Forbes/pharma & Healthcare

Health

The article I read was from Forbes/Pharma & Healthcare and was written in March of 2015. The name of the article was “Why Health Care Is Different If You’re Black, Latino Or Poor”. At first I was going to dismiss this article thinking it was too old but after reading it the information in the article is still very relevant to today’s society. The article explains that depending upon your race, ethnicities and incomes and how that correlates to the experience in the health care. The article covers three areas in health that the disparities are glaring, Diabetes, Breast Cancer and Heart Disease.  They article provides data on if you are African-American, Latino or poor and how that translates in to the health care that you will and are receiving. What was surprising in the article is the fact that the U.S. ranks dead last in life expectancy for men and second to last for women and how this ties into race, ethnicity and income. The article does talking about widespread challenges and the need for creative solutions

Class conflict is the theory I think of when I read this article. I say this because throughout the article it discusses how the groups mentioned have very few ways to obtain good health care whether it is due to geography, socioeconomics or race. As we all know health insurance is generally very expensive and out of the reach of so many minorities and economically disadvantaged. Between Insurance companies and big Pharma, profit is the goal, not providing good health care for everyone.

The ability for people to access health care is still a very large problem in our country. The article sites a report from the National Healthcare Disparities Report and shows that 35% of Latinos and low-income individuals report difficulty getting the healthcare they need, compared to 25% of whites and 15% of high-income earners. So being a minority or poor you have less chance of getting the healthcare you need. This is only more proven when you begin to look at the three areas studied, Diabetes, Breast Cancer and Heart Disease.

The article talks about with diabetes people in low-income neighborhoods are 10 times more likely to lose a limb. And when compared to white Americans, Latinos are twice as likely to be hospitalized and African-Americans are three times as likely. Again, this is showing low-income and minorities do not have the same health care choices.

Breast cancer is another area where the difference in access and treatment is completely different depending your ethnicity and socioeconomic standing.  African-American women will die at a 50% higher rate than white women in America. 60% of low-income women are screen compared to 80% of high-income women. Treatment is also different for low-income women verses high-income women. High income women will be treated with a combination of breast-conserving surgery and radiation 80% of the time compared to only 70% of the time for low-income.