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When looking at our healthcare system, it is not a mystery that women are underrepresented and often ignored by doctors and healthcare practitioners. For decades women have been ignored, turned away, or have been told their pain is miniscule. Women are disproportionately affected by the overarching grievances with the healthcare system, and there are severe consequences with the lack of care. I chose this topic because as someone who has personally dealt with the healthcare system firsthand, I know how frustrating it can be for anyone, particularly women, to get their needs met and to be taken seriously. Throughout the class, we have discussed the healthcare system in great detail, and every woman in the room has had their own personal hardship in relation to the medical system. This is a systemic issue that needs to be solved. Due to the disparities within the health system, women deal with issues such as primary care, reproductive health, and insufficient insurance coverage, all which make advocating for themselves more frustrating and complicated.

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At first glance of the health system, it is important to look at patients’ experiences with overall primary care, and the disparities that may arise in this facet. Women as a whole tend to be met with skepticism by their doctors, often feeling rejected, ignored, belittled or blamed for their condition. There is also a lack of comprehension for their condition, and they are usually assigned a psychological explanation instead of a medical one.  As a consequence, women work harder to make their symptoms socially visible and appear real when they do go to the doctors, and often try to balance the line between healthy and sick, strong and weak, or smart and disarranged to make sure they fit into the normative biomedical model of illness (Werner & Malterud, 2003). It’s no surprise that women feel this to be necessary, as women who present with the same conditions as their male counterparts may not receive the same evidence-based care (Paulsen, 2020). Women are also less likely to be evaluated or treated for cardiovascular disease, which is the number one cause of death in America (Vezzani et al., 2016). There is also a higher mortality rate for women in an ICU environment. All things considered; it is unsurprising that women lack the desire to go to the doctors. There is an overall report of women feeling judged or questioned by doctors and to be diagnosed with an imaginary illness (Werner & Malterud, 2003). However, lack of effective care only touches the surface of reasons why women do not seek healthcare.

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Gender Disparities in Healthcare | Cedars-Sinai

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Further examining the disparities in healthcare, we must look at health insurance disparities. Inadequate health insurance coverage is one of the largest barriers to health care access, which heavily contributes to unequal distribution of medical assistance. When adults are uninsured, the out-of-pocket costs may keep them from receiving preventative services for chronic conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Additionally, children who do not receive insurance coverage are less likely to receive appropriate treatment for things like asthma, or critical preventive services like dental care, immunizations or well-child visits to make sure development is on track (U.S Department of Health and Human Services). In 2022, twenty-six million people, roughly seven-point nine percent of the population, were without health insurance (US Census Bureau). This extreme lack of coverage can result in weak connections to the health care system and poor access to health services, as well as an overwhelming lack of lower quality care. Some patients may even have to leave appointments because they have no insurance coverage (Morales-Alemán et al., 2019). Looking at racial disparities, non-Hispanic blacks are twice as likely to be uninsured, and Hispanics are three times as likely to be uninsured in comparison to whites (Kirby & Kaneda, 2010). Moreover, the uninsured are more frequently hospitalized for conditions that are potentially avoidable due to their lack of routine visits caused by costs. On account of this, Americans tend to spend approximately twelve years of their lives without insurance, and four-point eight of these years are spent in a less-healthy state. The sources of health insurance coverage are so diverse, intricate, and often disorganized, that any of a number of frequent life course events might easily result in an individual "falling through the cracks" of the healthcare system.

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As we look at intersectionality as a bigger piece, the reproductive care system needs to be examined. Reproductive health care services are among the most common health care needs of women of reproductive age, and yet have the biggest disparities across the healthcare system. There are several barriers to accessing reproductive care as a woman. Some of these barriers are cost or lack of insurance, difficulty obtaining an appointment or reaching a clinic, not having a regular physician, and fear of lack of confidentiality of service (Adler et al., 2023). All of these barriers in turn can be detrimental to health outcomes. Although all women are experiencing barriers to reproductive care, especially in the present day, non-Hispanic black women and Hispanic women experience significantly more disparity than non-Hispanic white women. As a whole, Latina women are disproportionately affected by sexual health disparities, a study finding that Hispanic women living with diagnosed HIV infections were around twice the number of non-Hispanic young white women (Morales-Alemán, 2019). Furthermore, non-Hispanic black women and Hispanic black women had their prenatal care delayed twice the time as white women, and black women are four times more likely than white women to die from complications of pregnancy (Anachebe & Sutton, 2003). Title X services may try to patch some of these disparities as low-income women are eligible for their services, however there are still behavioral, cultural, and structural barriers that hinder black women and other minority groups from using their services. Overall, non-Hispanic black women and Hispanic women do not receive enough timely, routine, and adequate preventative health care services.

