The Impact Of The COVID-19 Pandemic And Social Justice Essay

Social justice is tremendously important for many reasons. Social justice is the fairness among people and society. In other words, it also means the every person should have the same rights and opportunities

Public health is known to focus on enhancing, serving, and protecting the health of communities throughout the United States. People who work in public health keep communities healthy by providing access to health care, education, helping with disasters, disease prevention, and much more. It seems that public health has little to no problems, but in reality has tremendous amounts of issues that are not expressed or known by the media and people in the U.S. These problems include healthcare disparities, Covid-19 effects on low income minority populations, and health insurance.

The first issue that is extremely important would be healthcare disparities. Healthcare disparities refers to differences in health and health care between groups that are closely associated with economic, social, and environmental disadvantages. Disparities happen throughout many extents. This includes race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, location, gender, disability status, and sexual orientation. Healthcare disparities are extremely important to address. It is important because the population keeps becoming more diverse and studies show that in 2050 people of color will take up 52% of the population in America. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is getting massive cover gains but several groups are in jeopardy of being uninsured, having no access to care, and enduring dreadful health outcomes. According to KFF.org, “Hispanics are two and a half times more likely to be uninsured than Whites (19.0% vs. 7.5%) and individuals with incomes below poverty are four times as likely to lack coverage as those with incomes at 400% of the federal poverty level or above (17.3% vs. 4.3%)”. Although the Department of Health and Human Services has carried out an action plan to end ethnic and racial healthcare disparities. Many communities are trying to limit health disparities. Speaking out on health disparities is key to spread awareness to what is happening to many groups.  

The second issue that needs to be addressed would be Covid-19 on low income minority populations. Covid-19 has affected everyone but low income minority populations have been disportionately affected the most. Families across the country are struggling to pay for basic necessities. This includes housing, food, and medical care. These necessities are crucial parts of living. More than 8 million Americans are now in poverty due to the ongoing pandemic. Covid-19 has also caused many problems in kids and teens lives. According to aappublications.org, “The Covid-19 crisis has caused significant disruption to children’s daily lives, and the findings in this brief underscore the many ways in which the pandemic poses risks to children’s health, well-being, and development.” Sadly about 43% of parents that have kids have lost their jobs during these tough times. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused immense hardship and massive amounts of distress for low income families. Children from low income families have experienced this type of stress which can have awful long term effects on them and their health. One of the saddest parts of Covid-19 pandemic in the United States would be the harm it has caused to the Hispanic, Aisan, and Black communities. For example, in Michigan, the pandemic has impacted the African American community disproportionally. 14% of Michigan residents are African American but they represented about 40% of Michigan's total Covid deaths. Covid-19 on low income minority populations has caused a negative impact on the United States.

The third topic that is important to speak about is health insurance. Health Insurance is one of the most crucial things that Americans need.  Health insurance maintains, assists, and encourages health. It also helps prevent massive medical bills. without health insurance,people can be faced with financial burdens, which leads to medical bankruptcy. Lower class minorities and families are at higher risk of being uninsured. This means that they tend to receive less healthcare services. Uninsured individuals are faced with unreasonably high prices of healthcare services, having to pay for the medical bills out of pocket, and the concern that they might not be able to pay and have huge financial burdens. In the article by Purdue University, it states that, “ uninsured individuals receive 8.4% fewer services after accounting for differences in characteristics, Compared to insured patients, the uninsured are 74% as likely to be readmitted;This difference in service level and readmission rates is larger for patients residing in low-income zip codes and smaller in wealthy zip codes.” This shows that lower class minorities and families don’t have the same treatment as those who are higher class. Health insurance is one of the most essential things that people need but is not fair to groups who are disadvantaged. 

In conclusion, public health is extremely important but there are many issues that are unjust to many Americans. These people are minority populations, low income families, and people who are in poverty. These people deserve to get equal treatment like those who are wealthy and upper class. Social justice needs to be in the public health field immediately. It is devastating to see a majority of individuals getting much less health services and help because of their social status. It appears like their health is not important. Change is necessary to achieve fairness among all zpeople in society. 

Health disparities, Covid-19 on low income populations, and health insurance issues are the main problems that have to be fixed.