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Racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S. health care system
Racial and ethnic disparities in the U.S. health care system
Sample Essays On Health Disparities In America
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Health Care Disparities: Nurses Need to Care The United States government spent 2.3 billion dollars in 2010 on federally funded healthcare initiatives and programs according to a report from the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (2008). Despite this astronomical amount of money, health care disparities continue to plague disadvantaged populations in the United States. A health care disparity is defined as differences in incidence, mortality, prevalence, disease burden, and adverse health conditions that occur in specific population groups in the United States (National Institutes of Health, 2010). These differences occur as a result of culture, race and geographical location as well as socioeconomic status (Andrews, & Boyle, 2008). Health disparities affect racial and ethnic minorities, low-income groups, women, children, older adults, residents of rural areas, and individuals with disabilities and special care needs (National Institutes of Health, 2010). Health disparities result in inadequate health care for affected populations with significant medical problems. Inadequate health care delivered in an untimely fashion ultimately requires more intervention to resolve worsening problems and also increases health care expenses for individuals, families, and communities (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). One way to decrease the prevalence of deteriorating health for any population is by using preventive care measures (Andrews, & Boyle, 2008). The use of preventive care allows significant problems to be identified early which enables the resolution of the problem when it is still a minor issue (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). Often this strategy is more cost effective and require... ... middle of paper ... ...lth status and needs assessment of native americans in maine: final report Augusta, Maine: Maine Department of Health and Human Services. Retrieved from http://www.maine.gov/dhhs/boh/phdata/Non%20DHP%20Pdf%20Doc/Health_Status_Needs_Assessment_Native_Americans_2000.pdf National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute. (2010). Health disparities defined Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://crchd.cancer.gov/disparities/defined.html Providers Guide to Quality and Culture. (2005). Techniques for taking a history: The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. http://erc.msh.org/aapi/tt4.html. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2008). National healthcare disparities report Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhdr08/nhdr08.pdf
Health Disparities and Racism is an ongoing problem that is reflected among society. Health is when an individual is physically, mentally and social well being is complete. However health disparities seems to be a social injustice within various ethnicities. Health disparities range from age, race, income, education and many other things. Even though we realize health disparities are more noticeable depending on the region of country where they live in. Racism is one of the most popular factors, for why it’s known that people struggle with health.
The disparities in the healthcare system contribute to the overall health status disparities that affect ethnic and racial minorities. The sources of ethnic and racial healthcare disparities include cultural barriers, geography differences, or healthcare provider stereotyping. In addition, difficulties in communication between health care providers and patients, lack of access to healthcare providers, and lack of access to adequate health care coverage
United States. US Department of Health and Human Services. The Initiative to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Disparitites in Health. 26 May 1998. Online. Internet. 21 February 1999. Available <http://raceandhealth.hhs.gov/home.htm>.
Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority. "U.S. Census Bureau Report." 2007. OMH - Office of Minority Health. 3 December 2011 .
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012). 2012 National health care disparities report (13-0003). Retrieved from Agency for Health Care Research and Quality website: http://ahrq.gov-research-findings-nhqrdr-nhdr12-2012nhdr.pdf
Healthcare disparities are when there are inequalities or differences of the conditions of health and the quality of care that is received among specific groups of people such as African Americans, Caucasians, Asians, or Hispanics. Not only does it occur between racial and ethnic groups, health disparities can happen between males and females as well. Minorities have the worst healthcare outcomes, higher death rates, and are more prone to terminal diseases. For African American men and women, some of the most common health disparities are diabetes, cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and HIV infections. Some factors that can contribute to disparities are healthcare access, transportation, specialist referrals, and non-effective communication with patients. There is also much racism that still occurs today, which can be another reason African Americans may be mistreated with their healthcare. “Although both black and white patients tended not to endorse the existence of racism in the medical system, African Americans patients were more likely to perceive racism” (Laveist, Nickerson, Bowie, 2000). Over the years, the health care system has made improvements but some Americans, such as African Americans, are still being treating unequally when wanting the same care they desire as everyone else.
