Week 5: Racism and Access to Healthcare Flashcards
What is the difference between Healthcare Disparity and Health Disparity?
What are the different types of “Health Determinants”? What are some examples
of each?
○ Mostly non-financial barriers
○ “Structural determinants and conditions in which people are born, grow, live and age”
■ Networks
■ Socio-economic
■ Cultural
■ Environmental
○ Examples:
■ Who? - age, sex, genetic factors
■ What they do? - smoking, physical activity, alcohol, diet
How do factors like gender, race and ethnicity affect individuals’ access to
healthcare?
Why has private health insurance coverage decreased over the past decades?
○ Skyrocketing cost of health insurance has made coverage unaffordable for many businesses
and individuals.
○ Workforce shift from highly paid, largely unionized full time manufacturing jobs with
employer-based health insurance to more low-wage, part time whose employers are less
likely to provide insurance.
○ Unstable nature of employment
What are the barriers to healthcare access?
- Lack of insurance
- Underinsured
- Gaps in coverage
- Financial Barriers
- Determinants of Health (mostly non-financial barriers)
Which health determinants can’t we change?
Age, sex, genetic factors
What are some of the strategies to reduce health disparities?
○ Universal coverage appears to reduce most disparities in access to care
○ Raising awareness through education can help address health equity.
○ Improving resource coordination can also help populations most harmed by health disparities.
For example, health care organizations can help reduce ethnic health disparities by offering
cultural competency training to health care providers.
How does structural racism impact healthcare policies and health outcomes?
- Structural racism in coverage and financing has created a two-tier system of racially segregated care.
- inequitable access to high-quality health care.
Understand the World Health Organization’s (WHO) determinants of health
framework.
