I’m a white man and I promise you that it’s no protection from our shitty medical system. My adult life has been a misery for at least 15 of the past 20 years because of multiple rushed and incorrect diagnoses. There are literally thousands of conditions that the system is incapable of recognizing because they involve multiple specialties, fit between specialties, or are frequently referred to the wrong specialist who won’t look for causes outside their specialty.
A lot of it comes down to the limited amount of time Doctors get with the patient. They have to come up with a conclusion in 10-15 minutes, then move on, then it’s usually several months before they see the patient again.
I’m not disputing that, but it’s fairly well documented in many articles that the health care system has implicit bias against black people and women, it’s not just something I’m pulling out of my ass here. So you need to consider that if you feel you’re getting poor care as a white man (I’m a white man, too, for the record), black people, women, and especially black women, are getting it far worse.
I didn’t claim otherwise, but your understanding of statistics is a little wonky. You can’t extrapolate from “white men” to my individual experience and say that minorities are getting it far worse. There are plenty of lucky minority members that never get a bad diagnosis in their life, and plenty of unlucky white men that are plagued by them.
Ever had a sinus headache that lated a real long time? I’m in my 11th year of one nonstop headache, and I still don’t know why the fuck it’s happening - even after seeing over a dozen specialists all referring me elsewhere after their one or two guesses didn’t pan out. Every new referral takes 3-6 months for a first visit.
This is my third such issue. I researched and diagnosed the second issue on my own and found out that my exact misdiagnoses was actually known to be incredibly common, but institutional inertia and specialist blindspots meant that it wasn’t being widely corrected despite being known for over 15 years.
So no, being a white man does not offer protection from our shitty healthcare system. Every societal flaw has it’s victims, and it’s almost always true that minorities and the disenfranchised get it worse. That’s no reason to disregard the experiences of non-minorities - many of whom will have it just as bad individually.
I’m a white man and I promise you that it’s no protection from our shitty medical system. My adult life has been a misery for at least 15 of the past 20 years because of multiple rushed and incorrect diagnoses. There are literally thousands of conditions that the system is incapable of recognizing because they involve multiple specialties, fit between specialties, or are frequently referred to the wrong specialist who won’t look for causes outside their specialty.
A lot of it comes down to the limited amount of time Doctors get with the patient. They have to come up with a conclusion in 10-15 minutes, then move on, then it’s usually several months before they see the patient again.
I’m not disputing that, but it’s fairly well documented in many articles that the health care system has implicit bias against black people and women, it’s not just something I’m pulling out of my ass here. So you need to consider that if you feel you’re getting poor care as a white man (I’m a white man, too, for the record), black people, women, and especially black women, are getting it far worse.
I didn’t claim otherwise, but your understanding of statistics is a little wonky. You can’t extrapolate from “white men” to my individual experience and say that minorities are getting it far worse. There are plenty of lucky minority members that never get a bad diagnosis in their life, and plenty of unlucky white men that are plagued by them.
Ever had a sinus headache that lated a real long time? I’m in my 11th year of one nonstop headache, and I still don’t know why the fuck it’s happening - even after seeing over a dozen specialists all referring me elsewhere after their one or two guesses didn’t pan out. Every new referral takes 3-6 months for a first visit.
This is my third such issue. I researched and diagnosed the second issue on my own and found out that my exact misdiagnoses was actually known to be incredibly common, but institutional inertia and specialist blindspots meant that it wasn’t being widely corrected despite being known for over 15 years.
So no, being a white man does not offer protection from our shitty healthcare system. Every societal flaw has it’s victims, and it’s almost always true that minorities and the disenfranchised get it worse. That’s no reason to disregard the experiences of non-minorities - many of whom will have it just as bad individually.