The COVID-19 Pandemic has left tremendously economic disparities and financial burdens to the people of America, especially some of the vulnerable communities to the pandemic: the low- and middle-income families, People of Color (P.O.C), ethnic minorities and people with little to no health insurance benefits.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and Garfield et al. (May 2020), approximately 60 million have filed for unemployment benefits and 25 million are living without health insurance. America’s health care system presents consistent inequities and points out multiple ridiculously regulations which they put profit over health: extremely expensive, highly inefficient, favoring only some groups (the elite, high-income, 1%) and discriminating vulnerable groups. It is discovered that ethnic minorities and POC receive lower-quality, less effective healthcare services than their white counterparts. Racial disparities in the health care system is because providers of these services have racial biases, giving patients from racial and ethnic minorities inferior health care and contributing in higher mortality rate of these communities.
Financial stress is also one of the main reasons why there’s a lack of medical attention from American citizens during the pandemic. One-third of the participants from F.R’s survey answered that they would not see for medical help due to financial burden.
The current financial situation of American is on shaky ground and what the future holds ahead seems ambiguous. Most low- and middle-income working people have little to no savings to cover their daily expenses if they become unemployed, some just living paycheck-to-paycheck. According to the survey data provided by the U.S Federal Reserve, “50% of U.S. households have no emergency savings, and 60% have no source of funds (including loans from family or friends) to cover three months of living expenses”. As the pandemic seems never-ending, families find it harder to cut back living expenses and try to get by.
For vulnerable communities like people of color, their economic position and health status prior the crisis have already been neglected and diminished. Lower levels of wage, higher unemployment rate, extreme poverty, food and housing insecurity are what contributes to their vulnerability, accumulating until interaction with the recent health crisis. This explains the higher mortality rates for Black Americans.
With human rights protests happening in many states against police brutality to black community, knowingly the cases of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the social disorder creates bigger divide between citizens, black people in a more vulnerable position, “Black Americans continue to experience the highest overall actual COVID-19 mortality rates (80.4 per 100,000)—more than twice the rate of white Americans (35.9 per 100,000) or Asian Americans (33.1 per 100,000)”.
Black people are also more prone to losses as unemployment hit black workers and families the hardest. Studies show that black people are found mostly on the front line to combat the pandemic – considered as “essential workers”, risking their lives to keep their jobs and make a living.
References
Abrams, M. T. (August 2020). Economic and Racial Inequality Are Intensifying the Killing Power of COVID-19 in the U.S. Health Letter. Public Citizen. https://www.citizen.org/article/economic-and-racial-inequality-are-intensifying-the-killing-power-of-covid-19-in-the-u-s/
Reinicke, C. (October 2020). Covid-19 stress is driving the most vulnerable Americans to the brink. These 4 steps can help you cope. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/14/these-4-steps-can-help-reduce-financial-stress-amid-covid-19.html#:~:text=The%20Covid-19%20pandemic%20has,anxiety%20about%20their%20personal%20finances.
Bridges, K.M. (2020). Implicit Bias and Racial Disparities in Health Care. ABA (American Bar Association). https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/the-state-of-healthcare-in-the-united-states/racial-disparities-in-health-care/
Gould, E., Wilson, V. (June 2020). Black workers face two of the most lethal preexisting conditions for coronavirus—racism and economic inequality. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/publication/black-workers-covid/
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