health

• One reason why some ethnic minorities may be more likely to suffer from health inequality in the US is because they may not be able to afford good medical insurance. In the USA, the majority of people have private medical insurance. This means that they pay a regular fee to a private company and the company will pay for their care if they need it. Black and Hispanic people are more likely to earn lower incomes or be unemployed than White people therefore are less likely to have private medical insurance. Due to this, poorer Americans are more likely to have poorer health and a lower life expectancy. For example, the average life expectancy for Black people was only 71.8 years compared to 77.6 years for White people in 2022.
• A world power I have studied is the US. One reason why some ethnic minorities suffer from health inequality in the US is because there are lower levels of health insurance cover in the Black and Hispanic communities. This is because health insurance cover is very expensive and many Black and Hispanic people are unable to afford it. Although many employees get health insurance through their work, many Black and Hispanic people are employed in the type of low paid work that may offer little or no health insurance cover. For example, Black people are almost twice as likely and Hispanic people are more than 2.5 times as likely to be uninsured than White people in the USA
• Another reason why some ethnic minorities may suffer from health inequality in the US is because of lifestyle factors, such as an unsafe workplace. Ethnic minorities are more likely to be employed in high-risk occupations and have a higher rate of workplace deaths than other ethnic groups. This is because they may have fewer opportunities than white people, due to their English-speaking abilities or lack of legal status. Ethnic minorities may then experience health inequalities as they must work in dangerous situations to make a living. For example, ethnic minorities have been found to be 3 times as likely to be infected by COVID 19 as white people, as many of them have front-line jobs, leading to higher risk of poor health.