Disparities in African American Healthcare

African Americans commonly referred to as Black Americans are an ethnic group that
trace its origin from enslaved black people. The number of African Americans is approximately
48.8 million which represents 14.6% of the United States population (Vespa & Medina, 2018).
Africa American population is the second least healthy ethnic group after Latinos in the United
States of America. According to a report by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Sommers et al.,
2017), the major cause of disparities in the American healthcare system is racial discrimination
and ethnicity. Sommers et al (2017) observes that race and ethnicity are the leading determinant
of the nature and quality of treatment.

The disparity in the American healthcare system has
contributed to the high mortality and illness rate among African Americans. Although the past
efforts to reduce the high rate of disparities in the American health system have over the years
proved futile, there is urgency to stop the prejudice though all possible means. This paper will
argue that the prevalent disparity in the American healthcare system pose challenges to African
Americans, thus it is time to implement a non-discriminatory system. Disparity in USA Healthcare System

The number of uninsured African Americans is higher than that of white and Asian Americans combined. While health coverage is necessary, it does not guarantee good health outcomes. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aimed to reduce the number of uninsured people in the United States. However, most African Americans did not obtain coverage under this law.

In fact, African Americans living in 25 out of the 28 states that adopted the expansion remain uninsured. Additionally, Donald Trump’s administration proposed two bills that could cause 23 million people to lose their health coverage, most of whom are African Americans. One of these bills aims to repeal the medical expansion program and impose a per capita cap on Medicaid (Ku et al., 2017). APA