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Racial inequality in health care persists in the United States
despite laws against racial discrimination in large part because the
laws in the United States are inadequate for addressing issues of
institutional racial discrimination. The US legal system has had
particular difficulty addressing issues of racial discrimination that
result from individuals acting on biases and stereotypes and
institutions that implement policies and practices that have a racial
impact. Furthermore, the legal system requires individuals to be aware
that the provider or institution has discriminated against them and that
they have been injured by the provider. Two conditions that are highly
unlikely in racial discrimination in health care. Finally, the health
care system, through managed care, has actually built in incentives
which may encourage "unthinking" discrimination.
"It might be that civil rights laws often go unenforced; it
might be that current inequities spring from past prejudice and long
standing economic differences that are not entirely reachable by
law; or it might be that the law sometimes fails to reflect, and
consequently fails to correct, the barriers faced by people of
color." Derrick Bell
In the case of health care discrimination, the laws do not address
the current barriers faced by minorities; and the executive branch, the
legislatures and the courts are singularly reluctant to hold health care
institutions and providers responsible for institutional racism. |
