UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF RACISM IN HEALTHCARE AND HOW IT IS AFFECTING AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN (PART 2)

Healthcare is the most sacred part of every person’s life and should be accessible. However, the experience for many is that “you either got it or you don’t”. A way to help “get it”[Healthcare] is through workplace insurance, however, this is not accessible to many. This is especially the case for minority communities who cannot afford insurance plans, if and when offered by their employers, or other alternatives for accessing affordable health care. The terms “affordable and health care” are a paradox, for African American women. This is because of a system that was built to benefit one race but truly affects others. These particular guidelines in place make it very difficult to obtain coverage for basic needs, rendering Black women to make a decision that may affect her life or the family she is trying to create. The purpose of this session is to report on exploratory research using 10 published articles regarding African American women’s experience with the health care system. Research regarding their experience varies from personal stories to data surrounding similar death stories. Based on our initial exploration, there appears to be implicit and explicit bias against African American women, especially in prenatal and post-partum care. The birth-death rate for African women is growing at an alarming rate and people of color want to understand why. To support that statement there is data from the CDC stating that the pregnancy-related mortality ratio of African American women older than 30 was four to five times higher than it was for white women (CDC, 2019). Using data from Cobb and Douglas Public Health in the suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, is confirming the fact that insurance is a huge problem for receiving care. The connection leads to the problems many African Americans go through just to receive basic care with the high mortality death rate of pregnant African American women as an example