Your
Health- Access to Care
Information
for Our Community
By
Joanna Sickler
Lesbians’
difficulty accessing the healthcare system cannot be traced to
any one source. Instead it is a number a factors acting together
creating barriers to quality health care. In order to solve the
problem, providers need to receive education and training to understand
the healthcare concerns and needs of the lesbian population.
Spousal benefits need to be made available to lesbians in order
to make healthcare financially accessible. Additionally, federal
programs need to acknowledge that women’s health extends beyond
reproductive needs and tailor program that reach out to minority
groups such as lesbians.
Talking
Points:
- Lesbians
face structural, financial, personal, and cultural barriers
when attempting to access health care services, which results
in lowering the quality of care that they receive.1
- Many
groups encounter barriers when trying access the healthcare
system. Race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability,
and sexual minorities have all been marginalized and are often
“hidden.” This means that lesbians who also identify with
other marginalized groups such as being African American face
even greater barriers when trying to access the healthcare system.2
Many healthcare providers have not been educated about
the health issues that face the lesbian community and have not
been trained to take personal histories.3,4
This lack of knowledge is compounded by lesbians’
fears of experiencing discrimination from the healthcare system,
which prevents them from coming out to and being honest with
their physician.5
- The
barriers that lesbians face when accessing the healthcare system
act as a deterrent that precludes them from seeking preventative
care, care for acute health conditions, or exacerbated chronic
conditions.6
- There
are many structural barriers in place that prevent lesbians
from accessing the healthcare system including a lack of insurance.
Lesbians are less likely than heterosexual women to be insured
which is generally attributed to their inability to access to
spousal benefits.7 Additionally,
federal health services tend to focus on reproductive care and
as a result most lesbians are not included.8
- Lesbian
youth also experience additional barriers to accessing care
because adolescents are the most under or uninsured group.
This in addition to the fear of coming-out and losing confidentiality,
makes lesbian youth hesitant to access the health care system.9
1Millman,
M. Access to Health Care in America. National Academy
Press, Washington, D.C, 1993.
2
Healthy People 2010, p 28
3
Diamant, A.L.; Schuster, M.A.; McGuigan, K.; and Lever, J. Implications
of taking a sexual history. Archives of Internal Medicine
159:2730-6, 1999.
4
Harrison, A.E. Primary care of lesbian and gay patients: Educating
ourselves and our students. Family Medicine 28(1), 57-58,
1996.
5
American college of Preventive Medicine. 1998 National Prevention
in Primary Care Study. Washington, DC: American College of Preventive
Medicine, 1998.
6
Healthy People, 2010, 145-146
7
Diamant, A.L.; Wold, C.; Spritzer, K.; and Gelberg, L. Health
behaviors, health status and access to and use of health acre:
A Population-based study of lesbian, bisexual and heterosexual
women. Archives of Family Medicine 9(10): 1043-1051, 2000.
8Healthy
People 2010, 51.
9
Ryan C., and Futterman, D. Lesbian and Gay Youth: Care and
Counseling. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1998.