The U.S. expends far more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet we get fewer benefits, less than ideal health outcomes, and a lot of dissatisfaction manifested by unequal access, the significant numbers of uninsured and underinsured Americans, uneven quality, and unconstrained wastes. The financing of healthcare is also complicated, as there is no single payer system and payment schemes vary across payors and providers.
The goal within the United States government is to treat each individual as an equal citizen. Unfortunately, through the inadequate practice of public policies people have been treated unequal because of natural conditions and the countries social environment. In health policy, the two concepts that cause unequal treatment are health disparities and health differences. Health disparities are resulted from social factors that are avoidable and unjust. For example, saying ovarian cancer death rates are higher because men have better research on prostate cancer (Smith, 2016). “The extent and nature of health disparities changes over the life course” (Adler, 2008, p. 241). Health differences are inherently biological being completely natural and
Despite the substantial developments in diagnostic and treatment processes, there is convincing evidence that ethnic and racial minorities normally access and receive low quality services compared to the majority communities (Lum, 2011). As such, minority groups have higher mortality and morbidity rates arising from both preventable and treatable diseases judged against the majority groups. Elimination of both racial and ethnic disparities is mainly politically sensitive, but plays an important role in the equitable access of services, including the health care ones without discrimination. In addition, accountability, accessibility, and availability of equitable health care services are crucial for the continually growing
Healthcare and health disparities refer to the differences in healthcare issues and conditions between different population groups. These differences not only impact the population groups facing them but also hinder the efforts to improve the quality of healthcare for the whole population with unnecessary cost implications (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). This paper examines health disparities for the Somali Americans and offers a community-based approach that can improve patient outcomes.
Most health care plans do not collect socioeconomic or racial/ethnic data on their plan members. The recognition of disparities in health care as a quality issue has far-reaching implications for reducing socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in health care. It is difficult to isolate racial/ethnic disparities in health care due to socioeconomic disparities because race and socioeconomic position are so closely intertwined, especially in the United States. However, socioeconomic position appears to be the more powerful determinant of health, as mentioned above. Fiscella et al. proposed five principles for addressing disparities, some of which were- 1) “disparities must be recognized as a significant quality problem”; and 2) “an approach to disparities should account for the relationships between both socioeconomic position and race/ethnicity and morbidity. Consideration should be given to linking reimbursement to the socioeconomic position and racial/ethnicity composition of the enrolled population.”
Racial and ethnic healthcare disparities, often defined as the difference in which socially disadvantaged racial and ethnic minorities experience worse health or greater health risks than more advantaged social groups1, has become a cause of concern as the US grows increasingly diverse. Quality healthcare access is already scarce amongst many Americans, but the effects are particularly apparent for minorities even within the greater context of groups with similar SES. Research shows that these disadvantaged minorities are at disproportionate risk of access to healthcare, experiencing worse healthcare outcomes, and being uninsured.2 As members of these groups enter end-of-life treatment, the
Racial and ethnic minorities receive poorer quality of care and have poorer health outcomes in terms of both morbidity and mortality when compared to non-minorities (Nazroo, 2003). Similarly, lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with poorer health outcomes including higher rates of mortality and morbidity (Adler et al., 1994). The factors that contribute to these health disparities for racial/ethnic minorities and lower SES individuals have some commonalities but are, for the most part, distinct from one another. The main similarity between the two is the issue of access to quality health care. Race, ethnicity, social class, education level, and occupation can influence provider’s beliefs and expectations about a patient (Van Ryn & Fu, 2003). This can result in conscious and unconscious stereotyping of the
A myriad of factors contribute to effective and ineffective delivery of health care to communities. Factors such as language barriers, lack of healthcare coverage, economic status and lack of education all contribute to healthcare disparity in the United States (McHenry, 2012).
This essay reviews a selection of the literature on healthcare-related inequalities, with the aim of illuminating how we can differentiate between fair and unfair, and between avoidable and unavoidable, inequalities in health. This essay also reviews some of the more common methods used to measure healthcare inequalities and discusses their limitations. Some policy considerations are provided at the end.