The Effects of Poverty on Women's Access to Healthcare

1138 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Socioeconomic influences on health

The constitution of the World Health Organization states that “The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition” (Koh and Nowinski 2010 pp 949). One would hope that this sentiment would also include the low income women of our society, however it has become a harsh reality amongst poverty stricken women that fair and affordable health care is difficult to provide for themselves and for their families. Women with an income below the federal poverty level are at a higher risk of being uninsured or under insured than the general population (Legerski, 2012). The inability to acquire adequate health insurance both privately offered and state funded, in particular can be a serious barrier to low income women's ability to seek health care (Magge, 2013). Furthermore poverty can cause some women to engage in dangerous “street involvement” causing health care providers to act with unjust prejudice in regard to their health care (Bungay, 2013). This paper will attempt to further address and justify these broad statements regarding low income women and their relationship to health care. It makes the argument that if we must see the highest attainable standard of health care as a fundamental human right than by not safeguarding our society’s impoverished women from these trials and tribulations are we not, as a country making a concession that low income women are less worthy or these rights? Approximately two-thirds of the uninsured in our country live in low income families, approximately 8.5 million of those are uninsured low income women, thus making up 19 percent of the uninsured populatio... ... middle of paper ... ...1-334. doi:10.1080/15544770902901809 Koh, H. K., & Nowinski, J. M. (2010, April 2). Health equity and public health leadership. American journal of public health. pp. S9-S11. doi:10.2105/AfPH2010.191379. Legerski, E. (2012). The Cost of Instability: The effects of family, work, and welfare change on low-income women's health insurance status. Sociological forum, 27(3), 641-657. doi: 10.1111/j.1573-7861.2012.01339.x Magge, H., Cabral, H., Kazis, L., & Sommers, B. (2013). Prevalence and predictors of underinsurance among low-income adults. JGIM: Journal of general Internal medicine, 28(9), 1136-1142. doi:10.1007/s11606-013-2354-z Mumtaz, Z., Salway, S., Bhatti, A., & Mclntyre, L. (2014). Addressing invisibility, inferiority, and powerlessness to achieve gains in maternal health for ultra-poor women. Lancet, 383(9922), 1095-1097. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61646-3

Show More
Related

  • Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains

    1957 Words  | 4 Pages

    In conclusion, the ultimate significance to this type of work is to improve the quality of healthcare in these extremely impoverished nations. This argument is represented in Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains, Monte Leach’s “Ensuring Health Care as a Global Human Right”, and Darshark Sanghavi’s “Is it Cost Effective to Treat the World’s Poor.” The idea that universal healthcare is a human right is argued against in Michael F. Cannon’s “A “Right” to health care?” Cannon claims that it would not work, and fills the holes that the other authors leave in their arguments. All of these articles share the same ultimate goal, and that is to provide every individual with adequate health care, and to not let so many people die from things that could easily have been prevented or treated.

    Read More

  • Healthcare Crisis in America

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the most recent numbers posted by the Census Bureau, an estimated 47 million Americans are uninsured. But let us examine these numbers closer. Of this 47 million, roughly 7 million are illegal immigrants, 9 million are on Medicade, 3.5 million are eligible for healthcare but do not pursue these available health services, and approximately 20 million families have incomes above the poverty level ($41,300 for a family of four) and can afford regular healthcare services with more coverage. Government tries to add all these factors together to make the numbers higher, in an attempt to gai...

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The Affordable Care Act

    1318 Words  | 3 Pages

    With that in mind, the insurance crisis affects the entire community and according to Thomas May, “Already skyrocketing costs are forcing employers to adjust health insurance benefits, with many resorting to plans that offer fewer benefits, less choices, and higher deductibles and copays” (May, 2007). For instance, in the last 10 years insurance premiums have increased 80 percent, employees have had an astonishing 89 percent increase in their contribution to health insurance, all in the guise of trying to reduce misuse of services and control costs (Bisera, C). As a result, this trend is going to leave many at an increased risk of losing their insurance coverage because small businesses will not be able to afford the increased premiums, in addition to that, the “working poor” are the fastest growing uninsured population (May,

    Read More

  • Quality Analysis: Cost And Quality In Health Care

    963 Words  | 2 Pages

    spends about 15% of its gross domestic product on healthcare, thereby making it the largest sector of the economy” (Goldman, D., & McGlynn, E., 2005). “Americans are not healthier than some of the other developed nations, regardless of these extensive costs” (WHO, 2010). “Almost 40 million Americans are uninsured and about 18% of Americans under the age of 65 receive half of the recommended healthcare services” (Goldman, D., & McGlynn, E., 2005). “Though, quality of care was noted not to vary much in cities with respect to lack of insurance, poverty, penetration of managed care and availability of physicians and hospital beds” (Goldman, D., & McGlynn, E., 2005).

