When society thinks of healthcare, there are many racial disparities within healthcare, especially in treatment. How being a person of color in the United States can be difficult when it comes to accessing health care, especially in the hospital. In the United States, there seems to be a separation between physicians and patient, which contributes to the disparities in quality of healthcare. The hospital is a place where people should feel equally treated. The hospital is also a place where can be refused medical attention due to their socioeconomic status, race and gender. A patient needs to have confidence in the capability of their physician, so that they can be able to confide in him or her. When a person goes to the hospital to have …show more content…
Discrimination in health care is an ethical issue focused on age, gender, income, chronic illness, and ethnic disparities. Discrimination occurs when a group of individuals are highly favored above another, either consciously or not. In Carolyn Clancy’s speech, she addresses this issue of “It makes a difference in people’s lives when breast cancer is diagnosed early with timely mammography; when a patient suffering from a heart attack is given the correct lifesaving treatment in a timely fashion; when medications are correctly administered; and when doctors listen to their patients and their families, show them respect, and answer their questions” (Clancy, pp. 3). It is very interesting to see that knowing is able to cure treatment, but minorities especially blacks face breasts cancer in the worse manner due to not having the right resources for treatment. Whether the issues of direct or indirect discrimination occurs, these actions affect the lives of working Americans and their right to receive quality healthcare. In a the research article it mentioned that, healthcare providers’ assessment and treatment decisions are based off their feelings about patients, which is usually influenced by patients’ race or ethnicity. (Nelson, pp. 5) Relationships between race or ethnicity and treatment decisions are complex, they are usually influenced by
Does racism still exist today? Although many believe it was a problem in the past, it still exists today. Many People are still not aware that it still exists in our workforces, especially in medical field. Although racism in medicine can be very offense, it can sometimes be beneficial and help reveal differences in diseases based on genetic make up. These differences can be taken in the wrong manner and can lead to social problems especially if these distinctions are thought of as ethnic differences. In Gregg M. Bloche’s article. “Race, Money and Medicine”, he states that we should erase racial categories from medicine but only use them if they are beneficial for the patient’s health. Peter Clark, author of “Prejudice and the Medical Profession: A Five Year Update”, explains that racial categories should be understood because understand these different can be beneficial. Lynne D. Richardson and Marlaina Norris, authors of “Access to Health and Health Care: How Race and Ethnicity Matter”, also believe that these differences can be beneficial but want to improve the health are because they know a majority of minorities do not receive proper health care and treatment. Rebecca Skloot, author of “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, pays attention to the fact that her character, Henrietta Lacks, was not given the proper treatment and care she should have. Although Henrietta’s cells were beneficial to cancer research , she never once gave consent to the doctor’s to distribute her cells. She was taken advantage of because of her race and low income. Minorities’ opinions and beliefs should be taken into perspective because they often feel neglected which causes a sense of “distrust”. There has been a vast history of racism in the ...
In recent discussions of health care disparities, a controversial issue has been whether racism is the cause of health care disparities or not. On one hand, some argue that racism is a serious problem in the health care system. From this perspective, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) states that there is a big gap between the health care quality received by minorities, and the quality of health care received by non-minorities, and the reason is due to racism. On the other hand, however, others argue that health care disparities are not due to racism. In the words of Sally Satel, one of this view’s main proponents, “White and black patients, on average don’t even visit the same population of physicians” (Satel 1), hence this reduces the chances of racism being the cause of health care disparities. According to this view, racism is not a serious problem in the health care system. In sum, then, the issue is whether racism is a major cause of health care disparities as the Institute of Medicine argues or racism is not really an issue in the health care system as suggested by Sally Satel.
“Health equity is the attainment of the highest level of health for all people”[1]. Presently in the United States individuals from diverse cultural origins cannot access the highest level of health care available just because of factors outside their control like their socioeconomic status, language, education level and the location of medical centers and availability of health services. As the majority of health care interpreters can testify, these translate among other situations into missed appointments because of the lack of transportation, miscommunications between health care providers and
The disparities in the healthcare system contribute to the overall health status disparities that affect ethnic and racial minorities. The sources of ethnic and racial healthcare disparities include cultural barriers, geography differences, or healthcare provider stereotyping. In addition, difficulties in communication between health care providers and patients, lack of access to healthcare providers, and lack of access to adequate health care coverage
Without appropriate the training and education, healthcare providers and staffs are delivering medical advice that goes against people belief and cultural practices. Disparities such as race and socioeconomic plays a huge role medicine. It would be a lie to say medicine is even across the board and there are no disparities among minorities and other racial group when it comes to treatment. Dr. Williams’ scenario is an example of the unfairness that patients experience when they go to clinics and hospitals. Millions of minorities group receive subpar medical care due to race and ethnicity or economic background. “There is evidence that socioeconomic status (SES) affects individual’s health outcomes and the health care they receive. People of lower SES are more likely to have worse self-reported health, lower life expectancy, and suffer from more chronic conditions when compared with those of higher SES. They also receive fewer diagnostic tests and medications for many chronic diseases and have limited access to health care due to cost and coverage.” (Aprey, Gaglioti & Rosenbaum, 2017) Families of a different race and culture will always experience inequalities in healthcare because of disparities in the systems. The outcome for many families when they experience negative visits turns to
Dorothy Roberts is social justice advocate and law scholar who preaches the message that race-based medicine is bad medicine. She believes that doctors use race, instead of tests and observations, as a shortcut to give diagnoses. Her main argument is that there is only one race, the human race. In her Ted Talk, Roberts goes over statistics to explain why she thinks that race-based medicine is barbaric and shouldn’t be practiced.
