Healthcare disparities are a huge problem within the United States and globally. Many people face the problems of not having access to healthcare due to social, economic, or more factors. A healthcare disparity refers to differences between groups and how they access their medicine. They are usually not associated with preferences and wants but rather no access and lack of a solid economic situation.
A complex set of social determinants of health contribute to disparities in health and healthcare. Some of it has to do with behaviors and how people will want to lost weight versus following medical advice from a professional. Majority of the time, it is how healthcare is financed, organized, and provided that shapes disparities. A broader range of socioeconomic factors effect a person’s health and access to quality medicine.
Most people commonly view race and ethnicity as determining factors to health disaparities, however there is a wider amount of factors such as economic status, age, gender, education level, and citizenship status. Many federal efforts have been targeted at these specific groups that are more vulnerable to health inequality including women, low-income groups, groups of color, and much more. These groups are not exclusive and in fact many of them interact with each other or within in each other.
Addressing these disparities are crucial as there are very devastating outcomes when they are not addressed such as fatality, lower life expectancy, etc. Health disparities have a large impact on the overall population and the quality of care that everyone receives. It is especially important now as our population is becoming more diverse than before.
Some of the most pervalent disparities that are occuring in our nation are for the people of color and people in low income families. This issue is still persisting to this day. These people have historically faced greater hardships in getting access to quality care and they have a much higher rate of uninsurance. This leads to much more health hazards for them as they are not able to receive healthcare when they are sick or seriously injured.
As of right now, this still remains a big issue in this nation that the federal government is still trying to fix and eliminate.
A Better Future 