By Amy Norton HealthDay Reporter
(HealthDay)
MONDAY, July 26, 2021 (HealthDay News) — People of color are consistently less likely to see medical specialists than white patients are, a new U.S. study finds, highlighting yet another disparity in the nation’s health care system.
Researchers found that compared with their white counterparts, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans had significantly fewer visits to doctors of various specialties — ranging from dermatology to orthopedics to general surgery.
They were not falling behind, however, in visits to primary care doctors, suggesting that specialist care is the issue.
While the study cannot pinpoint the reasons, there’s a likely a culprit, according to Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, one of the researchers.
“We think disparities in the ability to pay are the main driver here,” said Woolhandler, a professor at City University of New York at Hunter College.
It can be difficult, she said, to find a specialist who accepts uninsured patients or those on Medicaid (the federal insurance program for low-income Americans). And to a disproportionate degree, those patients are people of color.
Other times, Woolhandler said, people have insurance, but their plan requires out-of-pocket costs — such as deductibles and copays — that they cannot afford.
“You could define the system as structurally racist,” Woolhandler said.
She pointed to one finding that supports the importance of insurance coverage in access to specialty care:…
