PPAD students presented their research on public health for the 15th Annual Conference on Eliminating Health Disparities, held at the Jackson Convention Center, Jackson, MS, from October 8 to 9, 2015. Dr. Udensi Udensi (PhD; left in picture), and Ms. Debra Monroe-Lax (PhD; right in picture), and Professor Jae-Young Ko made a poster presentation on a compartive epidemiology study of HIV infection in the United States, Mexico, and the Caribbean. (Udensi__EPI_2015_Poster_final). Also, Dr. Udensi made another oral presentation on the research. The research found that the major obstacles in the fight against HIV/AIDS in most of the countries are stigma and discrimination which discourage access to HIV prevention, testing and treatment services. If the affordable health care act is well implemented, probably more uninsured and underinsured American will have more access to antiretroviral treatments.
Ms. Ashley Caples (MPPA) and Professor Jae-Young Ko made another presentation for the conference (title: Attaining the unattainable: Accessing barriers of the ununsured and underserved population for quality health care in Mississippi) . They found that If Mississippi could improve its health system performance or accessibilities to that of the best performing state, economic savings would be $67 million in a year. It is essential that the state build a health insurance exchange that benefits the underserved populations as well. The recommendations of this study are to introduce modest fees, maintain greater subsidies for poorer communities and for lower levels of health care, and carefully evaluate how fees affect the decisions of individuals about whether and where to seek medical care.
