- Women pay up to 50% more for health insurance premiums than men in some states.
- Asian Americans have three times the incidence of liver as the White population.
- The incidence rate of a Hispanic to have liver cancer is almost twice as high in comparison with Whites in America.
- Low-income patients are less likely than White, high-income patients to receive recommended care and are more likely to be admitted to the hospital for potentially preventable conditions.
- Native Americans Indians die from tuberculosis at a rate that is about 600% higher than any other American.
- Adults who didn’t graduate from high school are 2.5 times more likely to be in less than ‘very good health’ as college graduates.
- For every White American who gets diabetes, 1.6 African Americans get diabetes.
These are just some of the existing health disparities that exist in the United States.
Health disparities refer to the gaps in the quality of health and health care access across differing populations. These populations include differing ethnicities and races, genders, sexual orientations, and income and education levels. This goal to ‘eliminate health disparities’ is seen as one that is greatly needed and desired by many. In fact this goal is one of the two overarching goals of a document, created by Federal agencies, called Healthy People 2010. This document was created to identify the most significant preventable threats to health and establish national goals to reduce these threats.
These health disparities can mean decreased quality of life, worse health outcomes, loss of economic opportunities, premature death and injustice for those populations affected. Eliminating these health disparities will require culturally appropriate public health initiatives, community support and equitable access to quality health care.
The purpose of this blog is to not only educate and inform the public about the existing health disparities that are present in the United States, but to promote action in the effort to eliminate these existing health disparities.
