The Right to Health

My family has always had excellent health insurance until about two years ago when my dad was laid off of work. It was then that we found ourselves without it. Like many others who are uninsured, my family members refuse to seek out any necessary, preventative care or medical treatment that they may need until the last minute for fear of medical bills.

San Jose is home to over 1,000,536 people as of 2014 with the majority of the population being White. Whites account for 42% , but there is also a large Asian community at 32%. The next closest racial population is Hispanics/Latinos with 33%. The city is also homes to African Americans, American Indian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and those that are of two or more races. The unemployment rates within San Jose in the year of 2013 are approximately 6.3%, which is one percent less than the unemployment rate of the United States. One of the most important issues for unemployed workers besides the loss of paychecks is the loss of health insurance. Since the beginning of this year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons have declined by 0.8%. However, not many people have health-care insurance still, which is about 14% of the population according to the 2010 census. Though it is important to have, it is also very expensive which prohibits them from applying for their own coverage.  This in itself is a problem because healthcare is crucial in the society that we live in today. It is important to have whether it is to help a simple cold or to help something more severe. Since getting health care has become such a problem, there are many people who do not have health care providers and so not many people are provided with the proper health care that is needed whether it is yearly check-ups or simply medicine. Though the overall health of San Jose is not necessarily bad, it also is not the best.

People not having access to health care in the United States can be seen as an institutional form of racism. More than 38.4 million Americans are uninsured with no economic access to health care. A great number of those Americans are from the state of California. California actually has the greatest number of uninsured residents with one in five Californians overall being uninsured. The reason why it is a form of institutional racism is because a disproportionate number of the uninsured are of racial minorities. One racial minority in particular that is greatly affected by such health disparities and is a good example are Blacks. In comparison to whites, Blacks have a 32% higher  age-adjusted death rate for all causes as well as live approximately six years less than whites. For the majority of the time, access to health insurance in the United States is tied to employment and because of racial stratification of the economy due to other forms of discrimination, there is a concentration of racial minorities in low wage jobs -- jobs without insurance benefits which is why such a large amount of people of racial minorities are uninsured.

Even though laws no longer permit racism, the idea of racism continues to persist because it exists as a tool for dominance. Certain people somewhat benefit from a system of racism; even if they don’t want to. We often talk about how racism is harmful and disadvantaging for certain groups of people such as: Blacks, Asians, Hispanics etc., but in order for someone to be disadvantaged, hurt, or face persistent inequalities, someone must be advantaged, doing the hurting, or reaping the benefits of those persistent inequalities. When talking about race and racism, whites are the advantaged group and these dominant groups just aren't willing to acknowledge, let alone give up, the benefits of whiteness whether they know it or not and therefore racism is still alive despite of laws and policies.