COLUMBUS, Ohio — A newly released survey is shining light on some of the health care disparities that Black women here in Ohio say they are facing firsthand. The survey got input from 500 women of color who live in Ohio’s big cities. Among the findings, more than half of the participants say they do not believe their health concerns are often listened to. While, nearly half of them say they feel discriminated against because of their race.
“I’m just glad to be able to say that I’m alive today. I do have scars on my scars,” said Octavia Clay, Pastor, New fellowship Baptist Church.
Clay has had various health issues over the past two years. After going in for routine back surgery, she ended up in a coma for three months. She claims it is because of missteps her doctor at the time had made.
“While I was in the coma,” Clay said, “I needed a lung transplant, but was denied.”
Clay says doctors told her family to prepare for her demise, but they pushed it back, making sure they did everything they could to help her get better. Clay was among several advocates at the Statehouse on Thursday afternoon in the wake of results from a survey by the CEO Project focused on the health care disparities that Black women face.
“We really wanted to hear from directly impacted people around what were the issues they were facing to access health care,” said Tami Lunan, care economy organizing director at Ohio Organizing Collaborative.
The survey looked at several factors, including access to medical providers and primary care, health insurance affordability, patient-provider relationships and experiences with discrimination in a health care setting. Among its findings, nearly 56% of the 500 respondents experienced stress due to medical debt.
“The high cost of health care also stood out as a major concern for black women surveyed in the report,” said Kathryn Poe, who is a researcher at Policy Matters Ohio. “The findings showed that health insurance coverage for those surveyed was similar to the general population, with many respondents likely Medicaid or Medicare respondents because of age distribution. But despite these high levels of coverage, half of the respondents reported experiencing stress due to medical debt.”
“What we’re hoping that comes out of the survey are policy initiatives that we’ll be lifting up through the budget and ongoing," said Tami Lunan, the care economy organizing director at the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. “What we know is that if black women are healthy, that means black families are healthy.”
The survey also found 40% of respondents had concerns about finding a medical provider they felt comfortable visiting, and nearly 47% to the respondents also reported that they felt discriminated against based on their race when dealing with the health care system. However, Clay says it’s important that doctors look at patients for who they are, and not the color of their skin, and is asking lawmakers to lend a hand at the Statehouse to look into more statewide policies to address these ongoing issues in Ohio.
“I want to see some policies implemented that address the unfairness of of being financially helped in the health care field," Clay said.