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A study released by the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine found that minorities, especially Latinos, have longer wait times obtaining medical care than whites. On average, the wait time is 25% longer than whites at 105 minutes.
While Latinos and whites spend the same time in face-to-face interaction with their doctors, they do have an average of 10 minutes longer to travel to their appointments.
“It could be bias, conscious or unconscious, on the part of providers, or other staff that work at the site where they’re receiving care,” said Alexander Green, associate director of the disparities solution center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Wait times are something very subjective, in that it could be any number of reasons it might seem justified in the mind of a provider or a staff member to have this person waiting a little bit longer: ‘I know this person better and I’ll squeeze them in first,’ or being concerned the visit is going to take longer.”
Over the years, there has been a growing interest in examining which factors affect the differences in the health of white people and minorities. Some of these include the “social determinants of health” — lifestyle factors as basic as where a person is born and who his or her parents are, and how wealthy the family is.
By The Numbers
25.1
percent
of Latinos remain without health insurance coverage
