Healthcare Inequities

Achieving Racial and Ethnic Equity in U.S. Health Care

The failure to ensure all Americans have reliable health coverage has paved the way to inequitable access to health care. Dramatic disparities in the quality of health care, meanwhile, are tolerated.

Bad Medicine: The Harm That Comes From Racism

Racial bias still affects many aspects of health care.

How medicine discriminates against non-white people and women

Many devices and treatments work less well for them.

How the pandemic’s unequal toll on people of color underlines US health inequities – and why solving them is so critical

From the earliest days of the pandemic, COVID-19 has wrought a far higher toll in communities of color than in the general population – thrusting the long-standing issue of health disparities in the U.S. into the attention of public health officials and the general public.

Pulling Back the Curtain on Race and Health Care

Dr. Rachel Hardeman hopes to inspire others to think bigger about the link, and in turn, solutions that protect both mothers and babies. It isn’t an easy mission.

Why We Need More Black Doctors—and How to Get There

Valerie Montgomery Rice, head of Morehouse School of Medicine, on training the next generation of physicians, and how to bring more Black men into the field.

'1619 Project' journalist lays bare why Black Americans 'live sicker and die quicker'

The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the racial inequities that plague American health care, with Black people dying of the disease at a rate more than double that of white people.

'Under the Skin' shows how COVID exposed racial disparities in healthcare

Life expectancy in the U.S. has always been different for people of color. And since the pandemic, that gap has widened. In her new book, Under the Skin, journalist Linda Villarosa uncovers the hidden toll of racism in America and how racial disparities impact all aspects of healthcare.

A Century After the Tulsa Massacre, Inequities in Medical Infrastructure Drive Health Gap

A century after the Tulsa Race Massacre, data show more deaths from heart and lung disease, diabetes and cancer, and lower life expectancies in the area with many Black Tulsans.

A new tool tracks health disparities in the U.S. — and highlights major data gaps

The impact of Covid-19 on individual health will long outlive the public emergency, and the tracker will aim to highlight the disparities in those long-term outcomes.

America's Health-Inequality Problem

When it comes to health disparities, the U.S. is outranked only by Portugal and Chile, a new study finds.

Being Black in America Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

Except in the case of a few specific ailments, such as nondiabetic kidney disease, scientists have largely failed to identify genetic differences that might explain racial health disparities. The major underlying causes, many scientists now believe, are social and environmental forces that affect African Americans more than most other groups.

Covid-19 has shone a light on racial disparities in health

Unpicking the causes of gaps in health outcomes requires better data than most countries currently collect.

Facing the uncomfortable possibility that healthcare is discriminatory

When Covid struck and BAME patients died disproportionately, students of health inequalities were not surprised

Genes Don't Cause Racial-Health Disparities, Society Does

Researchers are looking in the wrong place: White people live longer not because of their DNA but because of inequality.

Health and wealth divides in UK worsening despite ‘levelling up’ drive, report finds

People in the UK are getting “sicker and poorer”, with a gaping health and wealth divide between regions that is only getting worse, research has found.

Health rights for trans people vary widely around the globe – achieving trans bliss and joy will require equity, social respect and legal protections

Trans people’s right to exist has been challenged throughout time and across the world in multiple ways. Worldwide, trans people face disparities across many areas, including access to health care, legal support and economic security. Governments, global organizations and the legacies of colonialism also enact high levels of violence and stigma against them.

How Medical Jargon Can Make COVID Health Disparities Even Worse

Take for example, the common medical guidance that anyone who thinks they might have COVID-19 should call a doctor. "Translated incorrectly," Chandrashekar says, "this could be interpreted as 'Don't go to the emergency room until you call your doctor — even if you have symptoms of severe illness.' " And that could, in some cases, be a fatal mistake.

How to Fix the Health Gap Between Black and White America

The consensus among health and policy experts at the events is that Americans of color still experience the impact today of decades of discriminatory policies, from redlining to poor transportation planning. Some of the basic foundations of health—safe housing conditions, access to fresh, affordable food, and quality health care—remain elusive to many communities.

