There is no doubt that the history of the people of color in the United States depicts a picture of misguided policies that led to disenfranchisement of these people. The historical injustices that affected the black communities living in the U.S have not only affected their economic progress but also led to a protracted social repression and access to health care. Due to this, there exists an evident discrepancy in health outcomes, including the life expectancy, for the minority groups in the U.S and the Caucasian counterparts. There is need to bridge this obvious healthcare gap between the immigrant communities and the indigenous people in terms of care for chronic illnesses.
Individuals from the black community with chronic illnesses continue to face a plethora of disadvantages in access to healthcare facilities and disease preventive measures. This has occurred in not only illness that relate to lifestyle such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes but also for the communicable illnesses. Artiga, Stephens and Damico (2015) explain that t here has been a specific challenge in establishing priorities for this group on the basis of the fragmentary data on health indicators for this population. Since development and implementation of policies has to be guided by statistics, the data collection systems have continually underestimated the disease burden as a result of improper identification of the burden of disease for immigrant communities, especially the undocumented ones. Such failures in proper identification of this vulnerable population have aggravated the healthcare gap. Implementing disparate measures without proper needs assessment has minimally resulted to health improvement if any.
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To address healthcare gap in treatment of chronic illnesses, efforts have to aim at primary prevention of disease. It is worth noting that majority of the people of color who do not surpass their life expectancy die due to preventable causes. High mortality rates before the age of 70 is attributable to the late presentation of diseases, problems in acquisition of emergency surgical and medical care, as well as lack of or inadequate follow up of patients after medical interventions (Mirza et al, 2014). The highest burden of disease occurs in the urban areas where still, the gap in access to healthcare is more evident. Therefore, healthcare measures to tackle these inequalities should in unique ways target those residing in these places where housing and access to other social amenities remains a major challenge.
Strengthening of the programs that target health services provision and other related functions should remain at the core of addressing the disparity (Mirza et al, 2014). By extension, these interventions should not just be limited to the healthcare sector but should also target at improving the social and economic status of the individuals. McMorrow et al (2015) notes that poverty and inadequacy of social amenities directly affects health outcomes and thus the life expectancy of any given population. In this context, to address the disenfranchisement of the black immigrant community holistically, policies that target the physical wellbeing of this society should also improve the social, cultural and emotional concerns. Measures to address the socio-economic disparities in healthcare have been rolled out through the passing of the Affordable Healthcare Act, which is under much scrutiny under the current government, but there is a long way to go.
In conclusion, there has been a discrepancies in the access of quality services by the people of color with chronic illnesses . Although there has been an effort from the government and other stakeholders in bridging this gap, discrepancies still exist with regard to burden of disease, access to medication and life expectancies. Policies to address the socio-economic problems should be implemented with the healthcare reforms. Detailed statistics on the heath indicators for the immigrant people and the disadvantage they face is important evidence base in drafting the priority interventions required to further reduce this gap.
References
Artiga, S., Stephens, J., & Damico, A. (2015). The impact of the coverage gap in states not expanding Medicaid by race and ethnicity. Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. October .
McMorrow, S., Long, S. K., Kenney, G. M., & Anderson, N. (2015). Uninsurance disparities have narrowed for black and Hispanic adults under the Affordable Care Act. Health Affairs , 10-1377.
Mirza, M., Luna, R., Mathews, B., Hasnain, R., Hebert, E., Niebauer, A., & Mishra, U. D. (2014). Barriers to healthcare access among refugees with disabilities and chronic health conditions resettled in the US Midwest. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health , 16 (4), 733-742
