Healthcare is delivered in many ways across the world. Most countries use one of the four healthcare models, but the United States uses parts of the four models. This leads to issues for patients as they may not know what their insurance plans cover. Providers also have issues with health insurance in getting coverage for their patients. With both patients and providers having issues with insurances, insurance companies have not taken an action to help alleviate some of the issues that everyone faces. Providers are also faced with issues of burnout as they have a lot to do, and not enough time or energy to complete everything. This effects the quality of healthcare that is delivered to their patients as well as when a person can see a provider as there are not enough doctors and nurses to cover the case load all of the time. All in all, providers, insurance companies, and patients need to work together to help fix some of the issues with healthcare to be able to move towards a better healthcare model for all.

Many would contend that the United States healthcare system should be moving towards a state of health equity. Here, every individual is not disadvantaged from achieving their true health potential. However, a variety of barriers currently exist that restrict individuals across the country from attaining equitable health outcomes; one of these is the social determinants of health (SDOH). The SDOH are non-medical factors that influence the health outcomes of an individual such as air pollution, food insecurity, and transportation accessibility. Each of these factors can influence the critical illnesses and health outcomes of individuals and, in turn, diminish the level of health equity in affected areas. Further, the SDOH have a strong correlation with lower levels of health outcomes such as life expectancy, physical health, and mental health. Despite having influenced the United States health care system for decades, the industry has only begun to address its influences within the past few years. Through exploration between the associations of the SDOH and health outcomes, programming and policy-making can begin to address the barrier to health equity that the SDOH create.

The objective of this thesis is to further understand the obstacles that impoverished families face, which may include: meeting nutritional needs, an earlier introduction to violence, or struggles with family planning. It is crucial to illustrate the effects of poverty on the physical, mental, and emotional health of both children and caregivers. Additionally, the family dynamics and educational challenges for children will also be explored as supplemental research. This study will draw upon psychological theories with an emphasis on maternal and child health. The goal is to empower families to make informed family planning decisions. This project will be focused on supporting families in low-income areas, particularly in Arizona

The study investigated unconscious biases in physicians regarding conflicts in developing care plans for patients related to religious restrictions in medicine. Fourteen physicians were interviewed to discuss their experiences with these patients and find patterns and factors that could lead to more negative attitudes from the physicians in the patient’s care. It was found that the gender, religious background, and location of residency had various impacts on the attitude of the physician regarding a religious concern; however, there was no outstanding demographic that led to a comparatively negative attitude. Additionally, the type of reasoning a patient used related to a religious concern had an impact on the attitude of the physician, and this was due to the logic and duration of the concern as well as the attitude of the patient. These factors and patient cases were thoroughly analyzed and discussed throughout the paper to shed light on possible factors that could negatively affect the patient’s care.

This research paper focuses on how the idea of suffering has evolved over time in the United States healthcare system. Different aspects like long vs short-term illnesses, bias, and more were inspected to determine how they play a part in increased or decreased patient suffering. The final determination of how suffering in the system has evolved and what to do with this information is also discussed.