The United States Health Care System
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Although the United States is taking the right steps towards creating equality among healthcare, there are still loopholes evolved in health care access on both the state and national scale. In 2009, there were more than 38.4 million americans that were uninsured along with having no economic access to health care. Many of these uninsured citizens are African Americans. Due to the long term suppression of African Americans, whites have been able to excel in the work force, leaving African Americans with low paying jobs. The problem with this difference in quality of job is how connected jobs are to health care. Many of these low-wage jobs that African Americans were getting did not have a health care benefit attached to it, once again pulling another safety net away from them.
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Barriers to Hospitals and Health Care Institutions
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This connection between low paying jobs and minorities, primary African Americans, has led to many more health problems within the communities. As the government tries to create not only affordable but accessible health care, hospitals, urgent care facilities, and even physicians are becoming private, making much harder for the African American population to find cheap welfare. As the transition from southern states not wanting to extend the government aid to its african american population to now shifting to the privatization of hospitals, the constant theme of inequality is present throughout. Other issues that restrict African Americans from receiving affordable health care are closures of health facilities as well as the relocation of them. Although the government is trying to extend health care to everyone, they need to put more effort and force into the cause in order to see any real change. perhaps the most overlooked act of discrimination within the hospitals is the practice of transferring unwanted patients. Hospitals at any time can request to transfer a patient to another facility. In this case African Americans are usually transferred to substandard institutions are to no care at all, once again depriving them of the right to have affordable health care.
This picture perfectly captures the idea of health care inequality and the negative affects it inflicts on the African American population
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