structural:expansion
Demographic differences

There is considerable research into inequalities in healthcare where in certain cases, these inequalities are caused by income disparities that result in lack of health insurance and other barriers, such as medical equipment, to receiving necessary services. In some cases, these inequalities are caused by income disparities that result in lack of health insurance and other barriers, such as medical equipment, to receiving services. According to the 2009 National Healthcare Disparities Report, uninsured Americans are less likely to receive preventive services in healthcare. For example, minorities are not regularly screened for colon cancer and the death rate for colon cancer has increased among African Americans and Hispanic people. In other cases, inequalities in healthcare reflect a systemic bias in the way medical procedures and treatments are prescribed for different racial and ethnic groups. Raj Bhopal, professor emeritus at University of Edinburgh, writes that the history of racism in science and medicine shows that people and institutions behave according to the ethos of their times. Nancy Krieger, professor of social epidemiology at Harvard, wrote that racism underlies unexplained inequities in healthcare, including treatment for heart disease, renal failure, bladder cancer, and pneumonia. Results from a 2023 scoping review of the literature found that in studies conducted in multiracial or multiethnic populations, race or ethnicity variables were rarely included in conceptually thoughtful and analytically informative ways concerning race or ethnicity as markers of exposure to racialized social disadvantage. Bhopal writes that these inequalities have been documented in numerous studies whose consistent and repeated findings were that Black Americans received less healthcare than White Americans—particularly when the care involved expensive new technology. The consistent and repeated findings were that Black Americans received less healthcare than White Americans—particularly when the care involved expensive new technology. One recent study has found that when minority and White patients use the same hospital, they are given the same standard of care. The lack of equitable access to different resources is intrinsically tied to the field of public health, which works to supplement the traditional medical system with other services and opportunities.