HOLLY ABNEY LYDIA ALVAREZ MARIA BONILLA

MEGAN ERICKSON KELSEY FRANCONE

SAMANTHA PALOMINO KEVIN SOUZA

Inequality in Health Care

Homelessness on the rise in California

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50DoIx7xGGQ

The Feminization of Poverty

Emerged as the baby boomers came of age shrinking middle class and

growing poor population population needing

childbearing assistance gets larger, public policy keeps reducing its support

  Poverty results in :

both personal and structural deprivation for women

Health status and health care are affected by this deprivation

Immediate and long-term consequences for their overall health status

 

Underlying structure of American society has produced a social stratification system that has made life chances unequal for poor women

Poverty & Inequality are Partners in Crime

The more unequal the income distribution in a country, state, or city, the lower the life expectancies for people of all income levels

The bigger the income gap between rich and poor, the less inclined the well off are to pay taxes for public services they either do not use or use in low proportion to the taxes they pay

Difference in Status is as Important income level

Stresses cascade down social hierarchies and accumulate among the least empowered.

Studies reveal a sharp increase in mortality with each step down the job hierarchy-even from the highest.

Lower-levels servants are more likely to report feelings of hostility, the main stress-related risk factor for heart disease

Women Pay More and are Less Likely to Receive Health Care

Women can be charged higher premiums than men during their reproductive years A 22 year old woman can be charged one and a half times

the premium of a 22 year old man

Women are less likely to be employed full-time than men (52% versus 73%) Less likely to be eligible for employer-based health benefits

themselves Less than half of women obtain employer-based coverage

on their own covered through a spouse (41%) purchasing insurance directly through the individual market

(5%) on public programs (10%) uninsured (38%).

Being a Woman is Not a Pre-Existing Condition

Women may be denied health insurance due to: Pregnancy Domestic violence Rape Caesarean section

Single Women: Health Care and Poverty

Among women that may be covered through their employer, they are twice as likely as men to go on their spouse’s plan (15% versus 7%). Single women are

twice as likely to be uninsured than married women (24% versus 12%).

Fresno families below the poverty line Married-couple family

(35.3%) Male, no wife present

(11.0%) Female, no husband present

(53.7%)

Racial Discrimination in Health Care

African Americans have worse reproductive health outcomes than people from other racial groups

The root causes are : a long history of

discrimination lack of access to high-

quality affordable health care

too few educational and professional opportunities

unequal access to safe clean neighborhoods

a lingering mistrust of the medical community

“There is clear" demonstrable, undeniable evidence of discrimination and racism in our health care system" Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan

"Medicaid must have been developed by a white slave owner because it fails to prevent unwanted pregnancies, and this failure contributes to poverty, ignorance and enslavement" Surgeon General Elders

Racial Discrimination in Prenatal Care

The odds that black women had no prenatal care visits were two to three times higher than the odds for white women. The odds that Hispanic women had no prenatal care visits

were one-third more likely than the odds for white women

Black and Hispanic women are less likely to have prenatal care in their first trimester and to have had an adequate number of prenatal care visits

Women in minority racial groups were less likely to have begun Medicaid covered prenatal care 5 or more months prior to delivery

MedicaidMedicaid Planned ParenthoodPlanned Parenthood

Funded jointly by the Federal Government and the individual states

The program that provides benefits for long-term nursing home care

The problem is, for an unmarried patient to qualify for Medicaid, they must be financially broke

1/4 women who receives contraceptive care

1/6 women who obtains a Pap test or a pelvic exam

1/3 of women who receive counseling, testing, or treatment for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV

Accessible Health Services