Eric Moreno is a Content Curator with the Salud America! program at UT Health San Antonio. He specializes in covering the topics of health equity and family and social support. He holds a BA from the University of Texas at San Antonio and an MA from Gonzaga University.
Racial and economic inequality are two of the most pressing social issues that American society currently deals with. The Institute for Policy Studies and the Corporation for Enterprise Development released a report outlining the current state and found the racial wealth gap has grown steadily, and “without changes in public policy,” it could widen in the coming decades. In discussing economic inequities, the report found that the focus is often on one single facet: income. The new report, entitled The Ever-Growing Gap, focused its attention on a related, but distinct facet of the issue: wealth. The role that wealth plays in achieving financial security and opportunity is a key factor in overall economic equity. In order to reduce health disparities, it is critical to ...
The Affordable Care Act has provided health insurance to over 20 million people (including an estimated 4.2 million Latinos) since its inception four years ago. During that time, one of the main questions has been are the people who now have reliable health care coverage better off than before. Several new studies have been released recently emphasizing the ACA’s successes. Due to the ACA, participants are now less likely to have medical debt or postpone care because of the associated costs. They are more likely to now have a regular primary care doctor and to take advantage of preventive medical services, such as vaccines and screenings. One study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, noted how low-income individuals in Arkansas (6.7% Latino population) and Kentucky (3% Latino ...
America is currently undergoing an epidemic of prescription opioid abuse. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine, drug overdose is the leading cause of accidental death in the country, with 47,055 lethal drug overdoses in 2014. Opioid addiction is driving this problem, with 18,893 overdose deaths related to prescription pain relievers, and 10,574 overdose deaths related to heroin in 2014. While this problem is rapidly reaching critical levels in the United States, Latinos are being affected at lesser rates than whites. Researchers say minority patients, including Latinos and African Americans, use opioids at lesser rates. There are numerous possible explanations for this phenomenon, including lack of insurance coverage and a greater reluctance among minorities to ...
Enroll America recently announced the results of their 2016 consumer survey regarding consumers and the Healthcare Marketplace. According to the survey, affordability remains the primary concern and reason that many have not enrolled in health insurance through the marketplace. Last month, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released an analysis on coverage and the cost-sharing protections that consumers are getting through HealthCare.gov for the 2016 coverage year. The best way to combat this perception is to ensure consumers are aware of the financial help available to help purchase marketplace plans. In order to reduce health disparities, it is critical to address inequities in programs, practices, and policies.
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A new report from the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics has found that nearly 25% of all Americans over the age of 65 have some form of disability. The forum found that nearly a quarter of all seniors say that they have at least one limitation in vision, hearing, mobility, communication, cognition or self-care. “Many Americans enjoy longer lives, though with some functional limitations,” according to a news release from the report’s authors. The findings mean that millions of American, more often spouses and/or children, are becoming caregivers for disabled aging family members. In most cases, according to the report, the burden is rarely excessive. “[About] 86 percent reported that informal caregiving gives them satisfaction that the care recipient is ...
Schools with more Latino students are more likely to have fast-food restaurants and tobacco retailers within “easy reach” of them, according to a new study. The study, published in the American Journal of Public Health, analyzed more than 18,000 public schools and found that more than 50% of Latino-majority schools were within 800 meters of both tobacco and fast food outlets Only 21% of white-majority schools were. "Schools are places where we expect to be healthy, supportive environments for kids, but right outside the door (students) could be exposed to unhealthy influences," author Heather D’Angelo of Westat in Rockville, MD, said in a recent Reuters interview. "I was surprised that there were so many tobacco outlets near schools." In Latino neighborhoods in general, ...
The Internet is an everyday part of millions of people’s lives. The Internet connects people all over the globe to unlimited amounts of resources and information. However, for many people, access and usability still remain obstacles. Health communicators in particular have struggled with overcoming what is known as “the digital divide,” which is a huge disparity among the Latino community. As more and more of the “analog” world moves online (everything from paying bills to buying groceries to signing up for healthcare), it is becoming critical for healthcare professionals to bridge the gap. Latinos currently represent 17% of the overall population of the United States, and in California, Latinos represent the largest ethnic group in the state and outnumber non-Latino ...
Earlier in August, the financial analyzing website Wallethub released a ranking of the states with the best and worst public school systems. Analysts gathered data from several organizations, including the U.S. Census Bureau and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in order to grade school systems on their quality and safety. With school resuming session, many parents or guardians might be wondering whether they’ve selected the best school districts to secure their children’s academic success and future successes in life. For many parents and guardians, “quality” is a question of public funding that is available. While that may be true in many cases, more resources do not always correlate with better academic performance, as our findings demonstrate. So what did ...
Recently, the Pew Research Center released a report in July that showed Latinos are heavily reliant on their mobile phones for their Internet access. Latinos utilized their mobile phones for this purpose more than any other ethnicities. Since 2012, according to the report, the percentage of Latino adults who used mobile devices to access the Internet rose from 76% to 94% in 2015. “While Latinos have lagged other groups in accessing the internet and having broadband at home, they have been among the most likely to own a smartphone, to live in a household without a landline phone where only a cellphone is available and to access the internet from a mobile device,” Pew Researchers said. In order to reduce health disparities, it is critical to address inequities in programs, ...
