Health Disparities Between Wealthier Americans And Their...

Although the overall health of the United States population has improved, large disparities in terms of health outcome and access to healthcare exist between wealthier Americans and their â€Å"poorer counterparts primarily because of differences in education, behavior, and environment.† (Longest, 2015, p8). Access to health care and other services is associated with wealth, employment, education and power. Higher education, which translates to higher income, allows people to buy healthier food, live in safer, cleaner neighborhood and access the best healthcare possible. Power on the other hand permits people to secure health for themselves and their families, while others without power have limited or no access to the resources they need to be†¦show more content†¦The Great Depression in the 1930’s had been followed by a period of growing income inequality and a shrinking middle class. Due to the economic conditions, Income disparities in access to health care had grown much worse, medical costs were rising, and sickness became a leading cause of poverty. Since few people could afford to pay for medical care welfare agencies began to help pay for medical costs for the poor. By â€Å"1940, the population of the united states was 132 million with only 12 million – a little less than 10 percent covered by some form of health insurance†( Scofea, 1994). The growing concern of the increase in the number of people who are uninsured led to the enactment of the Stabilization act in 1942, which imposed wage and price controls but at the same time permitted the adoption of employee insurance plans. The federal government enacted this legislation to prevent employers from raising wages in order to compete for scarce labor in response to the inflation pressure of the wartime economy. Furthermore, the government provided private insurers with a new market for their products by permitting employers to offer health insurance to their emplo yees. In the years that followed, the government passed several regulations that helped reinforced the institutionalization of the employment-based system of health insurance that