Lack of medical care in minority communities

Lack of medical care in minority communities by Leslie Martinez

Why is this topic important?

    In the heart of the big city, pharmacies are scarce, and hospitals are overcrowded. They experience a different standard of medical care than just a few miles away. It is insane that your zip code can dictate your health. In "Health Care Disparities in Race-Ethnic Minority Communities and Populations: Does the Availability of Health Care Providers Play a Role?" by Kitty S. Chan et al., they investigate the inequality in the use of health care based on the community and each person's race-ethnicity to see if the amount of health care providers is a factor. They used data from the 2014 medical expenditure panel survey and the health and demographic business data from the American Community Survey and InfoUSA. They found that minority groups had low use of health care services when compared to white communities/ individuals. Which meant that they had fewer visits with health professionals. This can be due to barriers beyond socio-economic factors and not the number of providers and availability. These factors can be an overwork load, citizen status, long wait times, costs that are too high, and the list can go on. 

    These issues are one of the major factors why many in minority communities can't afford to get regular checkups and get the care they need. This can often be due to not being able to afford health insurance. In  "Beyond Health Insurance: Remaining Disparities in US Health Care in the Post-ACA Era" by Benjamin D. Sommers et al. talks about health care following the affordable care act (ACA). They found that even with this act there is still lack of healthcare due to it not being affordable and accesible when it comes to low income minorities. Because of there is high rates of minorities going to the emergency department to get care. While health care insurance helps give more care to low income minorities there is still issues happening. Many adults do say ACA helps showing some improvements. They suggest that in order to stop these disparities they need to give better policies both social and structural by enhancing more diversity and more federal qualified hospitals. These big improvements can help give low income race-ethnic move to a healthy lifestyle and quality care.

Why does it matter to me ?

    I believe that everyone deserves quality care and not having to go broke for hospital bills. No one needs to fear of losing a job or scrambling to find a babysitter or missing out a class. There needs to be a better change for this. Both articles show that it’s not insurance or lack of doctors but socio-economic factors. My mom had to get a body enduring job just for my family to health care. Even with this, in order to see a doctor the next availability is in a week or at times two or more weeks. I’ve lived in Koreatown my whole life and there is mostly latinos and Koreans in my community. My mom is sacrificing herself in order to give my family better care like small checkups or unexpected events. I am lucky enough to have this health care as many struggle to get checked or even get scared to be checked. In “free” clinics most need to miss a day of work and wait for hours to get checked. Even with this most don’t speak other languages other than english leaving most minorities unable to speak about their symptoms. All these occurrences make it difficult to get quality care. Mostly for those who are undocumented and don’t get health insurance based off their job. The primary reason I chose this topic was to hear more about my community and in the future give them the care they need. I want to be a family or trauma physician, Latino doctors are scarce and I want to care for my community.

The communities response

    I got one person consent to be part of this project. He is a Latino student in his early 20’s and lives in midtown. He is a fourth year undergrad student here in CalState LA but they also doing part time in an arena. In Cal State La they give medical that he doesn’t use. He states “There is a lot of stigma when going to the doctor with them giving medication when it is not needed. There is long wait time, with medical and bad experiences.” I asked him when was his last physical he replied “My last physical was 4 years ago”. I also asked him if he ever went to his appointed clinic when injured or sick he said no to both responses.

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Works Cited

Chan, Kitty S., et al. "Health Care Disparities in Race-Ethnic Minority Communities and Populations: Does the Availability of Health Care Providers Play a Role?" Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, vol. 7, no. 3, 2020, pp. 539–49. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/48707173. Accessed 15 Apr. 2024.

SOMMERS, BENJAMIN D., et al. “Beyond Health Insurance: Remaining Disparities in US Health Care in the Post-ACA Era.” The Milbank Quarterly, vol. 95, no. 1, 2017, pp. 43–69. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26300309. Accessed 17 Apr. 2024.