letter of Intent
Running head: SOCIAL PROBLEM-AMERICA’S HEALTHCARE
Social problem-America’s healthcare
Correy Littleton
Research
Endeavors to enhance health in the United States have customarily looked to health care system as the key driver of health and its result. While expanding access to medicinal services and changing the health conveyance framework are vital, research shows that enhancing health equity will require more extensive methodologies that address economic, environmental factors and the social factors. Social determinants and variables that affect healthcare in United States include;
Income and social status- in most cases, high social and income status are connected to better healthcare standards. When the gap between the rich and the poor people is bigger, the difference in in the health will also be great (Braveman and Gottlieb, 2014). This factor is however influencing health care in other different part of the globe for instance, in Comoros the poor were reported to have no access to health care, while in the same country the aristocratic class are flown upcountry to better health facilities.
Physical environment- clean air, safe clean water, safe houses, healthy workplaces, communities and better infrastructure all lead to good health. When people have employment with good working conditions, they have good health specifically those with control of the working conditions. Of interest, a major inspiration for the study on environmental elements of health has been majorly repeated observation which indicate that many health results are geographically patterned (O'Halloran et al., 2015). Patterns are live across countries and regions within nations, at the same time at minor scales, for instance across urban environs.
Social support networks- great funding from families, communities and friends is also linked to good health (Braveman and Gottlieb, 2014). Culture and customs of different people also have impact to the health standards of the members of the community.
Education- low levels of education are linked to poor health, low self-assurance and more stress. Wide determinant is felt across the globe with data showing that access to health is partially proportionate to the level of education.
Genetics- inheritance plays a big role in determining healthiness, lifespan and likelihood of developing some complications. Eating balanced diet, smoking, keeping active, consuming alcohol and the way we deal with life stresses and challenges have impact on health.
In the United States, the probability of unexpected passing increments as income goes down. Correspondingly, low education levels are specifically related with lower income, higher probability of smoking, and short life expectancy. Children destined to guardians who have not finished secondary school will probably live in a domain that poses barriers to health. Their neighborhoods will probably be insecure, have uncovered trash or litter, and have poor or decrepit lodging and vandalism. These will then lead to poor health care for a whole community.
A developing number of activities and solutions are rising to address these more extensive determinants of health care. However some activities have been a total failure, for instance Obamacare has been quite controversial and has failed to meet its expectations (Patel and Rushefsky, 2014). Moreover, various endeavors to connect health care to more extensive social needs are developing through numerous Medicaid delivery and installment activities. The accompanying segments highlight cases of some of these endeavors, including activities inside Medicaid.
Approach
The research is subject to biases and unfounded assumptions. The role of ethnic and racial biases and stereotypes is based on empirical results on research in the health care. Biases exist in two different forms; implicit and explicit biases. An direct bias statement can be expressed as, “The Latino and blacks cannot avoid to pay for hospital bills,” or expressed implicitly by for instance ignoring sick black people in hospital facilities or making them to wait for long hours to receive health care (Feagin and Bennefield, 2014). However, these biases may affect the findings of my research as I might make biased assumptions on why certain race or group of people do not have access to health care. In this case I might just rashly assume maybe it’s because of their identity, while ignoring the facts.
However, social conflict theory highlights difference in the value of health and health-care delivery. The value of health and healthcare varies greatly around the globe and more specific in the United States. Society’s imbalances along social class, ethnicity and race, and gender outlines are replicated in our health and healthcare (Craib, 2015). A clinician may be highly likely to judge patient based on their race and exploit racial stereotypes since race is usually a salient trait. However, when one becomes conscious of their potentiality for prejudice, they mostly likely attempt to rectify for it.
References
Braveman, P., & Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: it's time to consider the causes of the causes. Public health reports, 129(1_suppl2), 19-31.
O'Halloran, R., Worrall, L., & Hickson, L. (2015). Environmental factors that influence communication between patients and their healthcare providers in acute hospital stroke units: an observational study. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 1-18.
Patel, K., & Rushefsky, M. E. (2014). Healthcare Politics and Policy in America: 2014. Routledge.
Feagin, J., & Bennefield, Z. (2014). Systemic racism and US health care. Social Science & Medicine, 103, 7-14.
Craib, I. (2015). Modern social theory. Routledge.
