Poverty in the United States: Healthcare and Human Dignity


Mar 18
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
University of Richmond, Zoom gathering

What does it truly mean to have access to healthcare — and who gets left behind? This week, Jean Creamer will guide us as we explore the deeply human dimensions of healthcare access in America, where poverty, geography, and lived experience can all determine whether someone receives care at all. Together, we'll examine how the dignity owed to every person is undermined when cost, distance, or a lack of information stands between them and a doctor. We'll also take a close look at a growing and troubling force in healthcare decisions: the AI algorithms that insurers use to approve or deny coverage — and what it means when a line of code can override a doctor's judgment.

Meeting Details

What Will Be Explored

  • How healthcare accessibility operates across multiple dimensions — affordability, proximity, and familiarity with navigating the system — and the impact of poverty and being under- or uninsured
  • How human dignity depends on equitable, unbiased healthcare, and how recent government policies are shaping — or shrinking — access for vulnerable populations
  • How AI algorithms, and the people who design them, are influencing both healthcare decisions and patient outcomes, including the rise in coverage denials
  • What is being done to improve access — from grassroots care networks to policy advocacy — and where hope exists in this challenging landscape

What Attendees Will Gain

  • A clearer understanding of why quality healthcare remains out of reach for so many Americans, and what structural factors drive that inequity
  • Insight into the intersection of technology, profit, and patient care — and what it means for the most vulnerable among us
  • A framework for thinking about healthcare as a matter of human dignity and rights, not just policy
  • Awareness of emerging solutions and efforts to expand access in meaningful ways

Reflection Questions

  1. Do you know of someone who skipped important healthcare because it was too far away, too expensive, or the system too unfamiliar to navigate? What was the impact or outcome?
  2. If you were living at the poverty level, what expenses would you cut — and would healthcare make that list? What would guide that choice?
  3. “Universal health coverage (UHC) means that all people have access to the full range of quality health services they need, when and where they need them, without financial hardship. It covers the full continuum of essential health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and palliative care.” Defined by the World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/health-topics/universal-health-coverage#tab=tab_1. What is your opinion of Universal Healthcare? What do you see as the potential benefits — and the potential drawbacks?
  4. When an AI algorithm denies a patient's claim for care, who is morally responsible — the insurer, the programmer, the regulator, or someone else?
  5. How do you think race, immigration status, or zip code affects the quality of healthcare a person receives?
  6. What would it look like for our healthcare system to truly honor the dignity of every person, regardless of income?

Please email Dr. Keith W. McIntosh at cio@richmond.edu, for more information about Intersections and to receive the pre-discussion materials for this session.