Difficulties in Accessing Healthcare by Racial/Ethnic Minorities in the US
Disparities in terms of access to healthcare services and facilities between Native Americans and ethnic or racial minorities are well documented by research studies on the issue. Access to healthcare may be defined as the extent to which individuals have the capacities or ability to get appropriate, quality and timely healthcare from healthcare facilities and institutions (Escarce & Kapur, 2006). According to Egede (2006), despite of the important advances made in treatment or diagnosis of chronic diseases in the US, “there is evidence that racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower quality of care than non-minorities” (p. 667). This disparity situation is further made complex by the issue of equal and unhindered access to quality healthcare by members of minority groups such as the Hispanics and Black Americans, particularly the old members of the minority population.
The study by Egede (2006) sought to identify factors that contribute to ethnic and racial disparities in healthcare. These factors include, according to the author, discrimination based on race and ethnicity, low acculturation levels and negative attitudes towards adoption of new or advanced healthcare technology among some ethnic minorities. According to this author, most members of the racial and ethnic minority groups in the United States face racial discrimination based on their backgrounds, mainly from White nurses and doctors thus making it difficult for them to easily gain access to quality treatment. Further, the author blames cultural beliefs and practices among the ethnic minorities that prevent them from fully accessing modern healthcare and nursing facilities, a situation further exacerbated by issues of cultural stereotyping among medical or nursing practitioners.
Moreover, a research by Szczepura (2005), a medical professor, reveals two other important reasons for the difficulty experienced by minorities in accessing equal and quality healthcare. According to this author, these factors include linguistic and cultural incompetence among nurses or medical practitioners brought about by diversity in the population. Most nurses in US hospitals, as is the case in Canada, Australia and UK, the author argues, have not adapted to the changing cultural context of the diverse population of patients that they serve. Thus, they are unable to effectively communicate with their patients so that they can get health related information from them, or disseminate it to them. This normally leads to poor quality healthcare and sometimes discourages members of the ethnic or racial minority groups not to access the healthcare services altogether. Szczepura (2005), also seems to suggest that the socioeconomic situation of members of racial and ethnic minorities is to some extent responsible for the difficulties in them accessing healthcare. With most of them unemployed or doing odd jobs and receiving low incomes, high rates of poverty make it difficult for them to, for instance, pay for private insurance schemes to receive quality and accessible health care. Other contributing factors the author identifies include location, lack of cultural awareness and presence of stereotypical views among healthcare staff and ignorance.
Further afield, Escaece and Kapur (2006) observe that besides the social and economic status or circumstances that influence the access of minority Hispanics to healthcare, low educational attainment, immigration status, language barrier or limited proficiency and lack of health insurance covers are other obstacles to access to healthcare. Furthermore, the general lack of enough healthcare professionals from the minority groups in most nursing centers also complicate the situation for ethnic and racial minority in cases where they need specialized medical attention and care.
References
Egede, L. E. (2006, June). Race, ethnicity, culture and disparities in health care. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(6), 667-669. Retrieved March 15, 2016, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1924616/
Escarce, J. J., & Kapur., K. (2006). Access to and quality of health care. In M. Tienda, & F. Mitchell, Hispanics and the future of America (pp. 410-446). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Szczepura, A. (2005). Access to health care for ethnic minority populations. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 81, 141-147. doi:10.1136/pgmj.2004.026237
