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Imagine this: It’s dinnertime. You’d like to make a healthy meal for you and your family. Grilled chicken, some greens and your mom’s famous mashed potatoes sounds good. Sadly, the only place nearby is a quick store stocked with instant noodles, chips, sugary drinks and processed food.
Maybe you live in a rural community. The closest supermarket is 10 miles away and you don’t own a car. So you stock up on frozen TV dinners rather than fresh foods.
This is something many people in the U.S. face every day.
An area with limited access to healthy foods is called a food desert. Living in a food desert can lower a person’s chance for living a long and healthy life.
There are five issues that make up the social determinants of health. They are conditions in the places “where people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age.” And they shape a wide range of health and quality-of-life outcomes.
When one or more of these five issues affect a person, it can lead to health disparities.
Disparities may be based on:
Living in a food desert is just one social determinate of health. Neighborhoods with high crime rates can affect a person’s mental health or their ability to safely go outside for some exercise.
What about people who live in rural parts of the state? If they live far from care providers, they may not be able to keep up with their health visits, screenings and immunizations.
Experts say that if we eliminate these health disparities, it will save the U.S. billions of dollars a year in direct health care costs — and over a trillion in indirect costs.
For example, data shows that reducing disparities just 10% in asthma treatment for Black workers would save more than $1,600 each year per patient in medical and missed work costs.
Health equity means everyone has an equal shot at living their healthiest life, regardless of their background, education or where they live. When people are touched by health disparities, it creates gaps in health equity.
The U.S. still has a long way to go to close these gaps. The effort calls for broad collaboration between health care and community partners.
As one of those partners, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas is doing our part to close gaps in the communities we serve.
You can learn more about all the ways BCBSTX helps local communities in our Corporate Social Responsibility report.
Have you faced challenges that have made it hard to take care of your health?
Originally published 4/1/2022; Revised 2024