Nickel-and-Dimed in America: underserved, understudied, and underestimated

This article examines circumstances in the contemporary United States that increase health disparities. Minority women are particularly vulnerable because of environmental stress. Furthermore, absent or inadequate healthcare coverage deters the use of preventive healthcare practices. Organizing themes are as follows: underserved, which describes factors that contribute to health disparities and examines the consequences, particularly for underserved minority groups; understudied, which examines potentially fruitful, but as yet insufficiently investigated, avenues of research needed to better understand the basis for health disparities; and underestimated, which argues that without trusting researcher-community partnerships, interventions to address health disparities will be flawed and ineffective.