Peterson 1 Patrice Peterson Dr Tanya Grae 1101 0060 10 1 2021 What influence does race and ethnicity have on the disparities of healthcare The purpose of healthcare is to increase the quality of one s life by providing a way to prevent treat and help one recover from many different illnesses However some people do not have a fair and equal way to access said healthcare Many people of color POC are often more than not given lower quality in healthcare Meaning they are getting sicker and dying quicker and it seems like no one is paying enough attention to these alarming facts The reasoning behind it is so broad that it can vary Between past prejudices that cloud the minds of those in positions to help lack of access to affordable insurance and racial disparities in hiring medical field workers and so much more So the question for this project remains What influence do race and ethnicity have on healthcare disparities In short words the medical world is just a reflection of the real world Based on a systematic review done by the American Public Health Association Dominant communication styles fewer demonstrated positive emotions infrequent requests for input about treatment decisions and less patient centered care seem to characterize patient provider interactions involving people of color www ncbi nlm nih gov This means that there is prejudice rooted in almost everyone including those in health healthcare providers are human They have opinions and thoughts on people that can sometimes affect their view of people as a whole When they pledge the Hippocratic Oath they are essentially swearing to give care to the best of their ability Peterson 2 based on their judgment assessment of the situation Using the oath that every doctor has to swear by there is room for interpretation regarding the word judgement That being said when people of color come to get medical attention a doctor s worldly views and how they interpret a situation can influence the type of care a patient gets Because of the history behind the color of their skin it is easier to assume stereotype and misdiagnose said group of people Whether this is done consciously or subconsciously it still affects the quality of care a person receives An example of what is happening in our country is that in our country people of color more so black men have the shortest life expectancies women have the highest maternal mortality rates and infants have the highest infant mortality rates According to The Center for American Progress hundreds of thousands of firsthand accounts describe the effect that stress caused by discrimination can cause a carrying mother and her child This fact spreads across education levels and socioeconomic statuses A world famous American four time gold medalist Serena Williams alongside an American activist Erica Garner experienced this firsthand and we publicly know their stories Our broken and unequal health care system and lack of diversity in health workforce training worsen these racial disparities and ultimately lead to the threatened lives of African American women and their children Serena almost lost her life and sadly Erica did lose her to pregnancy related complications Most research on health disparities in maternal and infant mortality focus on African American women s greater exposure to risk factors around the time of pregnancy including poverty and low socioeconomic status limited access to prenatal care and poor physical and mental health Although African American women are more likely than non Hispanic white women to experience these interrelated risk factors research shows that this greater likelihood does not Peterson 3 fully account for the racial gap in outcomes instead these disparities stem from racial and gender discrimination over the life span of these women Novoa and Taylor www americanprogress org Health insurance by definition is a contract that requires a health insurer to pay some or all of health care costs in exchange for a premium In the United States it is less lately for people of color to have healthcare because of the costs and the refusal to expand Medicaid in several states This affects the ability of most African Americans to get access to healthcare because they are worried about a bill Healthcare is supposed to take that burden off of people but it is not doing so The remaining states need to expand and implicate Medicaid in their plan Jesse Cross Call a writer for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities states that If the remaining states implemented expansion at least 4 million additional uninsured adults would become eligible for Medicaid coverage likely more due to the recession Of these nearly 60 percent are people of color www cbpp org If not for Medicaid the other half of African Americans seek health insurance through their jobs and private insurance companies However that money still comes from their paycheck so they tend to lean towards the cheapest plan that does not give them much to fall on when it comes to health care They will still worry about the cost of things and choose to opt out of tests and labs because they fear the end cost more than the end diagnosis It has only been half of a century since people of color were even allowed to work in medicine This can account for the lack of them in the medical field now In 2018 within the percentage of all active physicians only 5 can account for Black or African American AAMC Studies have shown that more people of color agree to go to doctors who look or have the same skin color Not only does it make them feel more comfortable feel acknowledged when expressing concerns but because of the history between white doctors most notably the Peterson 4 Tuskegee Study The study was designed to determine the natural course of untreated syphilis in around 400 African American men These African American men who participated in the study denied treatment once it became clear that penicillin was the safe and effective treatment for the disease The CDC states that t here is no evidence that researchers obtained informed consent from participants and participants were not offered available treatments even after penicillin became widely available www cdc gov tuskegee This makes the overall study unethical To make matters worse President Clinton apologized in public on behalf of the federal government solidifying the mistreatment of the male African participants who have helped save millions of lives This helps explain