Health Disparities: The Unequal Reality of Healthcare

Somewhere across the United States, a twenty-six-year-old woman sits alone in her car outside a Michigan abortion clinic. After driving six hours, she waits for an appointment she never imagined she would need. Having scheduled an abortion months in advance of recent laws in Kentucky that declared abortion illegal, Kelly’s aspirations of becoming a mother one day were brought to a halt. Her cancer treatments (radiation therapy) would only harm the fetus, and inevitably, choosing not to follow through with the treatments would harm her in the process.

Further down south, in the heart of South Carolina, an African American man must refuse access to diabetes testing because the insurance he has cannot cover the payment hospitals demand. While his family has a history of diabetes spanning generations, Michael must sit with lingering thoughts of whether or not he will suffer the same injustice his parents, grandparents, and their parents did before him.

Lastly, a nine-year-old girl born in Guadalajara, Mexico, had recently immigrated to Texas with her family in search of better opportunities. Due to the little girl's upbringing, the air quality in Guadalajara had caused many asthma attacks. Because of their recent departure from Mexico, Marley and her parents must wait five years before they are eligible for certain federal benefits, pressuring her parents to work twice as much at their low-wage, physically demanding jobs in order to afford her inhaler.

While the characters themselves may not be real, the circumstances each one of them faces are prominent in our world today. These stories represent what experts call health disparities. Health disparities are preventable differences in health and healthcare caused by social, economic, and environmental disadvantages. These unfair circumstances force people to plead and beg for the healthcare they deserve. These disparities have ultimately created a division within our nation. A division that affects more than just people on the other side of the country, more than just a minority who are considered “lazy” or “entitled,” but a division that affects you.

Health disparities can be defined as health differences associated with social disadvantage, negatively affecting socially marginalized groups. Some of the many reasons for these disadvantages can stem from economics, gender, religion, migrant status, ethnic group, or sexual orientation. The definition itself is created from an ethical standpoint. At its core, the issue is one of fairness. Everyone deserves access to clean water, safe living conditions, and quality healthcare regardless of who they are or where they live.

In an article written to define the term health disparities, Paula Braveman mentions the human rights principles of nondiscrimination and indivisibility. Braveman explains, “The human rights principle of nondiscrimination prohibits not only intentional interpersonal discrimination but also unintended or structural biases … all rights are intrinsically interconnected and that no single right, such as the right to healthcare, can be realized without the realization of all other rights.” Braveman argues that recognizing and upholding one right while neglecting others is hypocritical and therefore violates the principles and rights that everyone deserves.

For the socioeconomic circumstances that people across the world face, countries have gathered in search of a solution. Each time countries discuss possible answers, ethics is the center point of debate. The term health equity refers to everyone being given a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible. In order to achieve such justice, poverty, discrimination, transportation, and other obstacles must be removed or diminished for change to occur.

Research from the Sol Price School of Public Policy found that women across the U.S. report mental illness at significantly higher rates than men, with a difference of 8.2%. Experts believe that social stigma discourages men from seeking help, leaving mental illnesses in men often unnoticed. Additionally, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that states with large populations of African Americans, usually from the South, see a disproportionately higher rate of uninsured people. The large gap is due to the lack of Medicaid coverage within states with diverse demographics.

As previously mentioned, countries around the world have worked hard to find solutions to weaken the negative impact that health disparities have created in our world. Examples of this are the signing of agreements such as the WHO Pandemic Agreement, the UN Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS, and the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Mandeep Dhaliwal recently wrote in an article that, in the month of June, governments would gather at the United Nations to discuss and explore a new political declaration on HIV and AIDS that involves the creation of a new drug. With the success rate of the drug being 96%, governments around the world are now facing one challenge: creating access. Dhaliwal explains that access to this drug is vital for young people who are afraid of judgment, gay people whose only option is through healthcare where they won’t be denied service, and mothers who cannot store medication in their homes.

Although governments play a major role in reducing health disparities, meaningful change also depends on everyday people. So what can we do in the next moment to help combat a system that doesn’t work for all?

For starters, what you are doing right now, reading online articles about the topic, is huge. Pushing the agenda to reach communities of people who either face or are at risk of facing health disparities can help spread knowledge of what health disparities are. Raising health literacy in communities affected by the issue opens the pathway for people's voices to be heard and no longer silenced.

Additionally, providing resources such as food or clothing donations to local clinics, or volunteering with communities that typically have fewer healthcare facilities, such as ethnic, rural, and low-income communities, can help providers better serve people in these areas. I currently volunteer at a clinic within my community that provides free medical care and prescription medication to low-income, uninsured adults living in my county. Through this, I’ve been able to experience firsthand what good healthcare is. Good healthcare isn’t solely about scientific breakthroughs, but whether people can access those breakthroughs for themselves.

Kelly. Michael. Marley. Whether fictional or real, there are millions of Americans who share experiences like theirs every day. Health disparities are not problems that exist somewhere else. They shape the lives of our neighbors, classmates, coworkers, and families. Understanding them is the first step toward building a healthcare system that serves everyone equally.

Works Cited

Braveman, Paula. “Health Inequalities, Disparities, Equity: What’s in a Name?” American Journal of Public Health, vol. 115, no. 7, June 2025, pp. 996–1002.

https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2025.308062.

“The End of AIDS Is No Longer a Question of Resources, but of Political Will and Humanity.” UNDP, 2026. Accessed 30 June 2026.

https://www.undp.org/blog/end-aids-no-longer-question-resources-political-will-and-humanity.

Montoro, Sarah, and Sarah Montoro. “6 Examples of Health Disparities and Potential Solutions.” USC Price, 4 Mar. 2026.

https://priceschool.usc.edu/price-blog/6-examples-of-health-disparities-and-potential-solutions/.