Week 5 homework

Re: Week 5 homework

by Christine Dehlendorf -
Number of replies: 0

Thank you, Helen, for bringing up transgender health as an important area in which to consider health disparities and health care disparities. I agree with you there are both structural and interpersonal factors at play, and also that they interact with each other - e.g. the structure of not having preferred name and gender identity identified in the health record can interact with a physician workforce that has implicit bias and discomfort with caring for transgender individuals. Also, the issue of health insurance is complicated here - while this is not generally considered as health CARE disparities, in this case what we are talking about is the explicit exclusion of insurance coverage for care needed by the group being discriminated against  - so while some people may in theory have insurance, they don't for the care they need. I also agree in general that a major structural issue is lack of awareness and knowledge on the part of physicians.