Health Care in the United States - Essay Example

Running Head: Healthcare healthcare: minority health Insert here Insert school here Insert here Minority Health http familiesusa.org/issues/minority-health hEALTH CARE Today, 1 in 3 Americans identify themselves as Hispanic, African-American, Native American, Asian America or Pacific Islander. It is predicted that by the year 2050, more than half of the American population will be identified as minorities. Over the last fifty years, the United States has made efforts to ensure the improvement of health and health care access for all Americans and particularly the health of minority Americans. In the early 1960s, the United States established policies and programs aimed at expanding the access of healthcare to all citizens. These polices and programs did result in expanding access to health care for low-income families, the disabled and the poor, through Medicaid, Medicare and the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, disparities in health and healthcare continue to exist among minority populations in the United States. For a country which came into existence based on the premise of equality for all, the United States seems, from a health-perspective, to have ignored one of the very principals under which it was founded (Dunlop, et al., 2003). Seeking to understand minority health and the disparities which exist in healthcare today, the website chosen to analyze this trend was the “Minority Health” page of FamiliesUSA.org (http://familiesusa.org/issues/minority-health). An incredibly timely and topical issue in light of the recent news regarding race and the election of the United States’ first African-American President Barack Obama in 2008, the following will provide a thorough and comprehensive critique of the FamiliesUSA.org Minority Health webpage. This research project will provide a clear rationale as to why this particular site was selected, summarize the information available and discuss the strengths, limitations and areas for improvement of the site. The method of critique will be a qualitative analysis of the site in question and this research paper will provide a thorough yet concise critique of the information available. We now turn to an introduction to the FamiliesUSA.org Minority Health web page and begin our critical analysis. Introduction Due to the importance of race in America today and the apparent differences in health status between different ethnic groups, this analytical research report sought to understand the effects of race on health status. Arguably the most prosperous country in the world, the United States has developed incredibly quickly and with an impressive trajectory of growth with major advances in quality of life as well as in life expectancy. Despite a high standard of living and an economic situation which has been the envy of most other nations for more than sixty years, the United States also has a shameful legacy of racism and discrimination which dates back to the era of slavery in the United States. The servitude of African-Americans at the hands of white masters is an infamous chapter in the annals of American history but an episode which deserves wider scrutiny. Although American slavery was abolished more than one hundred and fifty years ago, the legacy of slavery continues to have important ramifications on the lives of African-Americans today. Accordingly, African-Americans have lower-life expectancies than their white counterparts and the insidious legacy of slavery has continued health ramifications. Unequal access to healthcare is a contemporary problem with broad ramifications. Seeking to address inequality in health as a feature of the United States healthcare system, I have chosen to explore the FamiliesUSA.org Minority Health web page to gage what sort of information is available with respect to addressing the important and incredibly topical issue of minority healthcare in America today (Minority Health, 2009). Content Analysis The FamiliesUSA.org Minority Health web page provides excellent insight into the particular health-related issues facing minority populations in America today. As a landing page for the entire minority health section of the FamiliesUSA.org web site, this page provides a thorough glimpse into the issues of minority health. The Minority Health web page landing page immediately engages the reader with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King which grabs the reader and makes him or her wanting to read more. On the health plight of African-Americans, Dr. King reportedly said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhumane”. The reader or causal observer is immediately drawn into this site and encouraged to read further following such a captivating and incredibly poignant quote from Dr. Martin Luther King. Starting with the premise that minorities (such as African-Americans, Pacific Islanders, Spanish speakers and new Americans) face a variety of impediments to their health in America, this site begins with the assertion that the health status of minority groups is compromised by the unequal access to healthcare in this country and the introductory paragraph is written as a sort of call to action to get people motivated about the healthcare challenges facing minorities groups in the most prosperous country in the world. Accordingly, the introductory statement reads as the following: Racial and ethnic minorities in the U.S. are more likely to lack health insurance, receive lower-quality care, and suffer from worse health outcomes. While the causes of health disparities are complex, we know the time to take action is now . . . (Minority Health, 2009) Following a strong quote from Dr. King and a concise introductory message which immediately engages the