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Observing the theories of gender, it is important to note the structural functionalism theory when looking at the healthcare system. From the perspective of structural functionalism, society is kept in balance through the function of a society’s component parts. Examining the health system, it is clear that there is a lack of balance due to the disparities amongst women and men, as well as women of different races and ethnicities. Although the health system’s manifest function is to help everyone equally, there is a latent function that only non-Hispanic white men and those with insurance coverage may receive the best quality care. It is quite evident that the way in which the health system is operating is leading to heavy dysfunction amongst society, disrupting the social system as a whole.

Ultimately, women are disproportionately affected by the disparities in the healthcare system and lack the access they need to live healthy and successful lives. Instead of receiving the quality care that is deserved, women are often ignored, questioned, judged or turned away with no help regarding illnesses. As someone with heavy experience in the healthcare system, I wanted to further highlight these disparities so that this systemic issue can continue to be scrutinized. Issues with primary care, insufficient insurance coverage, and reproductive care are at the forefront of these inconsistencies and should be resolved so women can receive the effective care they need.

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Adler, Aliza et al. “Changes in the Frequency and Type of Barriers to Reproductive Health Care between 2017 and 2021.” JAMA Network Open 6.4 (2023): n. pag. Web.

Anachebe, Ngozi F., and Madeline Y. Sutton. “Racial Disparities in Reproductive Health Outcomes.” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 188.4 (2003): n. pag. Web.

Brown, E. Richard, et al. “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Access to Health Insurance and Health Care.” eScholarship, University of California. 16 Jan. 2009. Web. 06 May 2024.

“FASTSTATS - Leading Causes of Death.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 Jan. 2024. Web. 06 May 2024.

Keisler-Starkey, Katherine. “Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2022.” Census.gov. 14 Sept. 2023. Web. 06 May 2024.

Kirby, James B., and Toshiko Kaneda. “Unhealthy and Uninsured: Exploring Racial Differences in Health and Health Insurance Coverage Using a Life Table Approach.” Demography 47.4 (2010): 1035–1051. Web.

Morales-Alemán, Mercedes M., Gwendolyn Ferreti, and Isabel C. Scarinci. “‘I Don’t like Being Stereotyped, I Decided I Was Never Going Back to the Doctor’: Sexual Healthcare Access among Young Latina Women in Alabama - Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health.” SpringerLink. Springer US, 18 Sept. 2019. Web. 06 May 2024.

Paulsen, Emily. “Recognizing, Addressing Unintended Gender Bias in Patient Care.” Duke Health Referring Physicians. 2024. Web. 06 May 2024.

US Department of Health and Human Services. “Access to Health Services.” Access to Health Services - Healthy People 2030. 2024. Web. 06 May 2024.

Valentine, Catherine G., Joan Z. Spade, and Mary Nell Trautner. The Kaleidoscope of Gender: Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc., 2020. Print.

Vezzani, Antonella, Caterina Manca, and Caterina ErmioItal J Gender-Specific Med 2022; 8(2): online ahead of print. “Gender Disparities in the Intensive Care Unit: Journal of Sex- and Gender-Specific Medicine - Official Journal of the International Society of Gender Medicine.” Journal of Sex- and Gender-Specific Medicine. 1 Jan. 2016. Web. 06 May 2024.

Werner, Anne, and Kirsti Malterud. “It Is Hard Work Behaving as a Credible Patient: Encounters between Women with Chronic Pain and Their Doctors.” Social Science &amp; Medicine 57.8 (2003): 1409–1419. Web.