Importance of Health Equity and Causes of Health Inequity

Importance of Health Equity
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January 22, 2019
Introduction
Health Equity could mean a lot of different things. In the academic sense, it is a field of study that seeks to understand the reason for the differences between health and the provision of such across different regions of the world. In an ideal sense, it refers to the “opportunity for everyone to attain his or her full health potential” (Boston Public Health Commission, 2019). In light of the latter, it could be said that health equity is important because it is a fundamental right of the people. Providing affordable, better, and precise type of care would also benefit that nation since citizens could function much better and perform their tasks well. In this article, some examples of the causes and importance of health equity would be discussed. Nonetheless, the author believes that providing affordable and quality healthcare would not only benefit individuals per se. Instead, it would also benefit the overall quality of healthcare as well as the general society.
Causes of Health Inequity
In America alone, studies have noted that there is still a significant health disparity between people from different races. These kinds of disparities have become apparent by measuring different statistical figures such as morbidity and mortality rates between the different races (NASEM, 2017). While this is surprising these days because of the different projects implemented by both public and private institutions to provide better healthcare, scholars have found out that there is a deeper reason for this phenomena – that is, lack of educational attainment and poverty (NASEM, 2017). Since those living in the more impoverished areas of the city consist of the minorities, their access to affordable and quality healthcare is also less. What this means is that health inequity happens not only to the lack of provision of care but also because of several socioeconomic factors that are embedded in the society.
Ending Health Inequity and its Benefits
One of the foremost importance of health equity is the betterment of the overall quality of healthcare. By providing access to such services, people could prevent diseases early on as well as treat those others that have progressed, without adding to their emotional burdens. On the one hand, this would reduce the numbers of serious diseases that would require costlier hospitalization costs. In fact, a study done in Europe has found out that by investing in simple health equity programs, gains such as 14 billion euros in incre...