Chicago Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog

Chicago Sun Times writer Monifa Thomas reports that Blacks and Hispanics who receive treatment for head injuries and other trauma are more likely to die than whites with similar injuries. New research also showed that regardless of race, uninsured trauma victims died more often than those who were insured.

The study, published in the Archives of Surgery, offers the latest evidence of how race and insurance status affect patient outcomes -- whether the condition in question is cancer, heart disease, car accident injury or gunshot wounds. Data collected from more than 376,000 patients at 700 hospitals showed that trauma victims who were white and had health insurance fared better than Blacks, Hispanics and the uninsured, even when the severity of the injury was the same.

According to researchers, lack of insurance was the biggest predictor of poor outcomes—and since minorities were more likely than whites to be uninsured they were more likely not to survive traumatic injury. But the data also showed that Hispanics with insurance were still 51 percent more likely to die after being treated for a trauma wound than whites who had insurance. African Americans with insurance were 20 percent more likely to die compared to insured whites.

There are some variables that could cause this disparity such as uninsured patients having preexisting conditions that hurt their survival chances or the fact that minorities are more likely to be treated at under-resourced facilities. But in theory, trauma centers, are supposed to treat all their patients the same, regardless of whether they are insured and regardless of their race--any practice other that would be a violation of federal law. If anything, this study brings to light how universal health care coverage could help alleviate the disparity between the care “haves” and the 47-million uninsured “have-nots” receive.