According to the National Library of Medicine, about 34 percent of Hispanic, Black, and Asian children lack a guaranteed reliable source of care when sick, compared to just 15 percent of white children. An example of this is, if a minority child became sick and needed to go to emergency room, they are more likely to face a longer wait time than a white child and less likely to get diagnosed and treated. This is not even the start of it. Medical development and research have never been focused on nor for minority races or the female gender in America.
History of healthcare and its long lasting effects
There have always been disparities in health care and research because it was based on one demographic, the white male. Medicine was shaped by colonization and racism, and the history behind the development is more divided and complex than most people think. The racist ideology that is bias and micro aggressions within the healthcare setting follows into the teachings of medicine, understanding of the human body for different ethnics/genders, and the hospitality seen today against minority groups. Medicine was influenced mainly by the Christian religion and ideas by white supremacists in the 17th and 18th centuries, so that others were at a disadvantage for years to come. “Racism influences the questions doctors ask, where they look for answers, and who they include in their ranks,” according to the National Library of Medicine.
Women disadvantages in healthcare
Women have also been negatively impacted by clinal trial research. Historically, women have been left out of clinical trials that were meant to find answers to female conditions. Men were the ones they tested on to figure out why certain things were happening to women and data was generalized to the female gender with hopes that it would help. Women were not permitted to participate in medical research that had to do with testing their bodies, because male researchers didn’t want to disrupt the ability for the woman to reproduce. Examples of this, according to the Katz Institutes of Women’s Health include, cardiovascular, HIV/AIDS research, and general medication trails, all of which the FDA banned all potential childbearing women from participating in. “The gender gap in medical research, alongside overarching misogyny, results in real-life disadvantages for female patients,” according to an article in the Women’s Health Report.
Unbalanced children healthcare
Children of color are more likely to face health disparities compared to white children. They are less likely to be provided with diagnostic imaging and more likely to experience complications after surgeries. According to an article in NPR, “Researchers say the causes of the inequities are wide-ranging but are ultimately rooted in structural racism, including unequal access to healthy housing and economic opportunities, disparate policing of kids of color and unconscious bias among health care providers.” Even the kids with insurance are disadvantaged in the health system, which is not only wrong but dangerous. The healthcare system has been failing minority children for way too long and a correction is in order to be made.
