Health Disparities

Completely eliminating health disparities between the races and ethnic groups is a difficult task to accomplish. Discrimination is the major effector in disparities felt by different races and ethnic groups. It effects the environment they live in, their education, and their incomes, which all play a role in the health disparities they face. Some health disparities faced by the different races and ethnic groups include cancer screenings, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, HIV infections/AIDS, and immunizations rates. In order to completely eliminate health disparities, the government must strive for eliminating the social construct of race, as well as promoting empathy and sensitivity towards immigrants that have different cultures than Americans.
However, these would be very large-scale changes that would most likely take many years to complete. To allow for quicker results, one must think of small-scale changes that would help to relieve some health disparities. Some small-scale changes that would have an impact include raising health disparity awareness, expanding healthcare insurance coverage, and improving health care providers in underserved areas (Kaiser Family Foundation 2008). Different strategies could be used to raise awareness about health disparities in the US. I would suggest to the President of the US to tell colleges to provide more courses on public health, such as this course. It provides an education to young students trying to figure out what career path to choose, which could motivate them to choose a career path in public health and focus on eliminating health disparities. I would also suggest advocating for more speakers at elementary, middle schools, and high schools, which could have an impact on becoming aware of not just health disparities, but the discrimination that influences it as well. Filling young minds with an education as such could, and most likely would, have a positive impact on the future of eliminating health disparities. A way for him to do this would be to perhaps organize federally funded organizations whose mission is to educate the American population about health disparities in the US, how they come about, and how everyone could help work towards eliminating them. The US did create the Affordable Care Act, which was an effort to provide health care insurance to more of the people living in America.
However, this is most likely going to be negatively effected due to the proposed tax reform. I would suggest to the President of the US to reform that tax reform he proposed, and expand the health care that is already provided to cover individuals facing health disparities. Such individuals include people that work, but do not make enough money to pay for health insurance. I would also suggest to make it law that companies that have a certain amount of employees, say about 100, require that they provide health insurance as a benefit. This would greatly expand health insurance coverage, and that coverage may not even necessarily be provided through
Medicaid. Improving healthcare providers in underserved areas is already a goal that medical schools are trying to contribute to.
As a medical school applicant, I have read about 40 medical schools’ missions, which a majority of them included serving rural and underserved areas. This will help in the coming years, however, serving underserved areas is a personal decision made by physicians. To have a larger impact, I would suggest to the President to create federally, or state-funded organizations that employ medical professionals educated in current health disparities in the US to serve underserved areas, perhaps even use mobile clinics to keep costs low. This would provide equal care for underserved communities, which are usually filled with races and different ethnicities that are typically discriminated against. These suggestions could lead to more primary care prevention within communities that face many health disparities. The health issues these individuals commonly face are noncommunicable diseases that are a result from either not seeking proper health care, or not seeking healthcare whatsoever. Giving them ways to have easier access to it could provide them with the proper information on how to take care of themselves, how to get proper nutrition, and end up avoiding these noncommunicable diseases. Raising awareness could motivate more people to help those that need the better access to
healthcare.