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For centuries, people of color and racial and ethnic minorities have experienced a substandard level of healthcare. From misconceptions of pain perception to racially-based genetic biases that impede physicians from correctly assessing patients, and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic have all affected the way that medicine treats minorities. All of these issues, and many more, have been disproportionately affecting racial and ethnic minorities in America for centuries. There are a plethora of factors that have affected the quality of treatment that minorities have received in America when it comes to health care. Whether it be social, economic, environmental, or even educational, we know for a fact that there are disparities between their treatment. But what are the exact factors that affect minorities?
Access to Healthcare
Well for starters, all of the aforementioned races have lower access to healthcare than white Americans. 80.4% for Black, 81.2% for Asian-Americans, 67.3 for Hispanics, and 68.1 for Native Americans. Access to proper healthcare is a crucial factor when it comes to quality. When people cannot afford healthcare, they are forced to go to lower institutions with lower resources, which in turn provides lower-quality care.
Education in Medical School
Another major reason for the disparities among minorities in healthcare is the education the doctors receive in medical school. The truth is that in medical school future doctors are still taught that race is a biologically valid category instead of simply a system of social stratification. Nermine Abdelwahab, a first-year student at the University of Minnesota Medical School, recalls being told to automatically circle sickle cell anemia if she saw that the patient was African-American (Swetlit, 2016). It is this type of teaching and this type of mindset that further perpetuates the stereotype that people of color and minorities are different from white people and thus should receive different treatment.
Racial Biases
Finally, we must consider that another factor affecting the quality of care that minorities receive is personal racial prejudices. Whether that be prejudices that were taught in medical school or at home, they have an ethical responsibility to address that issue. There are constant reports of African-Americans and Native Americans’ pain being ignored because of drug use stereotypes or Hispanics and Asian-Americans not being attended in the ER room because of language barriers. All of these problems affecting quality healthcare have racial bias implications behind them and must be addressed by doctors and healthcare workers.
Taking Action
The issue of racial disparities in healthcare has just recently become a topic of national focus. With talks of Black Lives Matter, systemic racism, minority oppression and so much more, we must begin to contemplate the idea that racism isn’t monopolized by our justice system but instead belongs to every aspect of our society, our healthcare system included. When minorities begin to die at disproportionate rates simply because of the color of their skin, we must recognize that there is a system in place that does not, or cannot serve everyone equally. After taking all the genetic predisposition and chronic health conditions that affect every race, we must still understand that we are all biologically the same. Race is nothing more than a social construct and it has no business affecting the quality of treatment that individuals, particularly racial minorities, receive.
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