Racial Discrimination in Healthcare
- Isha D
- Dec 11, 2020
- 3 min read
Healthcare, without a doubt, has been in the center of social and political debates for many years. Often these discussions are about new healthcare proposals and policies, but there is an aspect of healthcare which is not brought up as frequently: the racial disparities.
Over the last couple decades, study after study has shown that “racial and ethnic minorities are prone to poorer quality health care than white Americans, even when factors such as insurance status are controlled”(1). Poor quality healthcare can be a various number of things. Perhaps a patient doesn’t receive medication when they should, or a transplant, or the optimal treatment for cancer or AIDS. Perhaps a patient feels uncomfortable with their doctor, and doesn’t express their issues due to this.
A significant cause for some of these discriminatory practices is the preconceived notion that people of color, especially black people, feel pain at a lesser level than white people. This illogical conclusion was made throughout multiple centuries to justify imperialism, colonialism, and slavery. Racist scientists and slave owners alike believed there were fundamental biological differences between the white and black races, and beliefs like this were the basis of Social Darwinism as well. It seems as though a large portion of the population has yet to unlearn these illogical conclusions. An online sample of a study done in 2016 by the University of Virginia showed that an alarming 20% of the subjects believed that black people had less sensitive nerve endings than white people. Even more concerning was that 58% of the subjects believed that black people had thicker skin than whites (3). Though these people may not have held any explicitly racist beliefs, it is clear that certain biases still exist.
Overall, it may not seem all too detrimental that the general public has the aforementioned biases. While concerning, these people are not involved in healthcare… right? Unfortunately, when the same study was conducted on medical students, there were similar trends. Although they were at a lower percentage, these medical students still had false beliefs about some biological aspects of black people. Accompanied by another study where these medical students were asked to assess pain, and were given the information of whether these hypothetical patients were black or white, it was shown that the medical student who held these false beliefs also tended to under-assess the pain of black people. This is clearly harmful since a black person may not receive a strong enough treatment if their doctor does not assess their pain accurately. This trend can also be seen for indigenous and hispanic minority groups, a sentiment once again holding racial prejudice at its core.
It is important to note that these discriminatory practices are independent of controlled variables such as insurance. There are inequities between access to healthcare and health insurance, but the discrepancies between treatment for white patients and patients of color adds yet another layer of obstacles for non-white people to overcome.
Of course, it is incredibly important to address these beliefs in an individuals education, and refute them. However, it is even more important to ensure that there is diversity in the healthcare workforce. Providing access to minorities for an education which can support the rigor of the medical field along with financial support is crucial to removing these racial inequalities in healthcare. Despite making up nearly 14% of the US population, only about 5% of people practicing medicine of some sort are black. Similarly, 0.1% of those in the medical field are Native American, compared to the US population of 1.5%(5). Increasing diversity adds new perspectives to medicine and healthcare, as well as a more welcoming environment for people of color. Healthcare is a human right, the right to “life” is written in the U.S. constitution, and everyone should receive proper care accordingly.
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