Health Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease
Health disparities denote to differences between individuals that have an impact on how a disease affects a particular population group. Graham’s article, “Disparities in Cardiovascular Disease Risk in the United States,” highlights health disparities among population groups in the United States. According to Graham, while some population groups have an edge in cardiovascular health improvements, others are experiencing deteriorating cardiovascular health. The most significant contributors to health disparities in cardiovascular health are social alienations and economic inequalities. According to Graham, the total cost of inequalities, such as race, geography, ethnicity, and social-economic issues in the United States were estimated at $1.24 trillion in 2015.
Moreover, healthcare providers, patients, and healthcare systems contribute to the disparities in cardiovascular disease. The contribution of the patient to the variations is individual behaviors like the type of food and exercises. Providers contribute to the disparities either intentionally or unintentionally, based on the sensitivity and need of the patients because of the patient’s background. The healthcare system controls the policies like the insurances; this implies that if the healthcare costs are too much, the poor populations will not afford the care.
The apparent health disparities in the United Disparities are causing the minority populations to suffer most in diseases such as cardiovascular diseases. An individual’s ethnicity, race, or geographical positioning should not put him more at risk for cardiovascular disease. One of the possible ways to solve health disparities in cardiovascular health is to restructure the healthcare model. In my view, a universal healthcare model can explain the inequalities apparent with populations in the United States. A typical model that the U.S can adopt is like the Switzerland healthcare model. While the Swiss model is said to be expensive, everyone has access to healthcare, public or private. Regarding the poor people who can not pay for the expensive insurance, the government provides subsidies for the poor to ensure they do not spend over 10% of their salaries buying insurance. I believe if the U.S government adopts such a healthcare model, it would be easy to bring to an end the healthcare disparities, not only for the cardiovascular diseases but also for the general public health.