Tuesday, March 20, 2007

bfp-disabled and colored, health disparity

bfp brought up a good posting on colored people with disabilities
http://brownfemipower.com/?p=1136#comment-27406.
I mentioned that I had a friend who came from a poorer Asian country, with a brother who had polio. This brought up the whole idea that those who live in poorer countries, lack better healthcare access therefore cannot prevent the diseases when it comes. This brings up a related topic of health disparity, where there is inequality in provide equal healthcare to all individuals.
Colored women who lack healthcare access are prone to fatality and less improvement on health outcomes over white women, for example in breast cancer, although white women have higher number of diagnosis. This definitely shows the line between those living in poverty and those who have money to have better healthcare to prevent diseases, and catching them early on and having treatment.

bfp provide another powerful blog on Priscilla Huang (from reproductive justice project director at National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum) presentation re: asian women and the plague of asians being labled the "model minority" as it is problematic and giving the notion that all asians are healthy, rich, and educated. as this myth masks health disparities faced. there are many statistics provided on asian women, for example, 54% Korean women have never had a pap smear test, Vietnamese Americans have 5 times chance greater than white women for cervical cancer, asian pacific island women between 15-24 and over 65 have highest suicide rates in the country, etc. http://brownfemipower.com/?p=1134

From this all, I would like to conclude and bring light to the inequitiness of those who are not able to care or have access to healthcare to better prevent diseases. There is a definite line showing the unfairness of those who cannot provide better for themselves versus those who are more financially able to live healthier lives. There has to be change.

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