Health Care Disparities in Children - Essay Example

"Health Care Disparities in Children" is a perfect example of a paper on child development. The dissemination of health care has not yet achieved one of its objectives which are being equally distributed amongst all deserving parties. This observation can be supported by focusing on certain specific segments of health care, such as the provision of care to children. Child health care disparities are defined by lack of equitable distribution of the required services due to discriminatory factors such as geographical location, ethnicity, social status, and race to mention but a few. In this study, causal factors of disparity in child health care will be discussed, and thereafter a current mitigation policy defined with regards to how these barriers can be minimized.

Causal factors

            According to Raphael and Beal (2010), one of the dominant barriers to equitable provision of health care to children is access to medical insurance (health care financing). Particularly based on racial factors, it has been observed that non-whites make up the largest fraction of uninsured people in the United States, and those who are insured rely on public insurance. This means that some children will be unable to receive medical aid while, the other fraction will receive low-quality care, while the lucky ones who are commercially insured receive quality health care. These observations are furthered by the fact that access to insurance improves the quality of health care that one can receive.

            The second determinant is societal orientation, especially income levels. Income levels determine access to insurance, quality of life, access to quality health care, and collectively the level of health care that one receives. Studies have revealed that children residing in disadvantaged environments are born with most birth defects or complications such as underweight births, lack of adequate delivery methods, mental disorder, and when they are older in life are likely to engage in risky behavior. In short, children from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to access low-quality or no health care at all.

            The final causal factor of disparities in pediatric health care is racism. Although this occurrence is not openly displayed, its effects can be observed in some settings. The issue of racial discrimination leads to employment issues which in turn affect access to health care by limiting insurance and quality care available. For instance, it has been noted that children with private health insurance receive better health care than their counterparts under Medicaid (Acevedo-Garcia, et. al, 2008). In conclusion, it is obvious that if providers discriminate pediatric care dissemination based on racial lines, some races end up benefitting while others suffer.

Mitigation policy

            It is evident from the above revelations that health care disparities in children indeed exist, and the need for a mitigation policy is necessary. The policy to be established needs to address two major issues; covering more children under quality care, and abolishing racial discrimination. The issues of lacking health care financing and children receiving poor care can be combined in resolving them. In addressing such, health care provision through SCHIP and Medicaid should be widened. This means that the governments should ensure that all children who are eligible to be covered under these programs are enrolled. If this was the case, about 6.7 million would benefit. The problem is that as of now, only 2 million children are covered medically (Beal, 2004).

            On the issue of race, which states that about 50% of black children, 38% of Hispanic, and 18% of white children are publicly insured, a policy should be devised to increase equality. One means would be through bettering the quality of public insurance such that it becomes more efficient and provide better quality health care (Acevedo-Garcia, et. al, 2008). This would not only attract children of all races (ethnicities) but also make the public health insurance a unifying factor that all races would be equally covered under one umbrella program.

Conclusion

            This study proves that inequitable distribution of pediatric health care is a problem in the U.S. due to factors such as racial discrimination, income levels, and low-quality public insurance. These factors generally amount to the occurrence of varying levels of health care access by children. There are however implementable policies that may solve such disparities. They include persistence in calling more enrolments by all eligible children and the improvement of the public health financing systems. If these policies were implemented, the quantity and quality of pediatric health care dissemination would display more similarities than disparities.

Read More