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How Structural Racism Affects Healthcare

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Healthcare has grown substantially across the United States in recent years; there are constantly new medical studies to allow everyone to have the best quality of life possible. While this may seem as though improvements are being made for everyone in the country, this is far from the truth. Minority groups have been subject to several types of health disparities, and are not as impacted by the healthcare system because of this. “Furthermore, statistics showed that the poor and minorities - blacks, Native Americans, and Hispanics - had higher rates of illness, more days lost from work, a greater infant mortality rate, and a shorter life expectancy” (Sherrow 37). In both the average society and medical facilities, racial minorities have been …show more content…
Affordability is one of the most important parts of the healthcare industry; when people are dealing with healthcare, one of the main things they look for is the cost. Although the cost of medical care seems to be standard across the nation, this is not the case. As stated in the article “Racial Discrimination in Healthcare: How Structural Racism Affects Healthcare” by St. Catherine University, “around 20% of Black adults and 35% of Latinx adults can not access health insurance compared with 10% of white and Asian adults, according to a study cited in Medical News Today.” Without insurance, health care can be extremely pricey, which leads to people not receiving the care they need. Minority groups are less likely to be insured, which means they more often than not will be unable to receive the proper treatments because they can not afford them. Insurance is one of the major parts of medical care. While there are companies across the nation that will offer health insurance to their staff, this is not always the case, and it is much more prevalent in racial minorities; they will often not be insured by their place of work, and because of this would not be able to afford the cost of other healthcare …show more content…
Despite any general medical advances, “...there is evidence that racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower quality of care than nonminorities and that, patients of minority ethnicity experience greater morbidity and mortality from various chronic diseases than nonminorities”(Egede). The medical field is constantly changing, discovering new treatments that could save millions, but racial minorities are still not given the same quality of care due to the color of their skin. The problems created by health disparities can alter the course of a person's life, and until there is equal access to the same care, nothing will get better. Health disparities have always been around, and are engraved into the United States medical system. Although health disparities are still very prevalent in society, in recent years there have been many plans to stop and move past them. As stated in an article by the American Medical Association titled “Reducing disparities in health care” there is work being done to limit the health disparities that racial minorities

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