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Introduction
The term “socioeconomic” is often used when discussing a cultural group’s income, types of careers or occupations, such as blue collar or white collar, and levels of education. These characteristics allow society to categorize the low- income, middle class and wealthy individuals of the United States, who have social standing, power, and control over the lower classes. Needless to say, poverty and a low socioeconomic status have a strong correlation to poor health, either little to no education, single parent households, and low wage employment are among some of the factors.
These disparities, so to speak affect all members of society. Each individual who belongs to a certain race or ethnic background is automatically placed or stereotyped within a socioeconomic bracket. Or in other words, race and socioeconomic status goes hand in hand. This concept is essential to understand because there are many “communities whom are often segregated by SES, race, and ethnicity. These communities share similar characteristics of developing nations and these characteristics are low economic development, poor health conditions, and low levels of educational attainment. Low socioecomic status has consistently been implicated as a risk factor for many of the problems that plague communities of all cultural backgrounds, but especially minorities” (“American Psychological Association,” 2014, para. 3).
African-Americans adults and their children, as well as Hispanics and other ethnic groups will live in poverty more than their Caucasian counterparts. Asian and Chinese Americans are considered to be the “ideal minority” due to having a higher income than other ethnic groups but this is usually because there several working family members sharing the same living space. And as far as physical and mental health within these cultural groups of low socioeconomic status; studies show that discrimination and certain prejudices place extreme barriers for individuals of ethnic descent to receive quality health care. Looking at the statistics, “one fourth of Asian American women from low socioeconomic backgrounds have not seen the ob/gyn in over a period of three years for a Pap smear which is essential when sexually active to prevent unwanted STD’s, STI’s and ovarian cancer. In addition, other health concerns and conditions are correlated with a low socioeconomic status such as low birth weight, exposure to alcohol and drugs, especially minors under the age of seventeen, and being diagnosed with a mental illness like schizophrenia”(“American Psychological Association,” 2014).
Throughout this discussion, we will closely examine these socioeconomic disparities mainly based on the area of health within the United States. There are obvious reoccurring patterns that continue to happen from generation to generation in every cultural or ethnic group. Our research will help us understand these issues more appropriately.
Socioeconomic Disparities
In the scholarly article, “Socioeconomic Disparities in Health in the United States: What the Patterns Tell Us”, the authors pointed out that in some cases, the lower an individual’s income is, the worse their health may be; but before arriving to this conclusion, there are other aspects which may be considered first. Whenever the concept of health inequality arises, it is usually based on information that is not entirely accurate among the researchers, policy makers, lawmakers, and in some cases, the physicians who are treating the health conditions. One interesting finding of the study was “Blacks have worse outcomes than Whites at each and every level of income or education. Blacks may not experience the same health benefits from a given level of income or education as Whites; which could potentially be explained by adverse health effects of more concentrated disadvantages, such as far lower levels of wealth and greater likelihood of living in more disadvantaged neighborhoods at a given level of income, or a range of experiences related to racial bias that are not captured by consistently collected socioeconomic measures”(Braveman, Cubbin, Egerter, Williams, & Pamuk, 2010).
As pointed out during the research, these statistical figures are not consistently collected which means that many minority groups may in fact be underrepresented or the data may be inaccurate since an individual’s socioeconomic status could change at any given time. Other reasons for misrepresentation of data could be that the participants of the study may not be available for personal reasons, privacy, etc. One factor to also consider is the rising number of blended and interracial families. It would be impossible for a family consisting of an African-American mother and an Irish father with three mixed children to insert these sorts of demographics without first conducting the proper research and applying it to these bi-racial cultural groups, which is why the article of “What the Patterns Tells Us” may be a bit outdated in some areas of information due to it not covering all the areas that should be discussed within ethnicity issues.
The correlation between socioeconomic status and health would be considered the “dose-response relationship” in which its factors are linked to levels of income and educational achievements. This relationship fits the criteria of those causal roles which include the higher the income, the better the health, while the relationship correlation could be reversed as the lower the income, the worse the health may be for the individual. But education may not always be as an essential factor as the income to make any sort of determination. Referring back to health, however the lack of the proper medical insurance or an inability to pay for it affects the individual health since this usually means that other areas within the household are being neglected like not enough food, important utilities are being disconnected like the lights or gas etc. but these components affect health tremendously because it can bring a serious medical condition when the basic needs are not being adequately met. “Medical care may be a major contribution to an individual’s socioeconomic status; it is not the primary explanation for the decline of a person’s health. Another factor which could be looked at is the health policies as well in these socioeconomic inequalities” (Braveman et al., 2010).
