Latinos and African American Health Disparities

The widespread health disparities between quality and cost are mainly used to determine existing inequalities within healthcare services. In 2016, studies examined healthcare’s relationship with quality and cost relating to lifespan (Chetty et al., 2016). These disparities in healthcare are chiefly attributed to social class and financial value in communities. Those in poorer communities must deal with public healthcare facilities that mean longer wait times, impersonal interactions with healthcare professionals that do not understand them (language or cultural), and potentially poor treatment regarding medical diagnosis (Barr, 2014). Those in wealthier communities can afford private care and therefore faster wait times, better doctors, more accurate diagnoses. With such disparities present in American healthcare, studies aim to understand the rationale behind such occurrences and determine how to improve patient outcomes for working-class communities.
While social class plays a role in healthcare disparities, so does race and ethnicity. “…blacks and other minorities continue to have worse health status than whites for a broad range of conditions…the difference to the neighborhood effects of decreased social capital that accompany continued residential racial segregation across a range of SES” (Barr, 2014, p. 171). Social class and race/ethnicity are tied together regarding healthcare disparities. To improve these disparities, the potential solution lies in alleviating certain barriers through the hiring of minorities to help with potential language barriers, cross-cultural barriers, and improve the relationship between patient and healthcare worker. “framework of cultural competence interventions— including minority recruitment into the health professions, development of interpreter services and language-appropriate health educational materials, and provider education on cross-cultural issues—emerged to categorize strategies to address racial/ethnic disparities in health and health care” (Betancourt, 2013, p. 293).
One example of this is the private agency, Minority Healthcare Communications Inc. It is a non-profit health education organization aimed at the promotion and creation of specialized healthcare seminars, workshops, and education conferences in the Latino and African-American Communities (Minority Healthcare Communications, 2010). The conferences, enable healthcare professionals to come together and work towards improving healthcare disparities in poorer, non-white neighborhoods. Such collaborative efforts enable the practice of minority hires that is a potential solution towards closing the gap of healthcare disparities. The same can be said of The Florida Department of Health in their attempt at promoting health equity and minority health.
The department established in 2004, the Office of Minority Health to help combat the higher rates of death and illness among minorities (Florida Department of Health, 2018). With a name change in 2016 to the Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, the public agency aimed to address disparities through health equity initiatives like Minority Health Liaisons. Designated representatives of each of Florida’s counties share data on minority health as well as health disparities in a cross-country way. With the information they gather, they coordinate events like National Minority Health Month to promote and raise awareness of services and programs available to minorities (Florida Department of Health, 2018). Evidence-based practice states that having representatives and advocates champion for patient rights in underserved populations can help remove healthcare barriers and therefore, healthcare disparities (Chetty et al., 2016). These agencies enable such actions through active collaboration and communication between areas (counties and communities).
In conclusion, healthcare disparities exist among according to social class and financial value. Social class ties in with race and ethnicity in the United States and has become a real problem for healthcare equity. Therefore, agencies exist both private and public to help offset such disparities. They enable collaboration and communication to employ minority hiring policies that help remove some barriers to quality healthcare.
References
Barr, D. A. (2014). Health disparities in the United States: Social class, race, ethnicity, and health. JHU Press.
Betancourt, J. R. (2013). Defining Cultural Competence: A Practical Framework for Addressing Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health and Health Care. Public Health Reports, 118(4), 293-302. doi:10.1093/phr/118.4.293
Chetty, R., Stepner, M., Abraham, S., Lin, S., Scuderi, B., Turner, N., … Cutler, D. (2016). The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001-2014. JAMA, 315(16), 1750. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.4226
Florida Department of Health. (2018). Minority Health Liaisons | Florida Department of Health. Retrieved from http://www.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/minority-health/minority-health-liaisons.html
Minority Healthcare Communcations. (2010). Minority Healthcare Communications Inc. : Focused on Health Care Education Through Conferences, Seminars and Workshops. Retrieved from http://www.minority-healthcare.com/about.html