Women's Health Care in the United States

So I was on http://www.ahrq.gov/research/womenix.htm reading an article called "Women's Health Care in the United States" (go figure). I was actually quite stunned about what I was reading. This article is basically a fact sheet of everything that has to do with Women's health care in the US and it is broken down into subcategories based on comparisons in gender, race, and socioeconomic status (SES). A trend that I noticed was that when it comes to recieving health care, women recieved better health care than men, but women recieved poor quality health care. I also noticed that it was the minorities, such as Blacks and Hispanics, that had the worst quality of care and the most likely to get a certain illness. When it came down to the socioeconomic status, it was obvious that the poorer you were, the worse quality of care you recieved (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2005). It has been more and more obvious that money tends to buy you better healthcare and I believe that that idea of it sucks. I don't want to see good quality health care only being available to those who have money. People of lower socioeconomic status have needs; they are people who have lives, just like the rest of the world. Why is it that they can't recieve good quality health care? I understand that health care systems are expensive and the equipment and the staff would all have to be paid for, but I'm sure somewhere in the world there is someone who can open up a community clinic where everything would be easily accessible and readily available to those of lower socioeconomic status.

This factsheet also positively goes on to say, "The overall quality of health care for women in the United States is improving slowly." Even if it is a slow progress, it is a great improvement. More women are now being treated and more women are now seeking the help that they need. Its ridiculous to think about how healthcare for women in the past must have been. Women had nothing.  I was also saddened to read that in reference to quality and access of healthcare that, "In all years, mothers with less than a high school education and high school graduates had lower rates compared with mothers with at least some college education" There are many factors that could keep our women from recieving an education, such as teen mothers. For these teen mothers, without education, there is a slim-to-none chance of them recieving a job. Without a job and further education and training, it is hard for them to climb the social economic ladder, which makes it hard to make money. And without money, it is hard to pay for healthcare. It is like a vicious never-ending cycle! If only there was a solution to this problem.

However, I'm not exactly sure as to what has changed in this 21st century, but I'm all for it! In this past decade alone, we have had a woman run for president. We have had the first African-American first lady, who with her unique, classy and elegant style and firm faith has encouraged plenty of women around the world.


Sources:
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2005, May). Women's Health Care in the United States . Retrieved September 9, 2010, from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nhqrwomen/nhqrwomen.htm