Health Policies and other Socioeconomic Determinants
The United States economic and health related policies which dates back as early as 1913 created programs that was especially designed to reduce these income inequalities among cultural groups and classes which was the Progressive tax. However, other programs like Welfare, Food Stamps; Social Security among others is where these inequalities became even more prevalent in the United States. One policy in particular that helps the needy families extend their resources to purchase medical coverage is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This credit “is a contemporary example of a federal policy that has raised the income of working-poor families, while welfare reform in general has pushed in the opposite direction, cutting the stipend levels for recipients” (Adler & Newman, 2002). Not to mention, this additional tax credit could help many low income families with past due bills, retain education, sign up for workshops and certifications for better paying employment, and make wise investments to increase monthly to yearly income overall. But this is not always the case since some families may not worked that year or may not have children in the household, therefore making those members not qualified to receive this tax credit. Another health policy which is creating a balance for all members of society, regardless of social class to have quality health care is the Affordable Care Act. This new policy offers many benefits which has never been available before to the American public. These benefits consist of insurance companies no longer denying children under the age of 19 with preexisting health conditions like kidney failure, ADHD, asthma, etc. The consumer can receive medical treatment from any doctor that may not necessarily be in the pre-existing plan network, just in case of a second opinion, and this policy offers the health marketplace. This marketplace allows individuals to choose any coverage that they want and in the event they do not qualify, most likely due to a lack of income or resources, then the individual would automatically be eligible for their local state Medicaid program ("Healthcare.gov," 2015).
Furthermore, there are other determinants which affect health that are not just education and income related, but also due to environmental factors. In communities commonly known as “ghettos”, the residents of these areas are most likely to not be conscious enough to throw away their trash and just toss it into the street, or stray animals roams the neighborhood looking for food which causes people’s trash to be all over the grounds. In a situation like this, residents with little to no education may not understand but they are being exposed to toxic chemicals from this garbage that constantly lies around in their home, in the dumpsters, and from the companies that may place their factories near the children’s playgrounds. Since the residents are not educated enough to complain, then the companies would continue to pollute the community with these deadly chemicals like asbestos, lead and carbon dioxide. Research has proven that low income neighborhoods are known to be in the heart of toxic waste sites. Companies choose these areas since the land is cheaper and again, people are presumed to not complain but these ideologies are wrong. Agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency enforce laws against this “environmental racism” and strive to protect people from inhaling these toxics. Minorities are more likely to suffer from these sorts of issues than Caucasians.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we touched basis on several components of the socioeconomic status of members within the low income bracket such as the typical stereotypes of the population of culture groups like African-Americans, Asian Americans, etc who have to endure these stigmas of income barriers, education, health policies, and environmental factors which all share a contribution to the socioeconomic disparities in health. But the most important question to ask when discussing such issues is, “What is the solution?” How can we, as the American people solve some of these imbalances? After all, there is the Affordable Care Act and the Earned Income Tax Credits, but these programs are simply not enough to target and eliminate the problem altogether since someone would always be left out in the cold in some sort of way, or may not qualify to receive the service. To help eliminate the problem in these socioeconomic disparities, there must be an intervention.
“Racial and ethnic disparities in health status and health care in the United States have been well documented with various degrees of success within these ethnic groups. The certain components, however to test the interventions like collecting relevant and reliable data, operationalizing cultural competence, ensuring community commitment, achieving equity are very essential for these ethnic disparities. Also, the health services interventions play an important role within the intervention sector and should target the highest risk populations such as pregnant teenagers, high school drop-outs, handicapped children, or those with disabilities, disease control like Ebola, among other populations to utilize the cultural methods to measure quality health services, its outcomes and to prioritize its efforts” (Cooper, Hill, & Powe, 2002).
References
About the Law. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/rights/
Adler, N. E., & Newman, K. (2002, March). Socioeconomic Disparities: In Health Pathways And Policies. Health Affairs, 21(2), 60-76. Retrieved from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/21/2/60.full
Braveman, P. A., Cubbin, C., Egerter, S., Williams, D. R., & Pamuk, E. (2010). Socioeconomic Disparities in Health in the United States What the Patterns Tell Us. American Journal of Public Health, 100(100), 186-196. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2837459/
Cooper, L. A., Hill, M. N., & Powe, N. R. (2002). Designing and Evaluating Interventions. PMC, 17(6), 477. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1495065/
Ethnic and Racial Minorities & Socioeconomic Status. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/factsheet-erm.aspx
