Discrimination on Health Disparity

1
Discrimination on Health Disparity

• By
• Godspower Erhunmwunse RN, BS, BSN,MSNc
• EDCI 5300
• Fall 2006

2
Health Policy

• The health policy in America is, The collection
  of authoritative decisions made within government
  that pertain to health and to the pursuit of
  health (Harrington and Estes, 2004).
• Health establishments are run based on
  governmental policies.

3
Politics

• The political leaders proclaim united States as
  having the best health care system in the world
• United States is ranked 13th of the 16 most
  industrialized countries of the world.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) ranked United
  States 15th of 25 countries on out of pocket
  expenditure, social disparity and child survival
  of five years of age in survey of the year 2000.

4
Racial Discrimination

• Blacks constitute 13 of the United States
  Population
• The ratio of diabetics is five in blacks to one
  White
• Death by cardiovascular disease in 1995 higher in
  Blacks
• A great disproportion between White and Blacks in
  the case of AIDS epidemics (DHHS, 2000).

5
Factors

• Affordability Majority of Blacks and Hispanics
  can not afford or purchase health insurance.
• Availability There are no hospitals provided to
  serve the purpose of preventive care
• Accessibility Blacks and Hispanics by not having
  insurance coverage have no primary care.

6
Education and Jobs

• Blacks and Hispanics receive lower grade
  education as most qualified teachers refuse to
  teach in Black community.
• Blacks and Hispanics get low paying jobs that do
  not offer health benefit due to lack of good
  education
• Blacks and Hispanics resides in the
  industrialized areas that are polluted due to
  affordable housing.

7

• There is no social cohesion among different
  groups (Blacks and Whites) therefore ones culture
  or belief dominant over the other. Many of the
  health issues can be traced to segregation and
  discrimination (Thompson, 2002).

8
Statistics

• 23.6 are poor among Black population
• 9.8 are poor among White population
• 21.2 Blacks were uninsured in 2001
• 11 Whites were uninsured in 2001 (U.S. Census
  Bureau, 2001)

9
History

• During the civil war period Blacks were denied
  access to health care facilities and services
  that saved the Whites. Services that were
  available to Blacks were of lesser quality than
  were those made available to Whites (Hood,
  2001). Dating back to the days of Aristotle and
  Plato both speculated and wrote that Blacks were
  inferior and lower in intelligence to Whites.
  Galen wrote on Black racial inferiority
  biologically and intellectually. They also
  thought that Blacks were closer to the Apes than
  whites (Byrd and Clayton, 1992).

10
History

• During the civil war, Blacks in the army were
  not assigned adequate medical treatment, and as a
  result many died (Byrd and Clayton 1992)

11
Tuskegee

• The Black Men of Tuskegee Fought In world War II
  Flying the Red Tail Bomber without coverage
  protection like the their White comrades. All 200
  Flights returned with non lost to their Enemies.
• Back in Tuskegee, Physicians were using Black men
  for Syphilis experiment injecting them with the
  disease and allowing them to die slowly without
  treatment.

12
Davidson County

• 2003 records from recent report show that there
  is a great disparity between White and Blacks in
  Davidson County. Death by Race crude death rate,
  955 were Whites and 818 Blacks (overall
  population). Infant mortality, of every 1,000
  live births death rate among Whites was 6.0 while
  in Blacks it was 11.9, almost a double (Davidson
  County Mortality Report, 2003).

13
Around United States

• In some states, a mother of two children who
  earns 9,780 a year, which is about 5,000 below
  the poverty level, is ineligible for Medicaid. In
  a state like Louisiana, a mother with two
  children that earns over 3,048 a year is
  ineligible for Medicaid although she is over
  11,00 below poverty level (Harrington and
  Estes, 2004)

14
Medicare/Medicaid

• The low income earners or uninsured may qualify
  for the Medicare/ Medicaid only if one earns 200
  below the poverty level. The population of the
  Americans that constituted the low-income
  earners, are those who earn less than 200 of the
  federal poverty level which amounts to 28,256
  for a family of three in 2001. In 2001, 18.5 of
  the American adults which is over a third of the
  poor and a forth of the near- poor lack coverage
  (Harrington and Estes, 2004).

15
Conclusion

• Minority receive poor education which leads
  to-----
• Low paying job that cannot provide health
  insurance which leads to----
• Poor housing in the cheap industrialized and
  polluted environment which leads to---
• Poor health.

16

• References
• Healthy People 2010. U.S. Department of Health
  and Human Services (2000) , 1 and 2.
• U.S. Census Bureau. Population Characteristics
  (2001) Retrieved July 18, 2006, from
  htt//www.census.gov
• Byrd, W. M., Clayton, L. A. (1992). An American
  health dilemma A history of Blacks in the health
  care system. Journal of the National Medical
  Association, 84, 189-200.
• Harrington, C., Estes, C. L. (2004). Health
  Policy (Fourth Edition ed.). Boston Jones and
  Bartlett Publishers.
• Hood, G. R. (2001). The case for reparation to
  bring health parity to African Americans..
  Journal of the National Medical Association,
  (93), 1-5.
• McKelvey, B., Rogers, B., Caruthers, A. (2003
  and 2005). Davidson County Mortality Report,
  2003. Metro Public Health Department of Nashville
  Report, (2003), 2.
• Thompson, P. (2002, November 2002). Black health
  disparity. Policy,Politics and Nursing Practice,
  3 and 4, 325-332. Retrieved July 18, 2006.