Giving Compass' Take:

• The Conversation looks back on some of the articles from 2018 that touch upon the health care gaps in the US, emphasizing that minorities have been affected the most.

• What can we do in 2019 to address this problem? It will require careful coordination with policymakers and health care providers, but the most important thing is to make sure all voices are heard.

• Here's what the US could learn from Thailand about health care coverage.

If you have health insurance, a nice home and a decent job, why should you care about health inequality in the U.S.?

This question was the underlying theme of several articles penned by health policy scholars in The Conversation in 2018. They explained such topics such as threats to the Affordable Care Act, insurance coverage, Medicaid expansion and the lack of access to health care for many people — the so-called health care gap. These experts argued that this gap is actually a threat to the system that serves all Americans.

While estimates vary, studies that have looked at health gaps have suggested that as much as 30 percent of direct medical costs for African-Americans, Hispanics or Asian-Americans were excess costs because of health care disparities.

Some of these differences start at birth, or even before. As Jessica Young, an assistant professor at American University, found in a study of health outcomes in various ZIP codes, where a person lives makes a great deal of difference in his or her health.

Read the full article about wealth inequality and health inequality by Lynne Anderson at The Conversation.