The American healthcare system is in terrible shape, it's a pretty bad system for everyone, there's no doubt about it, and these people have absolutely hit the nail on the head as to why—oh wait no they haven't:
"Unfortunately, the healthcare system is built on a system of racism, and people don't want to listen to black women when they have complications and symptoms."
Ummm, okay, that's an interesting proposal, but...
Here are two things that can simultaneously be true:
- Doctors in America often tend to be extremely dismissive of their patients' symptoms. We've all seen it: We start telling the doctor about problems, concerns, aches, etc., and we can just see their eyes sort of glaze over, their mind kind of halfway shuts down, they kind of lightly nod and say, "Mmm. Mm." Then they just ignore everything you've said, prescribe you an antibiotic, and you're out the door. It happens a lot and under these circumstances you're virtually guaranteed to have serious medical conditions fall through the cracks and turn into something potentially deadly.
- At the same time, black women in America tend to suffer from significantly more severe and persistent health problems than white women. A whopping 80% of black women, for instance, are obese or overweight, compared to 64% of white women. That alone leads to markedly higher rates of diabetes, heart issues, and other secondary poor health outcomes. When you take those disparities, coupled with the U.S. medical industry's tendency to ignore complaints from patients, you're naturally going to see higher rates of major medical complications and death among this particular demographic.
The researchers themselves cite case studies that bear this out, such as that of 26-year-old Amber Rose Isaac, who died during an emergency C-section:
Issac, a black and Puerto Rican art psychology student at Concordia College, alerted several OBGYNs of her ailments.
However, according to McIntyre, her medical woes were shrugged off by doctors as "typical pregnancy symptoms."
Yep.
The problems with our healthcare system are comprehensive. Let's not pretend it's because the medical industry is "built on a system of racism," please.
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