Healthcare Disparities in the U.S.: Term Paper

S. healthcare structure do not include the unobserved disparities. This may sound very rudimentary, even silly to point out, but in by understanding that the numbers are actually worse than they appear, and that the rising costs of healthcare services re associated with both what we see and can't see, it is easier to understand how costs rise so quickly.

It is also a sobering fact that what we cannot observe is still out there, existing beyond the scope of the government and social programs designed to help people overcome obstacles to access to healthcare and health insurance. The ethnic group that is most unobserved within the bounds of many of the studies and statistics related to the disparities in the U.S. healthcare industry is non-Mexican Latinos (Bustamante, et. al., 2009). This group represents a major portion of the U.S. population that currently lacks access to healthcare. In understanding this fact as well, it will be easier to target this group for government or societal subsidization and assistance.

Disparities between ethnic and socioeconomic groups in the U.S. healthcare system relative to access to care and insurance hurt all Americans. The arguments that equalization of access and quality do not benefit the economy or help to reduce mortality rates than any other effort do not hold up (Woolf, et. al., 2008). These disparities cost everyone more than the alternative of eliminating them though government or social subsidization and education campaigns (Flores and Tomany-Korman, 2008). In order to solve the root problem of disparity among certain groups of people, it is necessary to create a politically and socially neutral ground for people who are concerned about their own health and access to healthcare to come to and receive help or become better educated. This is due to the fact that many of the poorer groups do not feel comfortable or do not have the political or economic capital to help themselves at this time.

Maneuvering within the political realm is also a promising start to a solution in that if those people with chronic illnesses and diseases and those without healthcare, which represent large portions of the American population were to stand up to healthcare and insurance providers and politicians and demand a change for the better, they would have to be listened to. Major social change takes sacrifice from all parties, and further education and understanding within the wealthier circles would also help to overcome these disparities. In this way, false political and statistical claims and arguments need to be extinguished in order to level the playing field for all Americans relative to equal access to healthcare and insurance.

Works Cited

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Confronting The Growing Burden Of Chronic Disease: Can The U.S. Health Care Workforce Do The Job?" Health Affairs. Vol. 28, No. 1. Pp. 164-174.

Braveman, P.A., Cubbin, C., Egerter, S., Williams, D.R., and Pamuk, E. (2010).

"Socioeconomic Disparities in Health in the United States: What the Patterns Tell Us." American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 100, No. 1. Pp. 186-196.

Bustamante, A.V., Fang, H., Rizzo, J.A., and Ortega, A.N. (2009).

"Understanding Observed and Unobserved Health Care Access and Utilization Disparities Among U.S. Latino Adults." Medical Care Research Review. Vol. 66, No. 1. Pp. 561-577.

Flores, G. And Tomany-Korman, S.C. (2008). "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Medical and Dental Health, Access to Care, and Use of Services in U.S. Children." Pediatrics. Vol. 121, No. 2. Pp. 286-298.

Woolf, S.H., Johnson, R.E., Fryer Jr., GE., Rust, G., and Satcher, D. (2008).

"The Health Impact of Resolving Racial Disparities: An Analysis of…