Healthcare In The Latino Community

It is important to understand how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act also know as the Affordable Care Act and usually referred to as the Obamacare affordable care act works and the functionality of it. The Affordable Care Act has insured over 20 million people, which was signed back in law in 2010 and signed by the 44th President Barack Obama. This paper will discuss various aspect of the Affordable Care Act, cultural assessment of the Hispanic group, and chapter six case study.

The United States has had tremendous growth in population over the past two decades, and the demographic landscape has completely shifted because of this. Latinos account for the largest ethnic minority group in the country today, and this has caused tremendous negative backlash against them including increased discrimination and an overall negative impact on their mental health. A previous meta-analysis reported that Latinos experience high levels of depressive symptoms when compared with non-Latino whites (Torres, 2015). Depression is a terrible condition which takes over your ability to control your emotions and ultimately brings you down to the point where the daily activities that you take part in are no longer of interest to you. Not

For this paper, Ms. Minister Melishia Bansa MPH was interviewed. She is a thirty year old African-American woman. Her occupation is the director of community outreach and provider Relations for “Coordination of Health Care for Complex Kids” (CHECK) Program and Project Coordinator of “Promoting Adolescent Health” (PATH) Study. She was interviewed about her work with the CHECK Program. The Coordination of Health Care for Complex Kids program aims to improve overall health and quality of life for underserved populations. This programs aims to fight the social injustice of unequal health systems for low socioeconomic communities. The CHECK program aims to increase doctor appointments and improve communication between the patient and the patient’s health provider. However, the program is focusing on young individuals with chronic illnesses within low socioeconomic communities.

For many Latinos, they like a more to feel a more personal, welcoming doctor-patient relationship, they want to feel that the provider truly concerned for them as a whole. Since we all know how health care professionals are often rushing can makes the American healthcare system,look untrustworthy, in which doctors often rush visits and lack time to establish relationships with patients. Latino apprehension about healthcare goes deeper than issues of access. It also partially derives from a long history of preferring non-Western medicine, a cultural uneasiness with the American style of healthcare, and a tradition of privacy and individual pride that makes many Latinos believe we have no need to ask for help, and they don’t believe in being

This project was rewarding because young adults were teaching their parents about common diseases in our community. These parents are predominantly Latinos who immigrated into this country and do not have political power to change the social determinants in our country. However, I helped this vulnerable population realize that their children are the future and they have the power to change their

Although culturally Mexico closely identifies with Central and South American countries, however, it is situated in North America.

Description: Tufts held a month-long program where I engaged in problem based learning classes, medical student mentorship, various shadowing events and a disparities project. As part of the Tufts’ Winter Enrichment program, I was able to shadow at a free clinic. The clinic is open once a week to the public. I engaged with newly immigrated, uninsured and homeless patients. Paired up with a resident and attending, I observed key traits needed to support an especially vulnerable population. The traits I saw embodied the importance of cultural competency, communication, and empathy.

Although most American citizens today associate racial and ethnic disparities in public health care quality with socioeconomic status, a majority of studies performed conclude that these discrepancies are still highly prevalent when the factor of one’s socioeconomic status is taken out of the equation. Health disparities for a certain minority result in a higher number of illness, injury, and even mortality for that race or ethnicity in comparison to white Americans; therefore, health care disparities can be defined as differences between groups in health coverage, specifically focusing on both the quality and access to care. The Office of Management and Budget has created two ethnic categories for all American citizens to fit into, being either

Christopher Columbus landed on the shores of America back 500 years ago in the year 1492. Were he and his crew the first illegal immigrants in America? The land was occupied by another group of people that didn’t grant these explorers the right to have whatever they please without acquiring some kind of legal status. The topic of legal status might have been irrelevant back in those days but it surely is an issue that is widely talked about in today’s America. The issue of illegal immigrants has been a hot topic especially when it comes to discussing whether these people should be allowed to have health care provided by a government that doesn’t recognize their

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) (2015) provided an overview of the Hispanic population, in which they reported the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) categorization of the population. Specifically, OMB defines Hispanics as a population which comprises of Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, South and Central Americans as well as people from other Spanish cultures (CDC, 2015). According to a report compiled by the CNN Library (2015), Hispanics are the largest minority group in the United States. In fact, the size of the Hispanic group in the United States is only second to the size of the Hispanic group in Mexico. The report further explained that there were approximately 54 million Hispanic people in the United States by 2013. The number showed a 2.1% increase in the Hispanic population between 2012 and 2013 (CNN Library, 2015). The total Hispanic population in 2013 constituted about 17% of the United States total population. Gonzalez-Barrera and Lopez (2013) inferred that people of Mexican origin constituted the largest number of Hispanics in the United States. They maintained that there were approximately 33.7 million Hispanics from Mexico in the United States by 2012 (Gonzalez-Barrera & Lopez, 2013). The Mexican-Hispanics population is represented by people who are born in the United States and immigrants from Mexico.

Although the United States is a leader in healthcare innovation and spends more money on health care than any other industrialized nation, not all people in the United State benefit equally from this progress as a health care disparity exists between racial and ethnic minorities and white Americans. Health care disparity is defined as “a particular type of health difference that is closely linked with social or economic disadvantage…adversely affecting groups of people who have systematically experienced greater social and/or economic obstacles to health and/or clean environment based on their racial or ethnic group; religion; socioeconomic status; gender; age; mental health; cognitive, sensory or physical disability; sexual orientation or gender identity; geographic location; or other characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion” (National Partnership for Action to End Health Disparities [NPAEHD], 2011, p. 3). Overwhelming evidence shows that racial and ethnic minorities receive inferior quality health care compared to white Americans, and multiple factors contribute to these disparities, including geography, lack of access to adequate health coverage, communication difficulties between patients and providers, cultural barriers, and lack of access to providers (American College of Physicians,

The health care system must change to improve our nation’s health and takes strong steps to address the unsustainable growth of health care costs in America. We still have a long way to go before our health system become effective. We still have population that do not have insurance, have difficulties accessing their health care, or their needs are not met within the healthcare system. It is an investment in prevention and wellness and increasing access to primary care physician.

By 2011, nearly one person out of every six living in the United States will be of Hispanic/Latino origin (Selig Center Multicultural Economy Report, 2006).

The United States is a melting pot of ethnicity, in which, the healthcare system and its benefits vary widely. Those who are able to obtain primary care insurance via a full time employer, typically have the benefits of full coverage care. However, for many minority groups, full time work alone is hard to acquire, along with the health benefits full time employment provides. Culturally competent care among the diverse populations helps increase health promotion and gain a cultural perspective. One of these mentioned groups is the Hispanic population which is steadily increasing within the United States.

These programs are supportive of the overall changes in healthcare happening now in the US. These types of programs are becoming more and more common throughout the U.S as ambulance and emergency room abuse are reaching critical levels. The program has a goal of providing services to 100 individual patients annually.