Will medical care for blacks really collapse now that affirmative action is gone?

There certainly has been a lot of hysteria from the left since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action.  The very idea that students will be considered for admission to elite schools based on the content of their character, rather than the color of their skin, has led to a truly incredible amount of doomsaying.

Colleges are plotting how to get around the ruling.  The president has weighed in, encouraging colleges to continue to use race as a yardstick for measuring applicants.  Michelle Obama, a woman who has complained about the stigma of affirmative action, reverses gears to lament that future generations of black students will be able to attend college without this stigma.  It would be laughable were it not for the negative message that only the color of their skin is a significant factor in the education of young black people.

Now, Bloomberg has come out with the most ridiculous assumption of all, that affirmative action will destroy health care for black patients.  An individual named Lisa Jarvis claims that, without affirmative action, the healthcare community will not be sufficiently diverse, and this lack of diversity will harm black patients.  It’s true that blacks often have poorer health than whites.  Blacks suffer disproportionately from prostate cancer, kidney disease, and hypertension.  Black women have higher mortality rates during pregnancy.  However, Ms. Jarvis chooses to believe that these unfortunate occurrences can be addressed by having more black health care workers, rather than improving the medical profession as a whole.

Image: Doctor by DCStudio.

Doctors tend to gaslight their patients.  It doesn’t matter what race the doctor is, or the patient, if the doctor dismisses the patient’s complaints.

Ms. Jarvis seems to think black doctors listen better to black patients.  She cites a study that shows self-reported outcomes by black patients.  While it may be nice for a black person to talk to a black doctor, and the patient may be happier with how the doctor listened to them, that is not really a measurement of a positive health outcome.  A patient may love his doctor because he seems kind and empathetic, and the doctor may be doing a terrible job because he’s not really considering what is wrong or how to help the patient.

Blacks might also have negative health outcomes because of higher rates of obesity, unhealthy lifestyle choices, and socioeconomic factors such as poverty and lack of education.  It’s possible that a black patient might trust a black doctor more and follow the doctor’s advice, whereas he wouldn’t trust a white doctor or comply with a white doctor’s advice.  It’s also possible that a black patient might be given the brush-off by a black doctor just as easily as by a white doctor.

Medicine is like any other profession.  The color of the professional’s skin, whether it’s your car mechanic or your child’s teacher or your doctor, is not relevant to his training, code of ethics, or desire to do a good job for you.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of The Pardon, a story of forgiveness based on the thief on the cross in the Bible.