Health Promotion

Racial factors are the most rampant causes of health disparity among the US population. Research indicates that there is a significant variation in the quality of health care among individuals of different race and ethni ...

Racial factors are the most rampant causes of health disparity among the US population. Research indicates that there is a significant variation in the quality of health care among individuals of different race and ethnic groups (Kathryn et al., 2017). Statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2017) indicate that African-Americans have a lower health coverage of a 78% figure, compared to whites who have a 90% health coverage. In addition to that, blacks are more prone to chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, asthma, hypertension, and cardiovascular conditions. According to a research conducted by Kathryn et al. (2017) to establish the underlying causes for the disparity, the social-economic status of the affected individuals was significantly low, accounting for the health inequality. The government has taken various initiatives to decrease the healthcare gap, such as the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and increasing the healthcare workforce. The Affordable health act, also known as Obamacare, was introduced due to preexisting high costs of treatment & health coverage. Secondly, the legislation was passed to improve the healthcare quality, which would benefit many Americans. Before the introduction of Obamacare, health costs and insurance rates were substantially high. According to Cooper & Gardner (2016), many individuals could not afford the treatment costs, creating a high health inequality based on social economic status, age, gender, an ethnic group among other factors. In addition to that, the quality of healthcare services was generally low due to inadequate equipment, and other essential services. After the Act was passed in 2010, a higher budget was allocated in the health sector to cater for the above issues. Various barriers have developed from the implementation of the Act. For example, there have been a lot of politics about the high amount of capital allocated to the health sector, which has a significant effect on the GDP. Secondly, most citizens are not yet covered (Cooper & Gardner, 2016). Currently, the Medicaid policy has been implemented to improve on healthcare reforms such as increasing health coverage of low-income citizens who do not benefit from ACA (Cooper & Gardner, 2016). According to McLafferty & Chakrabarti (2014), nurses can promote health nationally through leadership strategies by having a greater influence in the policy-making process. Through experience and research, nurses holding leading positions can recommend on the most effective plans to increase health care that can benefit the majority proportion of the US citizens.