Health disparities in Rural areas Research Paper

Health disparities in Rural areas - Research Paper Example Great health care disparities prevail in United States. Health status of the negatively privileged population is poor. Ethnic and racial minorities suffer great segregation problems in America. The African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans struggle to meet the medical expenses. They are comparatively more vulnerable to chronic diseases than the whites. This ill-privileged group has high mortality rate and negative health outcomes. The heavy racial and ethnic disparities in United States reflect in health care sector also. For example, cancer rate is found to be very high among the African Americans (nearly 25% higher than the whites). Other blacks, especially Hispanics, are highly risky towards diabetes. The black minorities who live in unhealthy environment are also vulnerable to various other problems like AIDS and infant mortality. The healthcare policy of the United States is least favorable for this minority groups. The minority population residing in t he rural areas does not have a proper access to healthcare facilities. There is great disparity in the healthcare access of minorities and rest of the population. Minorities are deprived of efficient and good quality healthcare facilities. Rural residents of United States report poor health. They are more vulnerable to chronic conditions like diabetes. Heart disease is also not uncommon among them. Compared to their urban counterparts, minorities living in rural areas are more prone to diseases and are also deprived of good healthcare facilities. Negatively privileged minorities seldom receive the preventive services, and do not get access to good healthcare service providers. Even though they have more healthcare needs compared to others we find that they do not take proper treatment. The statistics of cancer screening and treatment of diabetes and heart diseases show that minorities are not always benefited of the treatment. Minorities residing in rural areas are disadvantaged bec ause of several reasons. Only nine percent of the doctors of the United States practice in the rural areas though rural areas have a heavy population who are in real need of healthcare facilities. Almost 20 percent of the nation’s population lives in rural areas. Rural residents choose not to avail medical facilities for they have to travel long distance to reach quality healthcare service providers. Certain improvements in healthcare for chronic conditions, availability of preventive services and access to quality healthcare have contributed to the reduction of disparity in healthcare field. These day minorities are fortunate to get better access to healthcare facilities. For example, access to pediatric vision care, timing of antibiotics, counseling for addictions, receipt of mammography and various other things have improved for negatively privileged people. However still there are disadvantaged populations who are not benefited out of these improvements. Asians, Indians, Alaska Natives, Hispanics, Latinos and few other populations still suffer from the lack of quality healthcare service. For example, when we look at the colon cancer screening statistics we can find this disparity. The disparity is increasing in spite of other attempts to give more privileges to the negatively privileged population. Disparities have also affected Hispanics and other people of color. Treatments for psychological disorders also give only a second privileged to blacks and other minorities. Health