Insurance coverage is strongly related to better health outcomes
. Substantial disparities in uninsured rates were observed among all the demographic and socioeconomic groups. Disparities by sex existed during both 2004 and 2008, with a higher percentage of males being uninsured.
What causes healthcare inequality?
Many factors contribute to health disparities, including genetics, access to care, poor quality of care, community features (e.g., inadequate access to healthy foods, poverty, limited personal support systems and violence), environmental conditions (e.g., poor air quality), language barriers and health behaviors.
Poor health and poverty do go hand-in-hand. But high levels of inequality, the epidemiological research shows, negatively affect the health of even the affluent, mainly because, researchers contend,
inequality reduces social cohesion, a dynamic that leads to more stress, fear, and insecurity for everyone
.
What is an example of health inequality?
Health inequity causes preventable deaths. There are many examples of this, but one of the clearest examples is
the difference between infant health and mortality among Black and white babies born in the U.S.
Black people are more likely than white people to have babies with a low birth weight.
How can we make healthcare more equitable?
Research on health care inequality suggests that health care can be made more equitable by addressing barriers in several domains:
access to health care; health care quality; patient education and empowerment; health care infrastructure; and health care policy and program administration
.
Who is affected by health disparities?
For example,
low-income people
report worse health status than higher income individuals,
7
and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals experience certain health challenges at increased rates. Figure 2: People of Color Fare Worse than their White Counterparts Across Many Measures of Health Status.
What is likely to impact on whether a person experiences health inequalities?
There is ample evidence that
social factors, including education, employment status, income level, gender and ethnicity
have a marked influence on how healthy a person is. In all countries – whether low-, middle- or high-income – there are wide disparities in the health status of different social groups.
What is the difference between health inequality and health inequity?
“Inequity and inequality: these terms are sometimes confused, but are not interchangeable, inequity refers to unfair, avoidable differences arising from poor governance, corruption or cultural exclusion while inequality simply refers to the uneven distribution of health or health resources as a result of genetic or …
Health inequalities are
the unjust and avoidable differences in people’s health across the population and between specific population groups
. Some authors, particularly from North America, use ‘inequalities’ to denote differences between groups and ‘inequities’ to denote unjust differences between groups.
Social inequality is
an area within sociology that focuses on the distribution of goods and burdens in society
. A good can be, for example, income, education, employment or parental leave, while examples of burdens are substance abuse, criminality, unemployment and marginalisation.
How do you solve a healthcare inequality?
- Raising public and provider awareness of racial/ethnic disparities in care;
- Expanding health insurance coverage;
- Improving the capacity and number of providers in underserved communities; and.
- Increasing the knowledge base on causes and interventions to reduce disparities.
How does health services affect health?
Health Impact of Access to Health Services
Access to health services affects a person’s health and well-being. Regular and reliable access to health services can:
Prevent disease and disability
. Detect and treat illnesses or other health conditions.
Social determinants of health are
the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age
. They include factors like socioeconomic status, education, neighborhood and physical environment, employment, and social support networks, as well as access to health care (Figure 1).
Social determinants of health such as poverty, unequal access to health care, lack of education, stigma, and racism are underlying,
contributing factors of health inequities
. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is committed to achieving improvements in people’s lives by reducing health inequities.
Housing, social services, geographical location, and education
are some of the most common social determinants of health. These factors have a significant impact on the current healthcare landscape. As more healthcare organizations deliver value-based healthcare, they are developing strategies to drive wellness care.
There are close correlations between social inequality and mortality, infant overmortality, lower life expectancy, higher occurrence of mental illness, obesity, homicide, violence, use of illicit drugs, number of people in prisons, lack of trust in other people, teenage pregnancy and less social mobility, among others.
What are the three 3 sources of health inequality?
3The Root Causes of Health Inequity. Health inequity, categories and examples of which were discussed in the previous chapter, arises from
social, economic, environmental, and structural disparities
that contribute to intergroup differences in health outcomes both within and between societies.
