Health Care Disparities in LGBTQ
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Ways to Close the Health Care Disparities Gap in the LGBTQ Community
At some point in our lives, we will all need medical care, but unfortunately, many of us take these services for granted. The unfortunate reality, however, is that today's world does not provide equitable access to medical counsel and treatment for all (T Hamler, 2022). The LGBTQ community faces many health inequalities; as a result, the LGBT community is expected to suffer from certain diseases, receive subpar medical care, and age prematurely compared to their heterosexual counterparts.
There are several reasons why LGBT persons are uninsured. First, LGBT people are more likely to be fired, quit their jobs, or never be hired because of continuous discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Ninety-seven percent of transgender persons say they have experienced workplace discrimination due to their gender identity or presentation, according to a poll conducted by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality (Krehely, 2022). These employment breaks also lead to insurance coverage gaps because most people obtain medical care through their employers. Research shows that the uninsured prevalence for same-sex and distinct-sex unmarried couples would reduce by as much as 43% if all companies gave domestic partner insurance, thereby closing this health inequality gap. Insurance coverage for this population would be a huge step in the right direction toward getting people treated before their conditions become unmanageable or incurable.
To address the disparities in health between the LGBT community and the general population, the United States Department of Health and Human Services needs to establish an Office of LGBT Health. In order to coordinate a cohesive, data-driven response to LGBT health inequities, this office would be the principal point of contact within HHS. Specifically, the office should first request that questions about gender identity and sexual orientation be included in any federally funded health study that collects demographic data on categories including age, sex, ethnicity, primary language, race, and socioeconomic status (Krehely, 2022). More importantly, the Human and Health Services Department should bring together a council of internal and external experts to advise the department's staff on how to best implement new survey questions about gender identity and sexual orientation.
The lack of education and training information on LGBT problems for healthcare students and professionals calls for immediate action by the Department of Health and Human Services to prioritize cultural competence training for medical and nursing students and other related professionals. To fulfill its mission, the HHS must mandate that all funded schools include LGBT cultural competence in their curricula. The federal government's HHS division should also mandate that all federally funded healthcare facilities give their staff LGBT cultural competency training (Krehely, 2022). Beyond a short-term emphasis on data collection and cultural competence training, the Office of LGBT Health at HHS needs a comprehensive long-term strategy to address the LGBT health difficulties identified in this research. Furthermore, the success of this plan depends heavily on input from the LGBT community.
Finally, given the disproportionate number of people in the LGBT community who do not have health insurance, current actions in Congress to expand coverage to more Americans would help alleviate some of the injustices they endure. The health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people was addressed in the House bill through measures like expanding the scope of "disparities populations" to include them. It will also require cooperation between the House and Senate leadership to guarantee these provisions are included in the final bill.
References
Krehely, J. (2022). How to Close the LGBT Health Disparities Gap. Center for American Progress. Retrieved 19 October 2022, from https://www.americanprogress.org/article/how-to-close-the-lgbt-health-disparities-gap/.
T Hamler, S. (2022). Closing the gap on health disparities in the LGBTQ community. Summahealth.org. Retrieved 19 October 2022, from https://www.summahealth.org/flourish/entries/2021/05/closing-the-gap-on-health-disparities-in-the-lgbtq-community.