Comparing Racial and Immigrant Health Status and Health Care Access in Later Life in Canada and the United States

Abstract

The Program for Research on Social and Economic Dimensions of an Aging Population (SEDAP) is an interdisciplinary research program centred at McMaster University with co-investigators at seventeen other universities in Canada and abroad. The SEDAP Research Paper series provides a vehicle for distributing the results of studies undertaken by those associated with the program.

Understanding social determinants of healthcare access from the perspective of Hispanic Latino immigrants in Louisville, Ky.

“…Similar to existing literature, discrimination based on race, ethnicity, language, health insurance and HIV status within the healthcare setting and the community resulted in emotional barriers that had strong influences on health-seeking behaviors among participants (Cristancho et al, 2008;Gurman & Becker, 2008). Negative emotional stressors associated with discrimination were shown to discourage health-seeking behaviors and result in negative physiological and psychological consequences Lauderdale et al, 2006;Prus et al, 2010;SanchezBirkhead et al, 2011). Participants in this study verbalized that emotional distress and discomfort caused by experiences of discrimination discouraged access to healthcare services.…”

“…Perceptions and experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination in this population have been identified as a source of increased stress and other negative physiological and psychological consequences Lauderdale et al, 2006;Prus et al, 2010). Lack of understanding, awareness, and acceptance within the healthcare system of immigrants from diverse backgrounds, reduces patient satisfaction with services, indicating lower quality of care.…”

“…Additionally, the initial development and use of the framework to explore socioeconomic barriers to healthcare access in developing countries, serves as evidence for its applicability to underserved, marginalized HLI in the U.S. The growing HLI community continues to suffer from social and health inequities as a result of maldistribution of power, money, and resources, making it imperative to explore how social determinants deter access to healthcare services in this population (Prus et al, 2010;Quesada et al, 2011).…”

“…Existing literature identified universal healthcare coverage as the fundamental mechanism to facilitate healthcare access for immigrants as well as U.S. citizens, which helps reduce health disparities and improve overall community health (Prus et al, 2010). In a study that compared health outcomes of foreign-born and minority populations in the U.S. to Canada, Lasser et al (2006) found that immigrants and minorities had poorer health outcomes as a result of unmet healthcare needs and were less likely to have a regular source of healthcare when compared to Canadian immigrants.…”

“…Using Canada and European countries as an example, the U.S. is urged to make immediate policy changes to the current healthcare reform system to ensure the health and wellbeing of the nation. Policies that aim to advance access to healthcare and coverage for immigrants are shown to be effective in reducing overall healthcare costs and improving health outcomes in other developed nations (Lasser et al, 2006;Prus et al, 2010. Implementing a successful and comprehensive healthcare system can be achieved by shaping policies through lessons learned from other nations.…”