Health Care

Law as a Social Determinant
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Law as a Social Determinant
Abstract
The judicial institution is pertinent in shaping the direction of the society including behavior and patterns. While the institution exists to provide equal social determinant regardless of race and class, it is shaped by the whims of the majority members of the society thereby placing the minority individuals at a disadvantage. The historical indications of law are the cause of today’s concerns surrounding discrimination and prejudice across different institutions of the society. The incidents may seem isolated in their impact, but they all contribute to the health outcomes of the members of the society.
An illustration is the inequitable access to education and economic opportunities because of race and class. The two aspects contribute to the subsequent poor access to health care and information for the minority individuals. The analysis will focus on the various aspects of social determinants along with their intersection with the historic and modern laws. The conclusion will provide recommendations on the possible measures to counter the negative social determinants while promoting the positive determinants for the well-being of the society. Introduction
The law in its various forms and embodiment play a significant role in shaping the lives of community members and in turn their health outcomes. The four categories in which the law affects health outcomes include first, the use of the law in designing as well as perpetuating social conditions that create a physical, mental and emotional strain on individuals as well as populations (Teitelbaum, & Wilensky, 2016).

An illustration is the laws of racial segregation. The second category of law as a social determinant revolves around the mechanisms of law towards changing behaviors and prejudices into distributions that contribute to the well-being of the population. An illustration in this context is the high rates of incarcerating black people for drug use, than their white counterparts.
Thirdly, the under-enforcement of law can contribute to the health outcomes of the society, with an illustration being under-enforced housing regulations for safe, clean and quiet homes. Finally, the law in an instrument to direct the health, harming social needs of the population that include poverty, disease, market conditions in addition to the behavior of individual members of the population. The significance of law as a social determinant lies in the historical laws and practices that led to widespread social segregation with modern-day implications as individual and institution level.
Category 1: Law as a Perpetrator of Negative Social Conditions
Negative social conditions contribute to physical, emotional as well as a mental strain for individuals and populations, making this category a negative social determinant. While the negative social conditions vary in origin and nature, some conditions such as segregation are the direct outcome of the historical contribution of law. The law during the period of slavery separated the access to social amenities as well as care for the black and the white populations (Teitelbaum, & Wilensky, 2016). The outcome of the segregation included rules that increased racial segregation with the implication in several sectors of the economy that include the education sector as well as the health sector.
While the laws of racial segregation have since been abolished, their implications remain in the society. Different classes of individuals who are seeking health-care, particularly from different races have varying access to public amenities and care. Racial discrimination contributes to the low quality of health care in the minority races who still suffer from the historical contributions of law to the creation of negative social conditions. On the other hand, the impact of the social determinant category on health care providers includes their selective provision of health care benefits to different individuals of the society.
Category 2: Law on the Distribution of Behaviors and Prejudices
Similar to the contributions of segregation laws to negative social outcomes, the reach of the law has influenced the health behavior patterns among different classes and races. The category of law in the distribution of behaviors and prejudices is, therefore, a negative social determinant. In line with prejudice, the overt assumption among legal professionals is that the individuals who are either poor or black have a high tendency to drugs and crime. The outcome is increased surveillance in the neighbourhoods that hose the said individuals with the consequence of their high numbers in incarceration.
In health-care, the impact of behavior and prejudices on the individuals providing healthcare constitutes the practice of redlining. Redlining is a situation in which health care entities choose to relocate from poor to rich neighbourhoods as they focus on their profitability and not on the provision of equitable care to the members of the society. The class and race prejudices in healthcare provision are the cause of the disparity in health care access among individuals of different social classes and race. Subsequently, redlining that developed from behavior and prejudices impacts the access to health care for the minority groups that are seeking the services.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The significance of law as a social determinant lies in the historical laws and practices that led to widespread social segregation with modern-day implications as individual and institution level. Thus, while most laws that caused the modern-day concerns in the social determinants of health have been abolished and, in some instances, revised, their counter implications such as discrimination and prejudice remain. The modern society builds on historical laws that have ingrained behaviors and patterns among members of the population.
Wide-scale medical-legal partnerships for different classes and races represent the solution to reversing the effects of historical practices, which were backed by the judicial institutions of the time. The partnerships will provide low income and minority individual with access to information on their rights (Teitelbaum, & Wilensky, 2016). The society ought to understand that the only distinction between members of the population exists in their access and utility of opportunities and resources. The process of medical-legal partnerships on rights and equality will combat the negative social determinant and encourage positive social determinants such as the equitable access to healthcare.
References
Teitelbaum, J. & Wilensky, S., (2016). Essentials of Health Policy and Law, Chapter 7: Social determinant of health and the role of law in optimizing health, Jones & Bartlett Publishers- Medical.