Respond to the following two discussion responses and if sourced used they must

Respond to the following two discussion responses and if sourced used they must be properly cited and full accessible to read if need be.
Discussion Response 1 EL:
Healthcare should be accessible and available to all people in the United States. Since the United States does not ensure health care insurance for all people in the United States, many people are left without coverage and ultimately without the care that they need. All healthcare services should be available to everyone in the United States; healthcare should be a human right. Services such as primary care, speciality care, emergent care, and mental healthcare are all critical aspects of a person’s health and should be accessible to everyone.
While this is ideal, there are many obstacles that arise not only with service accessibility but also with the quality of care. Racism, sexism, and other disparities are very alive and present in the US and specifically in the healthcare system. Because different people require different types of care (for example people with female anatomy require healthcare that biological males do not) making services available to everyone requires access to many different types of healthcare — not just, say, primary care. Wagner explains that: “socioeconomic factors are a strong predictor of mortality. A number of researchers have found that racism, stereotypes, and biases play an important role in the variation in health outcomes and decreased access to care” (Wagner 220). With that said, I would argue that the question is more complex than what services should be available to everyone but rather how can we ensure that everyone has access to the healthcare that they need and the quality of care that they deserve. The issue of health equity is crucial to this conversation because while many people are able to visit their PCP when necessary, they are not guaranteed that the doctor will be fully attentive or that their care will not be misconstrued based on the patient’s identity. While I believe that all care services should be available to everyone, it is just as important that recognition and equity is a standard set for all healthcare services.
The LGBTQ+ community is also a very underserved and misunderstood population in the United States whose medical needs are not necessarily acknowledged as a medical need. Wagners says that: “Healthcare for the LGBT community has been affected by a number of special circumstances and challenges, including lack of access to health insurance, a shortage of healthcare providers who are knowledgeable and culturally competent about LGBT health, and lack of access to necessary health services” (Wagner 219). The healthcare services needed within the LGBTQ+ community also need to be acknowledged as medical needs and general respect and understanding for people’s identity should not affect the healthcare that they receive. All of these factors play a role in the lack of available and quality services available for people within all different communities. There needs to be a shift in what is defined as a necessary service to validating an individual’s healthcare needs without pre-conceived judgment or biases.
Works Cited
Wagner, Stephen L. The United States Healthcare System: Overview, Driving Forces, and Outlook for the Future. Health Administration Press, 2021.
Discussion Response 2 OL:
Large racial and ethnic inequities in health in the U.S. highlight the need for renewed efforts to effectively reduce and eliminate them. “The historically stigmatized racial groups, blacks (or African Americans), Native Americans (or American Indians and Alaska Natives) and Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders, have worse health than that of whites , and despite progress in reducing inequities over time, racial gaps in health persist” (Williams, 2019). In addition, recent studies have shown that despite the improvements in the overall health of the country, racial and ethnic minorities experience a lower quality of health care—they are less likely to receive routine medical care and face higher rates of morbidity and mortality than nonminorities (AMA, 2021). It is important to look at inequalities in terms of health disparities, sex differences, race and ethnicity, and age. In terms of health disparities, “some groups have significantly higher rates of certain diseases than others”, and “reducing disparities will lead to better health for everyone… [and also] reduce the cost of care” (Wagner, 2021). In terms of sex, each gender has different healthcare needs “in terms of how they respond to medications and treatment… [and] in the ways they manifest disease”. For race and ethnicity, we look at disparities but also the quality of care, as well as cultural and language barriers and how they are respected. Finally, people of various age groups have differences in biology and environmental factors. It is crucial that there is an understanding of care for all members of different age groups, and a focus on illness that they are predisposed to as they age.
So what can we do to help reduce inequality and discrimination. First, we can “create communities of opportunity” by creating “early childhood development initiatives, reducing childhood poverty, enhancing income and employment opportunities among Youth and Adults, and improving neighborhood and housing conditions” (Williams, 2019). Next, we can build more health into the delivery of medical care by ensuring access to care for all, emphasizing primary care, eliminating inequities within high quality care models, addressing social risks, and diversifying the hospital workplace. Finally, we can raise awareness of inequities and bring it to a political level by increasing awareness that inequities exists both within the hospital and outside of the care settings, by building political support to overcome the inequities, by increasing overall public empathy, by enhancing individual and community capacity, and by dismantling racism (Williams, 2019).
References:
AMA (2021). Reducing Disparities in Health Care. Retrieved from: https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/patient-support-advocacy/reducing-disparities-health-care
Wagner, S. (2021). The United States Healthcare System. Association of University Programs in Health Administration.
Williams, D. R., & Cooper, L. A. (2019). Reducing Racial Inequities in Health: Using What We Already Know to Take Action. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(4), 606. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16040606