Intersectionality In Health Care Essay

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People of color face inequality and intersectionality in healthcare whether through insurance coverage, access, social economics, and quality of care. This leads to our health care system having disparities. It remains a big challenge today as 41% of people living in the United States are people of color (kff.org). People of color aren't getting the same care as someone who's white. Racial and ethnic minorities received lower care. Race also plays a role if someone will be uninsured or not. Another problem with health care is social economics which causes some race to have better care than others. There have been little improvements to address these issues. Today our society is becoming more diverse not less. In 2015 minorities represented …show more content…

Doctors under our healthcare system have come under fire for prescribing medicine based on the patients' race. That practice is called "race-based medicine". Race-based medicine is a problem as it allows the American Healthcare System to be intersectionality based on race. The first ever race based-medicine drug "BiDil' was approved by the FDA a decade ago. It was used to treat African-American with heart failure and advocates rave it as a way to stop the disparities between black and white. However there no evidence that the drug is proven to be more effective in African-Americans compares to other patients. Doctors are medically obligated to bring the best care to patients regardless of their race. Dorothy Roberts sheds light on her experienced with race-based medicine in the youtube video "The problem with race-based medicine". She found out that the issue of race in healthcare runs a lot deeper in all medical practices. Doctors have told Dorothy that they're using race as a shortcut or more important factors, like muscle mass, enzyme level, genetic traits they just don't have time to look for (nhpr.org). Race adds no relevant information at all and it's just a distraction. The issue of race also blinds doctors to patients' symptoms, family illnesses, their history, their own illnesses they might have (Dorothy Roberts). Dorothy Roberts also said doctors should increase their cultural competence to …show more content…

Roberts, Dorothy. “The Problem with Race-Based Medicine.” Dorothy Roberts: The problem with race-Based medicine | TED Talk, Nov. 2015 https://www.ted.com/talks/dorothy_roberts_the_problem_with_race_based_medicine
2. “Eliminating Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Health Care: What are the Options?” The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 20 Oct. 2008 https://www.kff.org/disparities-policy/issue-brief/eliminating-racialethnic-disparities-in-health-care-what/
3. Duke University “Moving beyond Race-Based drugs.” ScienceDaily, ScienceDaily, 26 May 2016 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160526190237.htm
4. Glied, Sherry. “The Uninsured.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service

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