The Fight Against Inequality In Health Care

Martin Luther King, who was a social justice and equality fighter, fought for minorities against inequality, defined as lack of fair treatment in the sharing of wealth or opportunities; once he said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane" (1966), he became an American hero since he fought for social justice, he influenced a generation to rise up and fight against inequality, when the easier choice would have been to just give up. Sadly, this fight against inequality isn’t over, inequality in health care can be found in two main areas, the first is disparities in care, including access to hospitals, doctors, skilled professionals, medical technology, essential medicine, and proper procedures,

A fact sheet from the Kaiser Foundation discusses how health care reform will make the health system more equitable for communities of color; some highlights are, to expand community health centers in communities of color, increasing the workforce in low-income hospitals, and focusing on prevention of diseases since preventing these sicknesses will save both money and lives. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, have made important advances in slimming the gap in health insurance coverage, furthermore Affordable Care Act has started to narrow health insurance disparity, expecting to lower the number of uninsured people of color from 20 percent to 11 percent by the end of 2016 or by the start of 2017. There are some politicians joining the fight against health care inequality, like Bernie Sanders who recently wrote “Health care should not be a privilege for the wealthy. Health care is a human right”, and others as well, such as the ex-president of the United States Barack Obama. Joe Wilkins, an African-American who chairs the Governance Forum of the California Hospital Association says: “Health care is transforming to being more focused around quality. And yet, how can you have quality if you don’t understand the community and the community’s needs? …The ante to get into the game is to have diversity in your governance and leadership.” Which shows the importance of including minorities in medical staff to better understand problems with the treatment of those