The United States Health System and Inequalities (2020)

In the United States, a clear relationship exists between levels of wealth and income, and health outcomes such as illnesses and diseases (Dasgupta 2015). Individuals of lower economic status experience higher mortality and morbidity rates, resulting in fewer healthy days and lower reports of well-being per capita (Dasgupta 2015). To understand this situation, we show how multiple environmental causes, along with race, ethnicity, and economic disparities, affect health outcomes. In 2012, 48 million individuals—more than 15 percent of the United States population—were uninsured, (Dasgupta 65) a circumstance that was directly shaped by differential access to political power. Taken together, these factors explain how, and why, the health system has consistently failed to respond to the demands of individuals in lower SES, while benefitting other SES groups through implementation of policies such as the Affordable Care Act of 2010.