and physiological. An official definition of health by the World Health Organization is, ‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The enjoyment of the highest attainment of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being, without distinction of race, religion, political beliefs or economic and social conditions’ (World Health Organization, 1948).
The term social determinants of health, can be defined as a ‘set of conditions in which people are born, grow up, live and work.’ These conditions include housing, education, financial security and the environment along with the healthcare service. (http://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/438838/01.12_Health_inequalities_and_the_social_determinants_of_health.pdf) These factors are affected by the amount of money, power and resources that are available at a global, national and local level. Social determinants of health are linked to health inequalities according to the World Health Organisation, health inequalities are ‘the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and between countries.’
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.
This essay aims to identify and evaluate the inequalities in health care in different areas of society, namely disability and gender. Firstly, it is important to understand what we mean by health inequalities. It is commonly understood that health inequality refers to unjust differences in the health status, usually preventable, between different groups, populations or individuals. The existence of such inequalities is attributed to the unequal distributions of social, environmental and economic conditions within societies. Such conditions determine the risk of individuals getting ill, their ability to prevent sickness, as well as opportunities to access to the right treatments.
Sir Michael Marmot put into perspective how serious social disparities are and how they influence health not only between countries but also, within countries. The issue is not medical care; in fact the United States spends the most on medical care. You would initially think the country in which spends the most on medical care must have higher health rates. Well, believe it or not, this is actually false, for instance, sixty-two countries had higher maternal health rates than the United States. This displays that a lack of medical care fundamentally is not the conflict, whereas social inequality is.
Introduction People hope and seeks long and healthier lives. Thus, health care is the act of taking preventative or necessary medical procedures to improve people well-being. Improvement or preventative may be done with surgery, the administering of medicine, or other alterations in a person 's lifestyle. These services are usually offered through a health care system made up of hospitals and physicians. Although, the health care system is set up to reduce or to prevent disease etc., there is a gap or disparity in the US health care system.
Health Care Disparities 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. There are about 27 million people that live in the area defined as the Appalachian region, which spans 13 states.
For both the uninsured group and those who are eligible for government assistance because of their low economic position, access to health is limited by the number of private providers willing to treat them. In many cases private providers are linked to particular private health insurance companies and won 't accept patients outside their network. These people must then rely on the overburdened public health system for care, and as such usually only seek treatment in emergencies. The public health system, while filled with competent staff, is nevertheless restricted by its funding and can therefore not always provide all these patients with the best quality of care. The inequality in health care access is a continuing issue in America and as such it is important for future consumers and workers on the Foothill College campus to have a thorough understanding of the issue so they can move to improve the problem in the
It may surprise you that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank, at least 400 million people lack access to essential health services. They said, at least 6 percent of people in 37 low and middle income countries are living in poverty because they must spend the money for health. Health care services is the most importance thing that we need because it is not only for improve the health but also through individual behaviour and lifestyle choices such as quitting smoking, eating the nutritious food and living a healthy lifestyles.
These disparities that exist in all the factors have to be eliminated with suitable control measures. Regulations on health care services and their access has to be made more
This is so because, universal access to health will really do good to the world and it is a Necessity in order to reduce the level of discrimination experienced in terms of finances . Universal access to health will ensure that there will be access to equitable quality health care and will also give security to those who are financially incapable at the present to afford quality health care die to their financial status. Although this may be the case in the future, there will face challenges especially in implementing the regulations that would be set up in order to enable equal distribution of medical resource and