Unnatural Causes Video Analysis

For decades, a person’s socioeconomic status or SES has affected the healthcare that people receive due to race and “wealth”. This problem has plagued American society because of these factors leading to many receiving inadequate healthcare. All of these factors for someone’s SES has changed a lot in the healthcare domain that is unfair to many who are not the “ideal”. Due to this the perception, experiences with healthcare waver and are different between the stages of these SES’s. No matter the status of a person they should receive the same amount of care, treatment, and closer.

The readings this week solidified many long standing questions that I’ve had about the healthcare system, and further proved to me just how flawed it is. The introduction and chapter four from The Social Transformation of American Medicine by Paul Starr established a framework and common language surrounding how the current healthcare system came to be. The introduction specifically heavily focused on the concept of authority and how cultural and societal authority differ and work to strengthen an individual's power. Following this intro, the fourth chapter serves to provide the reader with baseline historical context on how hospitals and physicians have evolved from voluntary institutions into for-profit corporations. Using these chapters as foundational knowledge Gambles chapter gains new nuances to the need for Black hospitals to be established, and the competing forces that were at work to ensure their failure.

Today, one of the leading problems discussed in politics is healthcare. America constantly struggles with their healthcare system to make it affordable and accessible to communities. In the twentieth century this same problem also existed, creating one of the most well-known African American activist groups in America. In the book Body and Soul by Alondra Nelson, it discusses the social inequalities of the healthcare system in America and how the Black Panther Party fought against medical discrimination for African Americans. Nelson talks about how the Black Panther Party went from the role of protecting black citizens to a larger political role in African American health care. The significance of this book applies to medical sociology in many ways and is essential to the understanding of providing better healthcare to future generations. In the following book review, it includes a summary of each chapter to highlight the main points, some of the very many medical sociology concepts that could be applied, and lastly an evaluation of the book as a whole and its significance to our course.

Although the overall health of the United States population has improved, large disparities in terms of health outcome and access to healthcare exist between wealthier Americans and their “poorer counterparts primarily because of differences in education, behavior, and environment.” (Longest, 2015, p8). Access to health care and other services is associated with wealth, employment, education and power. Higher education, which translates to higher income, allows people to buy healthier food, live in safer, cleaner neighborhood and access the best healthcare possible. Power on the other hand permits people to secure health for themselves and their families, while others without power have limited or no access to the resources they need to be

The privilege memo and the community profile will allow for reflection on my own privilege, which will help in understanding how to communicate with those who cannot obtain the same opportunities as I can. This will build on my skill of sharing my thoughts with diverse audiences, expose me to dissimilar levels of health literacy, and improve my general knowledge of public health. The privilege memo will enable me to alter the way I connect with others so that I can be conscious of how I need to utilize my privilege to bring those who are in the minority to the same level. The community profile will provide a perspective of privilege and systemic oppression in health care. This information will alter the way I approach future interactions as a health care professional.

Today, racial and ethnic disparities exist in the public healthcare system in the United States. It is strongly supported by data that depicts members of the minority groups receive disproportionately from different health issues such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and asthma, among other conditions. The main contributors to the racial and ethnic disparities in the public healthcare are the social determinants of the health external to the healthcare delivery system. In addition, social and economic status also affect people’s vulnerability to the disease and their accessibility to public health services. The article provides historical analysis that shows a deteriorating status in the

During my fourth year in college, I enrolled in a course called Psychology of Health Disparities. My decision to enroll in this course stemmed from my experience as a medical assistant, and my duty involved working in clinical settings low socioeconomic status individuals (SES). Even though this class met only once a week, it deeply impacted the way I viewed the public health care system. Health disparities are particularly evident in the United States health care system, mostly because of factors like SES, race, and education as well. Not only did we explore the causes of these disparities, we focused on how individuals with lower incomes were affected. In the private clinic where I worked, most individuals were under health insurance by

The disparities are around us every day and unless we educate ourselves and our communities these disparities will continue to wreak havoc on our neighborhoods and in the future, we will just be putting our kids and their kids in a continuing cycle of ignorance when we could have done more if it’s just educating the community we leave in, that alone could be enough to turn the tides in our people favor. In turn, I would hope this paper enlighten you on what is going on in our neighborhood and what we can do to correct this issue to preserve our autonomy. Racial and ethnic health disparities undermine what a healthcare system should stand for. Although the top three causes and seven of the 10 leading causes of death are the same for African Americans and whites, the risk factors and incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates for these diseases and injuries often are greater among blacks than whites (MMWR, 2005). Health disparities refer to differences in disease risks, incidence, morbidity, and mortality but most of all for the sake of this paper unequal access to quality health insurance amongst African American in the United States, which will also go hand and hand with the social and economic disadvantages. The disadvantages of health disparities usually affect people of African American descent who have systemically experienced a greater social and economic obstacle to health care.

