There remains a separation, evident in research data, between the south and the north in terms of implementation of health policies. The general sentiment regarding the Southern stubbornness still seems to revolve around the conservative view of not wanting to have citizens rely on the government, period. This sentiment, however, with regards to those most affected by the refusal to implement said policies, reflect and reiterates a history of both subtle and outright discriminatory practices. Evidently, the population that remains most affected by lack of coverage is the African American population. Unfortunately, while the South mostly remains averse to expanding coverage, it fails to account for those outside the demographic of the stereotypically
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Especially in the South, a lack of concentration of resources dedicated to researching or finding potential solutions to these disparities prevents the collection of sufficient data towards policy pleas. As noted by Dr. C.H. Wilkins at the Thursday panel of the Politics of Health conference, little funding go towards research in the south and even lesser to HBCUs who may or may not be located in the south. As the speaker rightly noted, this trend of having the least amount of resources or opportunity (amongst the least amount of resources) go to African Americans(AAs) (Wilkins), institutions by AAs in this case, reflects the same trend seen in health coverage in the South. Such manifestation can help one conclude that the evident heath and health care disparities cannot be fixed solely by health policies, just as the disparities in academic caliber in regards predominantly white institutions versus HBCUs can be fixed by just education policies. In other words, it would not be surprising to assert that a multidirectional problem requires multidirectional …show more content…
Judy Lubin (Huffington Post article) and Bill Purcell (POH Conference panel) provided crucial insights into why health disparities by race and income persists in the South in regards to Southern policy. Unapologetically conservative by majority, as earlier mentioned, the Southern governments, for the most part, share the common sentiment of having people fend for themselves; a hands-off system of government that evidently favors the already wealthy. This political mindset is the reason many southern states refused to expand Medicare under ACA. As Lubin summarized, “Most southern states are not expanding Medicaid, leaving nearly four million adults eligible for the program through the ACA without health insurance coverage”(Lubin). Some, like Tennessee based their refusal to expand Medicaid on the pretense that they can independently have something better, as Bill Purcell alluded to in his talk on “Politics of the South” (Purcell) While this sort of response can be attributed to as a consequence of the conservative sentiment, it can also be an avenue for potentially more improved forms of health care coverage amongst those states that claim ACA would not suffice. As John Graves states in his analysis of ACA, due to the fact that 80 percent of those potentially eligible for health care coverage under the ACA live in the South, it makes the “South a key incubator for alternative state-based approaches to coverage of low-income populations.” That is if
Especially in the South, a lack of concentration of resources dedicated to researching or finding potential solutions to these disparities prevents the collection of sufficient data towards policy pleas. As noted by Dr. C.H. Wilkins at the Thursday panel of the Politics of Health conference, little funding go towards research in the south and even lesser to HBCUs who may or may not be located in the south. As the speaker rightly noted, this trend of having the least amount of resources or opportunity (amongst the least amount of resources) go to African Americans(AAs) (Wilkins), institutions by AAs in this case, reflects the same trend seen in health coverage in the South. Such manifestation can help one conclude that the evident heath and health care disparities cannot be fixed solely by health policies, just as the disparities in academic caliber in regards predominantly white institutions versus HBCUs can be fixed by just education policies. In other words, it would not be surprising to assert that a multidirectional problem requires multidirectional …show more content…
Judy Lubin (Huffington Post article) and Bill Purcell (POH Conference panel) provided crucial insights into why health disparities by race and income persists in the South in regards to Southern policy. Unapologetically conservative by majority, as earlier mentioned, the Southern governments, for the most part, share the common sentiment of having people fend for themselves; a hands-off system of government that evidently favors the already wealthy. This political mindset is the reason many southern states refused to expand Medicare under ACA. As Lubin summarized, “Most southern states are not expanding Medicaid, leaving nearly four million adults eligible for the program through the ACA without health insurance coverage”(Lubin). Some, like Tennessee based their refusal to expand Medicaid on the pretense that they can independently have something better, as Bill Purcell alluded to in his talk on “Politics of the South” (Purcell) While this sort of response can be attributed to as a consequence of the conservative sentiment, it can also be an avenue for potentially more improved forms of health care coverage amongst those states that claim ACA would not suffice. As John Graves states in his analysis of ACA, due to the fact that 80 percent of those potentially eligible for health care coverage under the ACA live in the South, it makes the “South a key incubator for alternative state-based approaches to coverage of low-income populations.” That is if