Minority Group and Healthcare in United States

The level of healthcare in United States is perceived to be excellent especially from people living in third world countries. However, there exist vast disparities in the in the healthcare sector, which is usually based on racial and ethnic differences. Despite relentless efforts from activists and advancement in civil rights, race and ethnicity has remained a critical factor in determining the quality of health service accorded to an individual.

Non-Hispanic white Americans have been the subjected to these disparities in the health care. The disparities in the health sector range from insurance health, accessibility, care and quality of health services accorded to them. As evidenced by previous researches, it is crystal clear that such minority groups have suffered immensely from these disparities(LaVeist, 2011).

Common ailments like asthma, HIV/AIDS among others have been more common to these minority groups as opposed to the rest of the nation. These minor groups have also not had adequate insurance policy thus making it difficult for them to acquire quality service.

HIPAA

HIPAA is initials which refer to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability. This was an Act of the congress which was established in 1996. The policy was adopted with a sole aim of standardizing and promotion of health standards in United States. It was also aimed at offering optimum protection of individuals’ health information.

HIPAA was based on the critical role of privacy to the patients. According to the authors of the policy, it was required that information regarding to a patient should not be disclosed without their consent (LaVeist, 2011). It is required that such information can only be released to outsiders when the patient has duly accented to the same. This information regards the past, future or present health information of a patient. In essence, the policy was aimed at maintaining ethics of health practitioners(LaVeist, 2011).

 

 Reference

LaVeist, T. A. (2011). Minority Populations and Health: An Introduction to Health Disparities in the United States. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Do you need an Original High Quality Academic Custom Essay?