Research Blog- Academic Article

For this assignment we were meant to take a look at our local universities online database of articles and find one relevant to our subject. I found one called, Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. While one might look at the title and think it could be a bit dry, it was in fact rather interesting. See, it opened up a new lense for myself when considering why national healthcare is either a good or bad thing for the country and why it fails and succeeds in different parts of the world. I think when you consider national healthcare you, or at least I did, look at it at in ways of money. What pressure it would put on the low, middle, and high classes of our society and how much of a dent it would make in people's wallets comapred to the difference it would make. Of course I considered how a nationally funded system of health care could help people who are poor or homeless however, I had never considered how it might (and does already) affect different races and ethnicities.

This particular article was published in 2002 by American Medical Association Past President Alan Nelson, MD.  The article is a synopsis of a study they did on the topic of this article to present to Congress when considering the differences in care in the medical field due to racial and ethnical differences. These findings conclude that racial and enthnic disparies in healthcare exist even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions are comparable. As well as bias, stereotyping, prejudice, and clinical uncertainty on the part of the health care provider may be a huge contributing part to racial and ethnic disparities.

After reading the article I have mostly chosen to continue on the route I was beforehand because when considering national healthcare and if it is successful or not I don't think it is necissarily based on racial and ethnic disparities. If I did have to reframe a question I would ask; Does the majority race of a country with a successful national health care system truly determine whether or not a nationtionally funded health care system is successful or not?

Comments

  1. Seth DeeterJuly 14, 2019 at 11:00 PM

    Michelle,

    Interesting connection between race/ethnicity. I never would have considered that to be an aspect in healthcare. At least it shouldn't in my eyes. It all should be equal.

    ReplyDelete

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