The notion of health care, as one of the central constituents of the population’s well-being, cannot exist in isolation from the socio-economic patterns of the nation. For this reason, such social and ecological phenomena as ethnic and gender inequality or climate change have a tremendous impact on the development of quality health care and nationwide access to essential health resources. When speaking of the US health care and its development in the social context, it would be reasonable to outline that racism has become one of the most severe challenges in achieving equity. The issue itself, apart from being a threat to the social environment of the state, is closely related to such a bigger threat as ecological disparities between the racial groups.
Even though the issue itself has been discussed explicitly for decades, the results of such discussion remain highly unsatisfying for the discriminated population. Considering the fact that one of the major issues of modern US health care is its inaccessibility in terms of people’s financial state, the notion of racism and financial inequity on the grounds of race contributes greatly to the establishment of severe health access disparities within various racial and ethnic groups. For this reason, it may be concluded that the major problem with racism in the context of health care is the fact that racism, being deeply integrated into the socio-economic patterns of the nation, stands in the way of treatment and medical intervention free of implicit and explicit racial bias and financial hardships.
The modern context of US health care demonstrates explicit evidence concerning the discrimination and undermining of health needs of racial and ethnic minorities across the state. According to the researchers, the fundamental issue of racism in health care is the practitioners and public health representatives’ lack of desire to recognize the health specifics of racial and ethnic minorities, which results in the exertion of racism (Rhee et al., 2019). When speaking of African Americans as an explicit example of racial discrimination in health care, there exists strong scholarly evidence that African Americans have a stronger predisposition for high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2017). Moreover, they are also likely to die at early age regardless of cause, as many African Americans report their inability to address health facilities due to financial struggles (CDC, 2017). As a result, the research demonstrates that African Americans are more likely to have unmet healthcare needs than white people (Rhee et al., 2019). Moreover, the scholars outline that today’s context of racism that exists on a national level is powered by the so-called “race blindness,” a phenomenon that aims at promoting equality with no close consideration of the race-specific needs in terms of health care (Ahlberg et al., 2019). This phenomenon explicitly contributes to enhancing a healthcare gap between the racial groups, as ignorance does not equate to a full-scale solution.
Considering the aforementioned data, it would be reasonable to assume that the public health issue of racism is to be addressed on the federal level in order to impact the patterns of proper health care eventually. For example, when analyzing the existing context of racism in the US, it is possible to track the link between institutional racism and violence and healthcare hardships for minority populations. According to Devakumar et al. (2020), the previous year presented a severe challenge for African American population, as they had to experience both unprecedented racism from the law enforcement and struggles of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The latter may be justified by the presence of various barriers, including the facts that:
- Racial minorities are more likely to work in the front lines of the pandemic outbreak with more exposure to the virus;
- The social environment of ethnic minorities presents a challenge in terms of keeping social distancing as well as addressing hospital facilities early during the infection. As a result, many racial minority representatives succeed in addressing the facility in a critical condition, which is fueled by a lack of proper intervention from the start and a higher risk of obtaining chronic diseases that deteriorate one’s condition (Devakumar et al., 2020).
Thus, in order to resolve the issue, it is vital for the governmental bodies to create a full-scale intervention plan for reducing social and financial disparities between the racial groups. When it comes to tangible steps in order to combat the issue, it is important to outline that the major stakeholder and budget allocator should be the US Department of Health and Human Services, as it covers both health care and social issues (HHS, 2021). The department itself should then cooperate with local stakeholders, or medical facility administrators, through the allocation of grants for educational programs and insurance coverage for the racial and ethnic minorities.
In such a way, health care delivery outcomes would improve dramatically, as many people would be able to address health professionals in a timely manner and secure insurance coverage. Moreover, the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) encourage employers to guarantee insurance for employees. Thus, once employers are obliged to exercise no racism towards specific populations, the percentage of racial minority representatives with health insurance will increase. Finally, healthcare workers are to undergo specific training courses aimed at promoting cultural competence and racial health sensitivity in order to abandon the idea of race-blindness.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017). African American health. Web.
US Department of Health and Human Services. (2021). What causes the US health disadvantage? [PDF document]. Web.
Rhee, T. G., Marottoli, R. A., Van Ness, P. H., & Levy, B. R. (2019). Impact of perceived racism on healthcare access among older minority adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 56(4), 580-585. Web.
Ahlberg, B. M., Hamed, S., Thapar-Björkert, S., & Bradby, H. (2019). Invisibility of racism in the global neoliberal era: Implications for researching racism in healthcare. Frontiers in Sociology, 4, 61. Web.
Devakumar, D., Selvarajah, S., Shannon, G., Muraya, K., Lasoye, S., Corona, S., Paradies, Y., Abubakar, I., & Achiume, E. T. (2020). Racism, the public health crisis we can no longer ignore. The Lancet, 395(10242). Web.