Understanding the Concept of Health Inequality

Abstract

Health inequality cannot be fully comprehended until the understanding of the concept of health inequity. The former is an unfair allocation of healthcare resources, and the latter is moral in nature. The marginalized individuals, groups and populations in developed and underdeveloped nations remain devoid of equal access to vital healthcare services based on their economic status, gender, age, ethnicity, and class, which determine how an individual would receive health equality. These disparities have the power to wield impact across generations, exert rippling effects on the entire nation, and, remarkably, affect minorities, specific gender, race, ethnicity, class, and individuals with disabilities. Particularly when the world has faced the changes during COVID-19, the governments implementing identifiable strategies to exercise nationwide interventions are somehow successful in decreasing these health disparities, even though still a systematic and structural action plan is to be mandated to achieve long-lasting change by addressing the health determinants of inequality. In the modern era of artificial intelligence, there is a dire need for healthcare organizations to advance and appraise their digital policies and accessible connectivity modes through a wide variety of determinants associated with the digital gap, financial and remote accessibility, and device preferences to the disadvantaged people, especially in rural areas.