Worldwide, the right to health is considered universal. Health care is described as the right and duty of the state. However, this is not the case in many nations as they are crossed by frames of exclusion and violation of the fundamental human rights, especially against the minority groups like Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgender (LGBT). As a result, there are LGBT health disparities that hinder adequate accessibility of healthcare services. Usually, the health disparity faced by LGBTQ individuals is significantly linked to the societal stigma, denial of the state, and civil rights, as well as discrimination. Lack of healthcare access leads to poor health outcomes.
Discrimination
For many decades, the LGBTQ community has faced a lot of discrimination and oppression in society. Often, they face bias treatment in the hand of the healthcare providers. Due to the sexual identity and gender orientation of this minority group, LGBTQ people face harassment, humiliation, and even being turned away from the care facilities without receiving the treatments. Doctors and health providers tend to use abusive and harsh language when treating LGBTQ patients. Besides, some completely refuse to attend to the patients based on their sexual orientation.
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These types of behaviors from the practitioners are the majority of the major reasons for the LGBTQ individuals refuse to visit healthcare facilities, even in times of need. Discrimination has highly contributed to the growing LGBTQ people suffering from acute, chronic, and other deadly diseases due to a lack of preventive care and prompt acute care treatment Macapagal, Bhatia, & Greene, 2016). Typically, discrimination of the LGBTQ people in healthcare settings endangers their lives. For instance, sometimes, HIV patients are often denied access to their HIV medication when they disclose to their doctors that they had sex with partners of the same gender. The majority choose to avoid bias by keeping critical and personal information such as gender identity and sexual orientation. The bad and unpleasant treatment against the LGBTQ from the practitioners may be influenced by the norms and values of the community. Sharing such information with discriminating professionals can affect the quality of services provided. The tension and fear between LGBTQ patients and the practitioners hinder the development of an open and comfortable relationship.
Stigmatization
LGBTQ individuals face sexual stigma due to their beliefs, identities, or behaviors, which tend to be contrary to heterosexual individuals. Shame manifests itself in various forms. Individuals may face the enacted sexual stigma. It involves the act of violence or discrimination from other people in society ( Raifman, 2018) . In rare cases, people who tend to associate with the group are also stigmatized, forcing them to cut ties with them. This form of stigmatization may contribute to their fear of seeking medical services.
Another form of stigma faced by the LGBTQ group is the Felt sexual stigma. It comprises the apprehensiveness that the LGBTQ people get for being labeled as sexual stigma due to social views and stereotypes (Macapagal et al., 2016). The final type of stigma is internalized sexual stigma, which becomes a part of the person. Negative actions and even offensive remarks often characterize it. Therefore, they start believing in the negative things and views held against them as minorities. The presence of stigmatization makes LGBTQ people uncomfortable to even seek for healthcare assistance.
Generally, people who belong to the LGBTQ group are minorities. This makes them vulnerable to discrimination and lack of adequate services. Being a unique group of people, it makes it easy for people to discriminate against them. Often, minorities are considered as they have fewer rights to healthcare services as compared to others. Mostly, they are considered outcasts in some communities. The communal ideology and stereotype against the minority determine how they are treated in the community as a whole. Sometimes, gay people receive stigmatization from fellow patients who refuse to sit or wait in the same room, thus making them feel unwanted.
Lack of Insurance Coverage
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased the health coverage for the minorities in the societies, including the LGBTQ group. However, some of these facilities still fail to cover these people due to the uncertainty of gay people securing a job that would help in paying for the insurance. Usually, LGBTQ people experience bias at the workplace, including being denied opportunities and being treated differently from others. Joblessness implies that one cannot afford to settle their bills, including insurance. Therefore, they are excluded from the health insurance plans and hinder their access to health healthcare services due to a lack of affordable cover.
Discrimination, violence, and stigmatizations are barriers that discourage LGBTQ individuals from seeking the necessary healthcare services for their wellbeing. The prevalence of diseases like breast cancer tends to be high among lesbians and transgender women due to a lack of adequate services or even failing to seek early interventions due to fear of being discriminated against and treated with violence. Also, bias against the group has dramatically pushed them to engage in immoral activities such as drug abuse, alcohol, and even developing suicidal thoughts due to rejection, which results in depression ( Raifman, 2018) .
The solution to LGBTQ health Access Barriers
As the level of the health disparity among the LGBTQ people continues to rise due to health barriers, their health outcome continues to deteriorate. Therefore, it is necessary for the government and the health sector, and the American community as a whole to act fast and develop strategies to ease the problem. One strategy to reduce disparity in healthcare is through training and educating healthcare professionals and students on LGBTQ issues. Sometimes, practitioners lack adequate information on the: LGBTQ group to enable them to perform their tasks with cultural competence. Awareness of the impact of discrimination, violence, and stigma on the LGBTQ people can help reduce the adverse experience.
A more strict law should be established to regulate the behaviors of the practitioners. LGBTQ patients should be able to launch complaints in the court of law whenever their rights are violated and treated with disrespect ( Bristowe et al., 2018) . Again, all bias personnel should be eradicated from the public healthcare facilities to allow dedicated and fair personnel to serve citizens without discrimination
Nationally, lawmakers can vote for the Equity Act that would prevent discrimination against people on the basis of gender or even sexual orientation. The development of non-discriminatory policies at the state level would help in eliminating discrimination against LGBTQ individuals. For instance, in the case of Massachusetts, the support for Healthy Youth Act would be essential in making sex education evidence-based and including information on how the LGBTQ individuals would adequately protect their health and themselves in general. Failure to including LGBTQ in sex education plays a critical role in them not being acknowledged as a part of society and with the same rights as anyone else.
Conclusion
In the United States, health disparities among various groups are the primary cause of poor health outcomes. Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, and Transgender (LGBT) is one of the minority groups that are greatly affected by various health-related barriers. Often. They experience discrimination, violence, criticism, and even stigmatization from healthcare practitioners. In some cases, they are turned down where practitioners refuse to attend to them based on sexual orientation and gender identity. These behaviors result in a bad experience that causes them to defect seeking medical services even when they need them. Cooperation between the healthcare department, together with the state and national government, can help resolve the barriers and promote quality healthcare services among the LGBTQ individuals. Policies are essential in stimulating new law on ensuring equality and fair treatment of patients despite their gender and sexual orientation.
References
Bristowe, K., Hodson, M., Wee, B., Almack, K., Johnson, K., Daveson, B. A., & Harding, R. (2018). Recommendations to reduce inequalities for LGBT people facing advanced illness: ACCESSCare national qualitative interview study. Palliative medicine , 32 (1), 23-35.
Macapagal, K., Bhatia, R., & Greene, G. J. (2016). Differences in healthcare access, use, and experiences within a community sample of racially diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning emerging adults. LGBT health , 3 (6), 434-442.
Raifman, J. (2018). Sanctioned stigma in health care settings and harm to LGBT youth. JAMA pediatrics , 172 (8), 713-714.
