Both access to healthcare and quality of care have always been topics that have been widely debated (for some weird reason). Whether it’s Republicans in Congress shooting down the idea of universal healthcare or mothers with babies in the NICU that are unable to pay medical bills, healthcare has a lot of room for improvement.
In this post, I’m going to be talking about the fact that access to healthcare and quality of it varies by race and disproportionately affects black Americans in a plethora of areas.
The National Academy of Medicine released a report in 2005 stating that “racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality health care than white people–even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions are comparable.” (American Bar Association) 
So, the argument that poverty is a contributing factor in the quality of healthcare that people are receiving isn’t all that valid. If it were valid, then why is it that poor black people are receiving worse healthcare than poor white people?
To further define “lower-quality healthcare,” the National Academy of Medicine described it as inferior care from physicians. According to the same source, “minority persons are less likely than white persons to be given appropriate cardiac care, to receive kidney dialysis or transplants, and to receive the best treatments for stroke, cancer, or AIDS.” (American Bar Association)
This isn’t just an inaccessibility to healthcare issue. This is a racism issue.
A study was done with 400 hospitals in the United States, and after ruling out things like class and health insurance, the results showed that “black patients with heart disease received older, cheaper, and more conservative treatments than their white counterparts.” (American Bar Association)
Why is this?
Historically, there has been a belief rooted in racism that asserts that black people either don’t feel pain or don’t feel as much pain as white people. This is an aged idea that stems from the time when white people believed black people were more closely related to primates and weren’t as evolved as white people. This then impacts how physicians view their ailments and treat their symptoms. “In a survey of 222 white medical students and residents, about half endorsed false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites. And those who did also perceived blacks as feeling less pain than whites, and were more likely to suggest inappropriate medical treatment for black patients.” (Stat News)
Scarily, this also transfers over into the treatment black children receive. “A study published last year found that black children were less likely than whites to receive pain medication in the emergency room while being treated for appendicitis.” (Stat News). How is it in 2023 that there is still an alarmingly large number of healthcare workers who could possibly believe that race is a factor in how much pain affects the body? Even when there’s studies and statistics that say otherwise?
Racism and implicit bias.
image 1. The New York Times
image 2. University of San Diego
This is a very valuable discussion because it shows how racism has not changed over time and it is very much systemic across society. I will say though, I think more efforts have been made towards limiting racism and bias when it comes to employment in the health care industry because the proportions of different races employed in a health care position are starting to (more or less) equate. Having said this, there still has not been a change with regards to the care, and moreso the equality of the care provided to patients. Do you think a there could ever be a solution given the historical foundation of racism?
This post is really informative and is a good way to bring light to an extremely important issue in the medical world. It genuinely baffles me how many people believe that someone could feel less pain because they are a different race, and it is even more concerning when these people are medical professionals. I think the statistics you included do a good job at visually showing the topics that you discuss throughout the post. It is so disappointing to understand how ingrained systemic racism is in so many topics throughout society, including the medical and healthcare world. Given this issue is systemic, it is important to think about whether this issue can be resolved through work being done to the current way things operate, or if the whole industry needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.
I had no idea that there even existed a perception that skin color could affect pain levels, much less that it is so believed by such a vast amount of the population that black people feel less pain than white people. It’s also incredibly scary to think that over half of medical students surveyed believed there were fake biological differences between the two races. I also like that you mentioned the quality of healthcare and not just the quantity of treatments because quality of care is often overlooked in studies. Thank you for sharing your perspective on this issue, as always!
Hi Sydney!
I’m interested in a career in healthcare, so I’m really glad I read this post! You touch on a lot of great points about the many contributing factors that cause inequity in healthcare. I recently attended a diversity in healthcare conference hosted by pre-health orgs at Penn State where we discussed many different kinds of disparities, racial included. One of the most shocking things I learned was that hospitals are still using algorithms that call for different treatment based on a patient’s race. No one knowns where these algorithms came from or who made them. They operate on totally unethical principles like assuming that Black people have a higher pain tolerance than other groups, like you mentioned. I can’t believe that hospitals are still using these, it is completely unacceptable. Great job!