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 article “Stop Drinking Poison” by Laura Hollis concerns the topic of ethnic, racial, religious, and cultural privilege to state that this should be the norm instead of what we have today. The article begins with a response to a video in which a group of men saved a man from drowning whist in his car during a flash flood. The author argues that even with the diversity of races and possible religions of the men that carried out the rescuing, they rescued without a care of what demographic they were further stating that people should recognize the privilege that some races have. The viewer can assume that this article is very misleading by talking about social justice, an incomplete thought of topics, and a misdirecting goal. One reason this article by Ms. Hollis is misleading to the viewer is the fact that she wants to talk about a hot topic known a social justice issues.

In this paper, I will argue that the healthcare system has responsibility in taking care of the racism that is apparent in this system. First and foremost, the word “racism” must be defined in order to prevent confusion on the line of reasoning in this argument. According to Camara Jones’s framework that was developed to highlight how racism can lead to health disparities, there are two levels of racism that will be looked at: institutionalized racism and personally-mediated racism. Institutionalized racism, defined as “differential access to goods, services, and opportunities by race, includes differential access to health insurance”. What is significant to note is that institutional racism does not require personal bias commonly associated

Health care is not a privilege. In fact, a good level and quality on healthcare should be an inalienable right for all people. Social class, status or economic situation shouldn’t dictate who live and enjoy of good health or who doesn’t. Healthcare in America should be universal, continuous, and affordable to all individuals and families. Although some of the states in the US are taking unilateral measures not to focus exclusively on the poor, but seeks to guarantee health access to any uninsured people, achieving universal coverage will require federal leadership and support, regardless of which strategy is adopted to achieve this

Hazards and pollutants are apparent in a variety of outcomes. Possible outcomes include asthma, cancer and chemical poisoning (Gee and Payne-Sturges 2004: 1647). Furthermore, “Although debated, the main hypothesis explaining these disparities is that disadvantaged communities encounter greater exposure to environmental toxins such as air pollution, pesticides, and lead” (Gee and Payne-Sturges 2004: 1647). Therefore, disadvantaged groups, such as people of color and the poor, experience greater environmental risks. Additionally, “Blacks in particular are exposed to a disproportionate amount of pollution and suffer the highest levels of lead and pesticide poisoning and other associated health problems” (Jones and Rainey 2006: 474). People of color, essentially, compete to live healthily. For example, African-Americans and Africans alike, struggle with the negative affects of oil refineries and unresponsive governments. The same can be said for Hispanics in California and the natives of Ecuador, who are forced to cope with the pollution of the Texaco oil refineries (Bullard 2001: 4). Environmental racism not only exploits natural resources, it abuses and profits from the communities involved. Governments and polluting facilities will continue to capitalize on the economic susceptibilities of poor communities, states, nations and regions for their “unsound” and hazardous operations (Bullard 2001: 23).

In the field of health care there is a pervasive notion that many blacks are presumed to be low income. It is interesting to see how blackness is associated with low income and class. For example, questions regarding where black patients reside and what their current occupation is can be directly linked to racial profiling in health care. The author contends black patients are more likely to receive a lower quality of health care due to one’s insurance status and income. Here, too, one can maintain that race is deeply interwoven into the construct of class and accessibility (Smedly 2012). As a result, class serves a higher purpose of being granted access to the accessibility of better medical resources and standard of care. Conversely, the construct of class not only gives and takes away in its relation to recieving appropriate resources in

The dominant groups can play a role in marginalizing other groups based on racial and characteristics involving privilege tends to open doors of opportunity, but oppression tends to slam them shut. The dominant groups has played a role of marginalization to other groups based on racial characters that involve oppression and have emphasized pervasive nature of social inequality woven throughout social institutions. The dominant groups reap advantage and benefit from access to social power and privilege, not equally available to people of color. They receive more money and accumulate more assets than other racial groups, hold the majority of positions of power and influence, and command the controlling institutions in society. The dominant groups restrict the life expectancy, infant mortality, income, housing, employment, and educational opportunities of people of color for economic, social or political power (Adams et al., 2013).