The Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Limited Access to Healthcare

1080 Words3 Pages

What is the effect of socioeconomic status on limited access to healthcare? Socioeconomic status can limit access to healthcare in many ways. Several Americans do not have the means to receive healthcare although it is readily available to the entire population. A person’s social status, urban community and financial background can all have an impact as to how access to healthcare is achieved. While there are many factors that limit access to healthcare, I will discuss how these particular factors play a role with accessing healthcare services. Why do low income individuals tend to have high risk factors that result in poor health outcomes? What are some of the factors that determine better health outcomes? These are some of the questions that come up when trying to understand the influence of health outcomes. An individual’s socioeconomic status can alter their healthcare choices and status based on education, income, surroundings and/or occupation levels. How does social status limit access to healthcare? Social status is a combination of education, income and occupation levels (Alder & Newman 2002). It can affect health longevity based on personal circumstances. As individuals, we tend to measure our sense of well-being in terms of those around us. In general, people with higher incomes and education levels have more control over their health choices. They are able to sustain health because they are more likely to have health insurance, thus healthcare is easily accessible for them. However, lower income individuals struggle to maintain proper healthcare. If everyone around you has similar circumstances, what will guide you into doing the opposite? Having higher income and education levels determines better health care... ... middle of paper ... ...cioeconomic status in health disparities research. Journal of the national medical association, 99(9), 1013 2. Fiscella, K., & Williams, D. R. (2004). Health disparities based on socioeconomic inequities: implications for urban health care. Academic Medicine, 79(12), 1139-1147. 3. Adler, N. E., & Newman, K. (2002). Socioeconomic disparities in health: pathways and policies. Health affairs, 21(2), 60-76. 4. Adler, N. E., & Ostrove, J. M. (1999). Socioeconomic status and health: what we know and what we don't. Annals of the New York academy of Sciences, 896(1), 3-15. 5. Kennedy, B. P., Kawachi, I., Glass, R., & Prothrow-Stith, D. (1998). Income distribution, socioeconomic status, and self-rated health in the United States: multilevel analysis. Bmj, 317(7163), 917-921. 6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19924 7. http://www.nber.org/bah/spring04/w10365.html

Open Document