reader, the casual observer to this site immediately notices the wealth of information available at the click of a button to learn about minority health issues and the particular health-related challenges minorities in America face today. There are hyperlinks to pages with headings such as “Why Minority Health Matters”, “Minority Health Tool Kit”, “Quick Facts on Health Disparities” and many more important and extremely informative pages aimed at educating the reader about minority healthcare issues. There is also a Minority Health Calendar to track and keep the general public informed about minority healthcare issues which provides an interactive forum for people to learn about the community health-related issues. From the standpoint of entertainment and engaging the reader there is also a fun and entertaining (although perhaps a little bleak) game show function called “So You Think you Know Minority Health?”, likely a spoof on the famous dance reality TV show, So You Think You Can Dance?. There is also an alert for a journalism-related opportunity run by the National Health Policy Training Alliance for Communities of Color, which again serves to engage and encourage action on the part of the visitor to this site (Minority Health, 2009). Beneath all of the informative and increasingly relevant and engaging hyperlinks is what appears to be a revolving news section under the heading, “The Latest”. The first article is called Talking about Health Reform: Comparative Effectiveness Research and it explores the ways in which healthcare reform can reduce the disparities in health status between whites and non-whites in America. Following this article is another which focuses on eliminating racial disparities in health among children; a very topical and interesting subject to analyze. The section known as “The Latest” is informative, once again engaging and successful in encouraging the reader to spend time on the site and go through the various informative articles dealing with minority health issues (Minority Health, 2009). In the United States, health insurance coverage ensures that there is financial means by which basic health care can be accessed. Individual comprehensive health insurance plans depend on an individuals’ age, level of employment, residency, and race/ethnicity. Studies have shown that African-Americans do not receive the same care even if they have the same government funded insurance as their white counterparts, such as Medicare. For example, in a study conducted by the Brown and Harvard Medical Schools, researchers found that there were significant racial disparities within Medicare plans. In addition, they found that the quality of care was a factor concerning race and ethnicity among Medicare beneficiaries. This suggests that in addition to access to care, quality of care is different among ethnic groups. To this extent, racial difference in coverage may influence health disparities and inequities within the healthcare system. Medicare is a federal government funded insurance program for disabled young adults, persons above the age of 65, and those with permanent disabilities who become eligible for Social Security. A racial difference in coverage among Medicare beneficiaries has also been found to influence difference in supplemental care. In a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, it was discovered that 18% of African-Americans, 11% of Hispanic/Latinos and 11% of white Medicare beneficiaries lacked supplemental coverage that was necessary for additional services that were not provided by Medicare. This website does an excellent job in ensuring that the issues associated with access to care are brought to the forefront, and as mentioned earlier, is written like a call-to-arms seeking fundamental change in the healthcare industry in America (Smedley et al, 2002; Minority Health, 2009). Concluding Remarks The United States has the most advanced medical care in the world; however medical care in the U.S. is very expensive and unevenly distributed. While personal bias and racism can influence health inequities, research has shown that societal and institutional racism has also accounted for some of these disparities. A shameful legacy of slavery is reflected in the present inequalities in health status which plagues African-Americans today. African-Americans in the United States continue to face a variety of health-related challenges including high rates of general mortality, infant mortality, cancer, hypertension and HIV and AIDS, among others. Access to proper healthcare is essential to alleviating the major challenges facing African-Americans today. A few initiatives aimed at addressing these problems have been initiated but major changes to the overall health of African-Americans have yet to be fully implemented. The website analyzed here, the “Minority Health” page of FamiliesUSA.org, does an excellent job bringing to the fore the important health issues facing African-Americans ad other visible minorities in the United States and plays an important role in stimulating discourse about minority healthcare issues as well as providing an informative site for people to learn more about this important issue. As the most prosperous country in the world, the United States must take stronger steps at addressing the major health challenges facing African-Americans and other minority groups (Minority Health, 2009). References Dunlop, D. D., J. Song, L. M. Manheim, & Rowland W. Chang. 2003. Racial Disparities in Joint Replacement Use among Older Adults. Medical Care “Minority Health”. 2009. FamilesUSA.org. Last Accessed August 8 2009. http://familiesusa.org/issues/minority-health Smedley, B. D., A. Y. Stith, & A. R. Nelson (editors). 2003. Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Read More