The Effects of Socioeconomic Status on the Quality and Accessibility of Healthcare Services

As the wealth gap continues to increase in the United States of America, disparities in healthcare, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, continue to grow. Healthcare patients of lower socioeconomic status (SES) are affected by such disparities through lesser quality and accessibility of healthcare services. SES is defined by the American Psychological Association as the social standing or class of an individual or group, often measured through the intersection of education, income, and occupation. However, the measurement of SES is not limited to these criteria. In order to explore areas of healthcare services where quality and accessibility vary due to the effects of SES, this study gauged SES by examining race, and income to determine an individual or household’s SES. A questionnaire distributed online collected data that helped determine the healthcare quality and accessibility of households in New York City and Los Angeles County neighborhoods, in which the services, experiences, and obstacles of healthcare were ranked on a one to five scale. The results of the study indicated that SES factors had significant correlations with healthcare quality and accessibility in which people with a lower SES experienced lower quality of medical care and faced more difficulties in accessibility than their counterparts with higher SES. These findings could be used to further research into the flawed aspects of the American healthcare system, and could also be used to determine what aspects of the healthcare system need solutions implemented to reduce disparities in healthcare based on SES.