Week 9 Discussion 1: Health Disparities and Social Policy
Overall, the United StWeek 9 Discussion 1: Health Disparities and Social Policy
Overall, the United States has lagged behind other developed countries in providing accessible health care to its citizens. Explain why the United States is behind in this arena and how this lack of health care affects persons of color.
Be sure you have watched the Health Care Reform media piece before responding to this discussion.
Response Guidelines
Respond to at least two of your peers and explain whether you believe the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) benefits people of color. Also, comment on whether you agree or disagree with the conclusions of your peers.
Peer 1
Infant mortality and life expectancy were higher, and the United States lagged behind other developed nations in providing health care to all citizens. This was especially true for people of color, such as African Americans, nonwhite Hispanics, and Native Americans, whose poverty is accompanied by poor health and shorter lives (Stern & Axinn, 2018). The Affordable Care Act of 2010 was legislation signed by then-President Obama. Patients who may have been uninsured in the past due to preexisting conditions or a lack of resources now have access to affordable health plans through their state’s heal
th insurance marketplace (American Medical Association, 2019).
With the passage of the Affordable Care Act, it would be expected that most, if not all, people would enjoy better access to healthcare. However, that has not been the case universally. In fact, people of color have been disproportionally plagued by a lack of healthcare resources and poorer medical outcomes. Understanding why these groups continue to have poor healthcare outcomes compared to white Americans is essential. Part of the puzzle concerns legal challenges to the legislation as it was passed by Congress and signed by the president. The dispute ultimately reached the Supreme Court, which upheld the law’s fundamental principles in 2012 but ruled that the federal government could not mandate that states implement the law’s Medicaid expansion. As a result, many Republican-controlled states refused to expand Medicaid, depriving some of their most vulnerable residents of coverage (Stern & Axinn, 2017). Essentially, the disparity falls along partisan lines. While the ACA has significantly reduced the uninsured rate for African Americans and the general U.S. population, some states have not fully seized the chance to expand coverage because they have not yet enacted the ACA’s Medicaid expansion for low-income adults (Hayes et al., 2017).