HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — One of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s initiatives announced during her state of the State speech includes funding training to eradicate implicit bias in health care and health insurance.
“I’ve enlisted the help of the CEO of the Detroit Medical Center, Dr. Audrey Gregory, and I’ve asked our medical partners and universities to incorporate implicit bias training into their curriculum,” Whitmer said. “So that as people of color seek health care, they’ll be treated with equal dignity and respect, which will yield better outcomes.”
She said Dr. Randolph Rasch, Dean of the MSU’s College of Nursing, lead that effort.
“We need our medical professionals, and our future doctors and nurses, to be aware of bias and root it out,” she said, “so we can promote equity in outcomes for every mom and every baby.”
Rep. Mary Whiteford, a Casco Township Republican, suggested the governor is wrong about bias in health care.
“The one thing that Gov. Whitmer talks about, that there’s bias among healthcare workers. Well, I’m a nurse,” said Whiteford, who is maintaining her nursing license while serving in the State House. “I didn’t even know how much people made, I didn’t know their faith, their beliefs. I knew that there was a child that was in need, and I did my job. So bias training is something she’s just making up. It’s not true.”
The numbers appear to support Whitmer’s statements:
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which tracks pregnancy-related deaths, notes a “considerable racial/ethnic disparities in pregnancy-related mortality” documented most recently between 2011–16, under a ranking of deaths per 100,000 live births:
- 42.4 deaths: Black, non-Hispanic women.
- 30.4 deaths, American Indian/Alaskan Native non-Hispanic women.
- 14.1 deaths, Asian/Pacific Islander non-Hispanic women.
- 13.0 deaths, white, non-Hispanic women.
- 11.3 deaths, Hispanic women.
Two of the most high-profile cases nationally have been the singer Beyonce, and tennis star Serena Williams, whose symptoms of life-threating blood clots were not initially treated despite her medical history.
The Michigan Dept. of Health and Human Services, which also tracks pregnancy-related deaths, issued a report showing a similar disparity:
The top causes of death for pregnant women in Michigan:
- Cardiomyopathy
- Infection/sepsis
- Hemorrhage
- Cardiovascular conditions
- Amniotic fluid embolism
- Cerebrovascular conditions
- Other medical conditions
- Thrombotic/other embolism
- Maternal hypertension
Black woman are twice as likely than white women to die while pregnant from non-pregnancy conditions. Between 2011-15, causes of death for all pregnant women in Michigan for reasons not directly linked to pregnancy:
- 45 percent: Accidental poisoning/drug overdose
- 23 percent: Traffic crashes
- 16 percent: Homicide
- 11 percent: Suicide
- 3 percent of the deaths, in total, as a variety of causes, electrocution, hypothermia, fire, drowning, and other unintentional causes.
Racial disparity in healthcare has been widely studied and reported.
