The topic of racial and ethnic differences in healthcare is one of the key importance to address in medical sociology. The problem is that minority populations, both globally and in the United States, are not receiving the proper healthcare they need to survive and treat health problems and diseases that arise. The idea of this is very confusing and frustrating to me since I feel that everyone should have the basic right to receive healthcare, health insurance, and treatment for any health-related problem. Further, I feel that when looking at this problem you can start by analyzing it on the global level and where the disparities in healthcare and coverage are seen, but then I looked deeper into where the disparities exist in the United States alone. It’s in the US that we see such great disparities between populations of majority and minority in not just the healthcare received but also the level of care that can be afforded and the quality of care that is given. This problem needs to be addressed in order for it to be fixed and equal for all populations.
Disparities in the quality, affordability, and presence of healthcare for minority populations is a problem that needs to be addressed and solved. On a global level, this problem is manifested on a few different levels. One problem is that populations in low-income nations don’t have adequate healthcare since they lack the equipment and personnel to handle higher volumes of cases that come up (Barkan, 2017). Further, the populations of these countries aren’t getting access to the healthcare they need, but also are going to have issues affording it when they can find it. The second problem is that since they can’t afford the care in their own country if they try to get it somewhere outside of the country, where a higher quality of care may exist, they lack the ability to travel, whether because of cost, availability, or timing (Johnston, 2010). Another reason why this is an issue globally is that diseases that should be curable, like the flu or the common cold, are the causes of many deaths because of the differences and disparities seen in healthcare, and further, there are health problems caused by things that shouldn’t be as big of a problem like environment-related health consequences (Barkan, 2017). I feel as though these things are reasons why this is a problem on the global level. Of greater concern to me is what happens in the United States.
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A major problem in the United States is the disparity in the quality, availability, and cost of healthcare. I feel the main issue that has to be addressed is related to the inability of minority populations to access and afford healthcare. People are not given a proper chance to receive the healthcare they need to survive, whether it’s because they don’t have enough to cover the costs of doing so, or the technologies and ways to help them aren’t offered or considered. I think social inequality has a lot to do with this. Social inequality involves the unequal distribution of wealth related to race and ethnicity, and because of this, lower-SES populations are getting worse healthcare than wealthier people (Barkan, 2017). I think the problem of disparities in healthcare among minority populations based on race and ethnicity needs to be solved.
In terms of the problem I’ve outlined, I feel that there are three main social causes. In general, minority populations are more likely to work in stressful work conditions and live in polluted areas, things that have great consequences on their health. Further, differences in socioeconomic status are reflected in the ethnic-racial differences in that people of color suffer from a ‘double jeopardy’ in that they have a worse quality of health from both their lower social class and their race and ethnicity. The first social cause I feel is important to understanding and explaining the problem is that people of color receive inadequate medical care because of their lack of health insurance and the bias that is seen in the healthcare system. Another social cause I think is important to the problem is the poorer nutrition seen in minority populations, whether it’s because of a lack of available healthy foods or cultural dietary norms since diet is a key player in a person’s health, well-being, and healthcare. A final social cause I think is important is racial segregation. Racial segregation plays a role because the lower quality of health is correlated with people in highly segregated areas, and usually having a concentration in poverty, and more exclusion creates a lessened importance on schooling and high quality of health, culminating in poor health consequences (Barkan, 2017).
Of these three social causes I’ve outlined as being important to the problem, I feel that the first one – people of color receiving inadequate healthcare – is the most important. When specific minority populations are not receiving the quality of health that they deserve to survive and treat any medical issues that arise, it’s wrong. People deserve to have a good quality of life no matter what race or ethnicity they are, and when there’s a blatant bias in the care received, the quality of a person’s life is going to diminish. A bias is seen in the healthcare system usually when a person of color presents with medical problems to a white doctor. The patient is usually not taken seriously, or their problems are discounted, and sometimes they are even made to feel like they are wasting the doctor’s time. I think this social cause is the most important one to address when trying to figure out a solution to the problem since it affects a majority of the minority population and is something that shouldn’t be too difficult to fix.
One sociological way this problem can be addressed is by looking at the health behaviors of people of color and minority populations. African Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans are the most likely populations to engage in risky health behaviors. The inherent problem behind this is that they have lower socioeconomic statuses and are much poorer and less educated, leading to a pattern where when these individuals live in urban areas, they have poorer nutrition and a lack of access to exercise and healthy foods, and therefore they have worse health (Barkan, 2017). This is important when thinking about solving the problem of people of color and minority populations receiving inadequate healthcare because to address and solve the problem you have to start at the bottom, and this would be a good place where I would start.
When thinking of ways that I would address and try to solve this problem, I would start with addressing the quality of life that these individuals live. The first step would be to attempt to amend the way they live now and try to introduce healthier food options to help their health from the bottom, where if they don’t eat unhealthy food, they won’t have as many health problems, to begin with. The second thing that needs to be addressed is the type of care they have access to and the care they receive. One of the main problems is that minority populations aren’t offered the care that they need, whether it’s because of a bias in the medical field or it isn’t provided in the areas they live. If this could be worked on, for instance, if more clinics opened up with recent technologies and ways to treat conditions, then the populations would have access to those treatments and it would create more equal access to healthcare. The final thing that needs to be addressed is the cost of healthcare. This is a trickier one to handle because it’s difficult to make everything cheaper or free because the technologies do cost money and the doctors and medical professionals have to make a salary. Something I think that could be done is some sort of screening where everyone gets to have the opportunity to apply and interview for a hardship plan to help to pay for the tests or care they need. This might help some people who really are not able to afford healthcare and would still allow them to get the care they need to treat any diseases they have or regular check-up visits they need. Addressing the disparities that minority individuals see in healthcare in the United States, where they are not receiving the proper healthcare they need to survive and treat health problems, is something that needs to be done. If this can be done, solutions can be brought up and an attempt can be made to implement them, and hopefully, they can last and create a better situation for minority populations when it comes to healthcare.
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