    Read More

  • Uninsured Rates of Hispanics

    1712 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ku, L., and T. Waidmann. (2003). Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Urban Institute: How race/ethnicity, immigration status and language affect health insurance coverage, access to care and quality of care among the low income population. Print.

    Read More

  • The Issue Of Health Insurance

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although health insurance can be beneficial because providers get paid for the services they provide to the patient the insurance premiums and deductibles are in many instances way more than many families across the United States can afford. With these extremely high costs for insurance statics show that over 40 million families’ can’t afford or have access to needed health care systems. “It shows that one-fifth of Americans couldn 't afford one or more of these services: medical care, prescription medicines, mental health care, dental care, or eyeglasses (R...

    Read More

  • The Importance of Preventative Care for Health

    2869 Words  | 6 Pages

    Less is known, however, about how differences in the use of preventive services vary across subgroups of the uninsured population. As a whole, the uninsured receive less preventive care. When issues are discovered it is typically at more advanced disease stages, and once a diagnosis is received, the uninsured tend to receive less therapeutic care. 21 The uninsured population is not monolithic and spans all levels of household income, education, and age. Even though there has been a large amount of information created by work on preventive services, a gap remains in the literature. According to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), an estimated 48.6 million people were uninsured in 2011. This figur...

    Read More

  • Social Class In America By Gregory Mantsios

    1202 Words  | 3 Pages

    In all areas of health, poor people do not share the same life chances as those in the social class above them. Furthermore low income correlates with a lower quality of treatment for illness and disease.(389.2)

    Read More

  • Socioeconomic Status and Health Care

    1780 Words  | 4 Pages

    Niewczyk, Paulette M., and Jamson S. Lwebuga-Mukasa. "Is Poverty the Main Factor Contributing to Health Care Disparities? An Investigation of Individual Level Factors Contributing to Health Care Disparities."WWW.JEHONLINE.COM. THE JOURNAL OF EQUITY IN HEALTH, Oct. 2008. Web. 7 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Health Disparities: A Case Study

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    The National Institutes of Health (NIH) define healthcare disparities as “differences in access to or availability of facilities and services” (National Institutes of Health [NIH], 2018). These healthcare disparities result in health status disparities which are defined as “variation in rates of disease occurrence and disabilities between socioeconomic and/or geographically defined population groups (NIH, 2018). Essentially, disparate access to healthcare services amongst certain groups of people leads to variation in health-related outcomes compared to those with access. The outcomes of those suffering from healthcare disparities such as lack of insurance and lack of access to healthcare services, whether primary, emergency or mental health care lead to poorer health

    Read More

  • Why People Are Uninsured

    565 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many factors that can account into why people still do not have health insurance in the United States. In the last decade, the unemployment rate has steadily increased causing the number of uninsured people to rise. The main focus of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), has been to provide low-income individuals with health care coverage. With the job market improving, people have had the opportunities to get different jobs and become covered again. But the question remains, even with employment, why are 61% of adults still uninsured? Most of the uninsured are low-income working families who cannot afford the high cost of insurance.

    Read More

  • Lack Of Health Care In The United States

    556 Words  | 2 Pages

    Having lived in both western and third world country, I have the opportunity to be able to compare both worlds when it comes to health care. United States is one of the wealthiest countries in the world as such; his citizens should have right to some basic recourse, which health care is one of them. Health care should be a right for everyone living in united states; Privileges to health care are seen in people living in third world country, not so rich countries like my home country Nigeria.

    Read More

  • Health Care Issue Analysis

    1483 Words  | 3 Pages

    The statistical findings also explain how individuals pay for healthcare which sheds some light on why it is so difficult for all Americans to have health coverage. “Employment-based group health insurance covered 59 percent. Private individually purchased health insurance covered about 9 percent” (pg. 278). However the amount of uninsured remains in the

    Read More

  • Free Clinic Project

    1205 Words  | 3 Pages

    Cohen, R.A. & Martinez, M.P. H. (2012). Health insurance coverage: Early release of estimates from the National Health Interview Survey, 2011. CDC. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/earlyrelease/insur201206.pdf

    Read More

  • Women's Health In Afghanistan Essay

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women often have their baby being born already dead, which is combined with excessive bleeding. “Over half of births in Afghanistan — 65 percent — take place at home, contributing to low levels of vaccinations and a mortality rate that's still high” (“Afghan women largely lack healthcare, education”) because many hospitals were too far to travel to. One acting component to the lack of women’s health is that women are uneducated about it. If women were educated more on birth giving and the importance of not having a child under the age of 18, many deaths and miscarriages could be prevented. “92.9 percent of married women ages 15-19 are not using any method of contraception at all.” Women in urban areas tend to be more educated than women in rural areas. Also that with the rich women than poor

    Read More

More about The Effects of Poverty on Women's Access to Healthcare

Open Document