In Rural America, Covid Hits Black and Hispanic People Hardest

At the peak of the Omicron wave, Covid killed Black Americans in rural areas at a rate roughly 34 percent higher than it did white people.

Is racism making people sick?

How the stress of discrimination is widening the racial health gap.

Pain in Children is Often Ignored. For Children of Color, It’s Even Worse

Racial differences in medical care are part of a theme experts are seeing “over and over” again.

Queer Women Are More Unhealthy Than Straight Women. This Is Why

Studies have pointed to LGBTQ women being at higher risk for cancer, type 2 diabetes and mental health issues. But the reasons are complicated.

Race, History, and the Science of Health Inequities

We have long known what causes racial health gaps. They are a product of the world around us. It is an unfortunate truth that our society is structured in a way that can deny minority populations, particularly black Americans, access to the resources that generate health.

Racial Inequities Persist in Health Care Despite Expanded Insurance

The pandemic has highlighted longstanding inequities, taking a greater toll on Black and Hispanic communities. An editorial in the journal noted that the health care system has a long history of racism. Hospitals only desegregated when they were threatened with the loss of federal funds from the Medicaid and Medicare programs, which were enacted in 1966.

Racism leads to troubled sleep — and it’s putting Black Americans’ heart health at risk

“A large proportion of the disparities in sleep are really due to social and environmental factors” such as noise pollution, said Mercedes Carnethon, vice chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine and an expert on racial disparities in cardiovascular disease.

Rich nation, unequal health care: Why a charity that's helped Haiti is aiding the U.S.

Early on in the pandemic, PIH began working with partners in various U.S. communities, including Newark, N.J., Fulton County, Ga., the Navajo Nation and the state of Massachusetts, to train contact tracers and set up other public health interventions for America's most vulnerable. Low-income communities of color have been disproportionately hard hit throughout the pandemic — and that's made long-standing racial and ethnic health disparities glaringly obvious.

South L.A. deserves better healthcare access. Fair Medi-Cal payments can help

In community listening sessions, my colleagues have heard statements like: Is the government going to give us a jab in the arm and then walk away, leaving us with all these untreated illnesses? “All these untreated illnesses” are the epidemic of untreated diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and cancer that devastates majority Black and brown communities.

The Impact of Disparities on Children’s Health

Differences in access to medical care and treatment contribute to conditions that disproportionately hurt minority children.

The Largest Health Disparity We Don’t Talk About

Americans with serious mental illnesses die 15 to 30 years earlier than those without.

The Richest Americans Live 10 Years Longer than the Poorest

Money may not buy you happiness, but it may help buy you health, and ultimately a longer life. Researchers analyzing data on income disparities and health outcomes in the U.S. found that health gaps between the rich and poor are widening, and that’s translating to bigger differences in how long people live.

The US medical system is still haunted by slavery

Medicine’s dark history helps explain why black mothers are dying at alarming rates.

What causes cancer disparities?

Systemic and historical inequities in the U.S. lead to worst outcomes when it comes to cancer.

Why We Educate for Equity at Medical School

Our goal, and that of every medical school, is to recruit a diverse class of talented medical students in a holistic fashion and educate them to improve the health of their patients and communities.

‘Health equity tourists’: How white scholars are colonizing research on health disparities

Fueled by the massive health disparities exposed by the coronavirus pandemic and the racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd, health equity research is now in vogue.

Racism poses public health threat to millions worldwide, finds report

Discrimination has ‘profound’ effect on health of disadvantaged people, says Lancet review.

6 Celebrities Who Have Spoken Out About Black Maternal Health

From Beyoncé and Serena Williams to Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama, celebrities are using their platforms to call attention to the black maternal mortality crisis.

6 Key Health Disparities Between Blacks and Whites

The Congressional Black Caucus Health Braintrust finds in a new report that blacks fare worse than whites on a range of health indicators.