Black women noted that they were even more likely to suffer from a negative interaction.
A new survey has revealed that African Americans expect racist encounters while at the doctor’s office. The survey revealed other discrepancies regarding discrimination toward people of color in the health care system.
“Things like a provider not listening to them, not answering a question or responding to a direct request, not prescribing pain medication that they thought they needed,” says KFF’s director of Racial Equity and Health Policy, Samantha Artiga. According to the findings, one in five of the Black surveyors reported unfair treatment or disrespect from a medical professional, with Black women noting that they were even more likely to suffer from a negative interaction. Nearly a quarter of all the Black participants shared that they had an racist interaction within the past three years.
Representation in the medical field is still an ongoing problem in itself, but patients of color are suffering the most from this systemic lack. Despite this, the survey noted that remedying this problem by growing the number of providers of color, in addition to resources and initiatives to combat bias in health care, is key for Black patients and others to receive the proper medical care.
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Source: Black Enterprise