The article “Of disparities and diversity: Where are we?” helped me better understand the health experiences of women and how disparities remain a persistent problem today. There were certain disparities of some people not having insurance, having limited access to care, not get proper care and of course having negative health outcomes. Race and ethnicity are the common factors of disparities in healthcare but social and environmental factors play a major part in it too. It is said that this world is becoming more diverse. The population is becoming more heterogeneous. It is estimated that Hispanics and blacks will populate over half of the U.S. That said, since the people of color make up the majority of those that are uninsured and have low income it will be even more important to address healthcare disparities. So now there is more efforts to focus on the disparities to prevent them from continuing.
Healthcare disparities are when there are inequalities or differences of the conditions of health and the quality of care that is received among specific groups of people such as African Americans, Caucasians, Asians, or Hispanics. Not only does it occur between racial and ethnic groups, health disparities can happen between males and females as well. Minorities have the worst healthcare outcomes, higher death rates, and are more prone to terminal diseases. For African American men and women, some of the most common health disparities are diabetes, cancer, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and HIV infections. Some factors that can contribute to disparities are healthcare access, transportation, specialist referrals, and non-effective communication with patients. There is also much racism that still occurs today, which can be another reason African Americans may be mistreated with their healthcare. “Although both black and white patients tended not to endorse the existence of racism in the medical system, African Americans patients were more likely to perceive racism” (Laveist, Nickerson, Bowie, 2000). Over the years, the health care system has made improvements but some Americans, such as African Americans, are still being treating unequally when wanting the same care they desire as everyone else.
As public health professionals, it is our responsibility to define a vision for the future of individual’s health, to help make the world healthier by being a critical thinker and developing an understanding of public health policies and programs at regional, national and local levels. Health Policy is intended to be a vehicle for the exploration and discussion of health policy and health system issues and is aimed in particular at enhancing communication between health policy and system researchers, legislators, decision-makers and professionals concerned with developing, implementing, and analyzing health policy, health systems and health care reforms, primarily in high-income countries outside the U.S.A(Busse, 2016). The increasing of diversity in the United States become overwhelming especially to minority groups in particular. As healthcare providers and healthcare systems, it is very important to respect the values, behaviors, cultural, religion, and health of each individual. This is challenging, however, failure to do so, could lead to major consequences in health outcomes for the future. This is why health care systems and policy maker need to deliver culturally competent services that will
Seeking to position lower socioeconomic status above racial/ethnic biases or vice versa is irresponsible to the goal of eliminating healthcare delivery differences at large. Both these are realities of a group of people who are not receiving the same level of care from the healthcare professionals although they exist within one of the most resource rich countries in the world, the United States. According to House & Williams (2000), “racism restricts and truncates socioeconomic attainment” (page, 106). This alone will hinder good health and spur on disparities as racism reduces the level of education and income as well as the prospect of better jobs. Blacksher (2008) cites the nation’s institutionalized racism as one of the leading factors
Discrimination is a big issue in the whole world and has a different way of being discriminated unfortunately. Anything type of discrimination is incorrect, but one that really got me is obesity and individual always being discriminate because of the weigh at school, in jobs and airplanes. I think we as a human services worker should make more effort to reduce discrimination due obesity. According to (Rebecca Puhl and Dr. Kelly D. Brownell, 2012) they noted that It is important to address the impact of negative professional attitudes on clinical judgment, diagnosis, and care for obese individuals. Several studies have indicated that obesity may influence judgments and practices of professionals. As human we all deserve to be
In our society racial or ethnic superiority exist. The United States healthcare is one that deals with, the conflict perspective. The conflict perspective is why social stratification occurs, it is the racism idea that one racial or ethnic group is superior to another, offers with a justification for racial inequality. The nature of wellbeing and medicinal services varies incredibly around the globe and inside the United States. Society's imbalances along social class, race and ethnicity, and sex lines are replicated in our wellbeing and human services. The whites are superior, and are more privileged than other race and
Improving healthcare in underserved communities is extremely important, because many people within these communities do not receive the quality of healthcare that they deserve. Therefore, there needs to be more initiatives to improve these conditions. I believe that this starts with mending the broken pipeline between minorities and their pathway to obtaining a Doctor of Medicine degree. It is paramount to have more minorities in the healthcare profession, because this will contribute to an increased quality of care among the underserved populations. Thus, I am a strong believer in enhancing diversity in healthcare.
Discrimination is " the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex." (Oxford English Dictionary). It is sometimes caused of the fear of the unknown. Discriminative behaviour occurs as a result of stereotypic beliefs and prejudicial attitudes. To stereotype someone is too "[hold] a fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person." (Oxford English Dictionary). Many people who discriminate do so because they believe in their stereotypic views and they don’t seek reasoning in the other person. The people that discriminate tend to disregard the fact that people are different even people of a particular group. In this situation the victims are being attacked
If you have ever been discriminated against you will know it is not fun in fact it was probably the most infuriating or saddening experience of your life. This experience is what Trump wants to add to and create more of, he wants to give healthcare workers the right to refuse to treat LGBTQ+ which no one should have to deal with and the LGBT community is hatted enough as is it should not be legal to discriminate against them. So Trump should not allow health workers to discriminate against the LGBT community because it violates our human rights, the EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment And Labor Act), and could potentially lead to more deaths than necessary.