Question

How does culture affect the health disparity of low income people who cannot afford health insurance? How would you go about trying to address it? (How can ecological model apply to your strategy to address this health disparity. For example, would you conduct more research, create an intervention, or something else)

Answer 1

In a culture like America, people who belong to other cultures or races are not given that importance as the whites thus giving a straight advantage to the Whites in terms of getting a job, finding a house, getting social security measures etc. Besides, today we could find institutionalized racism in US where people from other cultures find it hard to travel on par with the Major culture, thus are economically not strong enough. This would leave them vulnerable in terms of leading a healthy life with the costly food and receive medical help that is very expensive.

Ecological model looks at the health issues at an individual level and community or country level. It looks at the determinants of the health determinants and suggests remedial measures because health is determined by various factors at various levels. Culture is one of the most important factors that determines the health of those that belong to it. Although too many studies have highlighted this health disparity, it’s the government that should decide to act on a policy level to include everyone in the country in its programme by giving equal opportunity and support.

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