Susanna De Martino

Final Issue Brief

April 18th, 2015

Disability and Euro Americans

Keywords:

Impairment,Disability, Access, Non-Hispanic whites

Description: This issue brief details the relationship between ethno racial group and disability, and attempts to explain the reasons behind euro Americans having the lowest rates of disability across the board.

Key Points

  • According to the 2010 Census, 17.8% of Non-Hispanic whites are disabled.
  • According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the percentage of Non-Hispanic whites with specific sources of ongoing care is the highest of any ethnoracial group—86.3% as compared to 84.7% for blacks and 77.1% for Hispanics
  • According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), non-Hispanic whites, the group into which most Euro Americans fall, receive better care than other ethnoracial groups across the board. Black people receive worse care for 40% of measures; Asian people receive worse care by 20% of measures; Hispanic people receive worse care by 60% of measures.
  • The suicide rate among American Indian/Alaskan Natives and non-Hispanic whites is more than twice that of Blacks, Asian Pacific Islanders and Hispanics.

Source: census.gov

Source: cdc.gov

Brief:

Euro Americans, when categorized into the group of “non Hispanic whites,” report the lowest level of disability of any ethnoracial group in America, and the highest level of care for those disabilities. Euro Americans have better access to healthcare across the board. This may be the result of socioeconomic status. Furthermore, euro Americans are among the least likely to live in places that may lead todisabilities.

People with disabilities tend to be in poorer health than those without them. They also have a high tendency to develop secondary conditions related to their disabilities. Because of this, people with disabilities need to use health care more than people who don’t have disabilities; however, they also have a harder time accessing healthcare than people without disabilities. This last fact is less true for non-Hispanic whites, aka Euro Americans, than any other group in the U.S. They have the highest rates of access to specific sources of ongoing care; 86.3% of whites have access to specific sources of ongoing care, compared to 84.7% of blacks and 77.1% of Hispanics.)This may be because of socioeconomic status, and its overlap with structural racism within the U.S. Other ethnoracial groups, by contrast, rely more heavily on Medicare and Medicaid. However, these two services do not provide coverage for everyone without private insurance. White people make up the plurality of those covered by these services, but the majority of without private insurance are not non-Hispanic whites.

Some disabilities are the result of socioeconomic status. Non-Hispanic whites, according to the CDC, were the smallest percentage of adults living beneath the federal poverty line in 2009—8.3% compared to 20.9% for black adults, 10% for Asian/Pacific Islanders, 22.9% for American Indian/Alaska Native, 17.8% for Hispanics, and 12.7% for mixed race, non Hispanics. This is significant because access to health resources declines sharply as wealth levels decline for people with disabilities. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality 2010 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report, “poor people had worse access to healthcare than high income people for all 6 core measures of the report.” Furthermore, poor people received worse care than high-income people for about 80% of core measures. Socioeconomic status is a barrier to healthcare for people with disabilities; this barrier is the lower for euro Americans than any other ethnoracial group because they are the smallest percentage of people living below the poverty line. Because of this, euro Americans with disabilities report the highest rates of satisfaction with their healthcare.

Some disabilities, both mental and physical, are caused by environmental factors. Things like air quality, mold, and radon, can all deteriorate health and lead to a variety of medical conditions and disabilities, both temporary and permanent. Euro Americans are among the least likely to live in inadequate or unhealthy housing—which again related to socioeconomic status--and therefore the least likely develop the disabilities that may arise form this living situation. The Center For Disease control defines unhealthy housing as “the presence of any additional characteristics that might negatively affect the health of its occupants.” The people occupying this housing are predominantly people with an annual income below $25,000. However, though euro Americans are the least likely to live below the poverty line, they are only second-least likely to live in unhealthy housing, after Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders. 22.7 % of this housing is occupied by non-Hispanic whites, as compared to 17.2% by Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, 24. 2% by Hispanics, 28.3% by non-Hispanic Blacks, and 31.9% byAmerican Indian/Alaska Natives.

Works Cited

Cdc Health Disparities and Inequalities Report United States, 2011. Vol. 60. N.p.: Createspace Independent Pub, 2014.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 3 Mar. 2015. <

"The Convention in Brief."United Nations Enable. United Nations, n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2F

"The Current State of Health Care for People with Disabilities."National Council on Disabilities. Ncd.gov, 9 Sept. 2009. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. <http%3A%2F%2F

White, Susan R., and Benedicte Ingstad. "Disability and Culture: An Overview."University of Loyola. University of California Press, n.d. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. <

Relevant Websites

  • Cdc.gov
  • UN.org
  • Ncd.gov