- When we talk about health and healthcare in the U.S.
I think that we would all like to imagine that everyone
gets the same high quality of care,
but this actually isn't the case.
And a lot of the disparities that we see
within the healthcare system in the U.S. are the result of
poor economic and environmental conditions.
And I have "SES" written here,
and that stands for socioeconomic status.
And if we think about social class,
we can think about it in terms of a pyramid,
where we have the highest income and educational levels
at the top and the lowest at the bottom.
And as we go up this social pyramid,
we see that access to healthcare gets better,
and the quality of that healthcare also improves.
And, related to this, the health of those people
at the top of the pyramid tends to be better as well.
But the opposite is actually true
for those at the bottom of the pyramid,
and there are a number of reasons as to why this might be.
First of all, high quality medical services
are more likely to be located in wealthy communities,
as opposed to poor areas or rural areas.
Disease is also more likely to spread
within crowded living conditions.
And substandard housing might not
properly protect people from the elements.
Also, having a poor diet could
significantly impact a person's health,
and this is especially true for those
living in food deserts,
which are areas that have a lot of access to fast food
but have almost no access to supermarkets or fresh produce.
Individuals with a lower SES are also more likely
to take jobs that put them in dangerous environments,
which could lead to accidents.
They are also more likely to take jobs
that involve significant health risks.
As an example of both of these things,
miners work in very dangerous conditions
and are also at a high risk for conditions
like black lung disease,
which can result from breathing in the coal dust.
Also, individuals with a lower SES simply can't afford
expensive treatments and prescriptions.
Race can also play a large role in healthcare equality.
African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans
tend to have higher morbidity rates,
or higher rates of disease and illness,
as well as mortality rates, or death rates.
They also tend to have worse access to healthcare,
and the healthcare that they do receive
tends to be of lower quality.
And although some or maybe even many
of the racial differences that we see in healthcare
can be attributed to the causes
that we listed when we talked about SES,
it does not explain everything that we see.
Even when economic differences and even types of insurance
are taken into account, minorities are still less likely
to receive both everyday standard healthcare
as well as treatments for life threatening conditions.
There are also many important gender differences
in health and healthcare.
For example, men typically utilize fewer
preventative services, like vaccines and checkups,
even when they are available to them.
Women require reproductive services,
and unfortunately sometimes access to these services
are reduced because of politics and local laws.
And while a lot of attention is placed on
finding treatments for conditions,
such as heart disease and diabetes,
often these studies focus on men
and don't always include women.
And since symptoms of diseases can differ by gender,
women can suffer from this lack of medical research.
Another group that suffers from
healthcare disparities is the LGBT community.
These individuals might face discrimination
from healthcare workers, which can often limit the clinics
that they feel comfortable seeking help from.
Transgender individuals especially may face a lot
of discrimination from within the healthcare system.
And they might find a hard time finding
a healthcare provider who has experience working with
transgender individuals and can cater to their needs,
and this can lead them to be reluctant
to obtain services when they really need them.