Vertical equity is the principle that presumes different treatment according to the level of need. It likewise assumes that disparities in the quality of health of ethnic groups should be considered in prevention and therapy. Still, this regulation is not consistently realized in national and world medicine. The issue has been on the agenda for a long time, but its new wave arises during the pandemic. There is an opinion that the American health care system can be described as apartheid, and this idea has significant implications.
One of the critical concerns facing the U.S. health care system at the beginning of the pandemic was the lack of beds for the new coronavirus infection. Over the past decades, the U.S. government has encouraged the transfer of treatment from hospitals to outpatient settings to save money. The Medicaid and Medicare programs have been practical tools for this. As a result of insurance concerns and misallocation of resources, hospital beds have become scarce, and people of color have been the hardest hit (Aumoithe, 2020). Differing access to health insurance among racial groups, stemming from income disparities, puts the U.S. among the leaders in the number of deaths from the new coronavirus infection.
Thus, in times of pandemics, it has become apparent that the health care system can be described as apartheid. The story of three enslaved women who suffered the horrors of unequal medicine demonstrates that the issue has always existed (Vedantam, 2017). African Americans get a reduced amount of pain medication for the same lesions as white patients because of the prejudice against thicker skin, and it is the direct evidence of the existing crisis. Moreover, people of color have less access to services, and not all doctors are willing to give them equal care (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2022). It all goes back to the education of doctors, nurses, professors, and even insurance company employees. Medical students need to be introduced to the cultures whose members are likely to become their patients. Only then will the first step toward equal medicine be taken, and individuals will have more access to skilled care.
References
Aumoithe, G. (2020). The racist history that explains why some communities don’t have enough ICU beds.The Washington Post.
Kaiser Family Foundation. (2022). Rethinking the use of race in medicine. [Video file].
Vedantam, S., Pemnan, M., Schmidt, J., Boyle, T., Cohen, R., & Connelly, C. (2017). Remembering Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey: The mothers of modern gynecology. NPR.