6304 5-1

Explore healthcare disparities in the U.S. and determine the groups of people most likely to experience discrimination in healthcare services. Recommend at least one policy that could eliminate healthcare disparities in the U.S. Please justify your answer.

Primary Care Medicine

Primary care providers deliver basic medical care for Americans. Yet, Bodenheimer and Grumbach (2009) report that "the proportion of internal medicine residents entering primary care medicine rather than subspecialty or hospital careers plummeted from 54% in 1998 to 20% in 2005" (p. 201). Research the current status of primary care in the U.S. and develop policy initiatives and provider incentives to increase the number of residents entering primary care instead of a subspecialty or a hospital career. Consider how the Hill-Burton Act; the EMTALA; and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or the ACA, helped transform primary care medicine in this country.

Reference:

Bodenheimer, T. S., & Grumbach, K. (2009). Understanding health policy: A 
           clinical approach (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.