Health care challenges facing the LGTBQ+ community

Dr. Oni Blackstock, Founder and Executive Director, Health Justice, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how awareness of inequity from the pandemic can be turned into policy without reinventing the wheel.

Video transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: Health care equity advocate Dr. Oni Blackstock is joining Yahoo Finance Live now to discuss how awareness of inequity from the pandemic can be turned into policy without reinventing the wheel. We have Yahoo Finance's health reporter Anjalee Khemlani here with that interview.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Thanks, Kristin. And welcoming into the show Dr. Oni Blackstock who is the founder and executive director of the Consultancy Health Justice. Dr. Blackstock, thank you for taking the time. There's so much to get to, and it's such an exciting time in the space of health equity, with the attention coming from the Biden administration, unfortunately, as a result of the COVID pandemic. So let's start there. What have you seen in terms of interest growth and what specifically companies are looking at right now compared to before the pandemic?

ONI BLACKSTOCK: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. The pandemic has really helped to bring to light and also amplify a number of health inequities that really existed even before the pandemic and now really are in a place where we need to actually do something about them. So we see many companies, particularly in the health care space, bringing in consultants, for instance, or creating positions for diversity, equity, inclusion chairs to begin this work in earnest in terms of figuring out how they can revamp their policies, their practices, their organizational culture to help advance equity and reduce many of the health disparities that we see.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: And the health disparity is, of course, linked to social disparities. And we've seen that over the years, research pointing to things like comfortable housing, access to nutritious food, as well as other items, including access to a job, access to the internet, things that are now coming up on the federal level is taking a hard look at that. Nothing more in terms of policy changes just yet, but we are, at the state level, unfortunately, seeing policy that's negatively affecting the LGBTQ community. Talk to us about that and how that goes in the opposite direction of what we're seeing at the federal level.

ONI BLACKSTOCK: Right. Yeah, so it's been really unfortunate. We've had the stress, the collective trauma of the pandemic. And we know that before the pandemic, people who were LGBTQ had higher rates of unemployment. We see health inequities when it comes to LGBTQ community having higher rates of substance use, cardiovascular disease, obesity, et cetera.

And so it's unfortunate now to see, at the state level, a number of states, actually about 33 states, pushing forward bills that would really limit protections against, in particular, people of trans experience. So we're hearing about bills that are prohibiting trans youth from engaging in sports that align with their gender identity. And then we're also seeing prohibitions put on medical providers. We saw in the state of Arkansas a bill that became law that basically prohibits health care providers from offering gender affirming care to transgender adolescents.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: And is there any hope that if any policy comes out at the federal level it would supersede anything at the state level?

ONI BLACKSTOCK: Yeah. I think the challenge that we've had is that there's been a lack of consistent nondiscrimination policies when it comes to people who are LGBTQ. We know of many activists and advocates have been pushing for the passage of the Equality Act. That act would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act and would include sexual orientation as well as gender identity among the protected classes. We saw that bill passed the House but it's been sitting in the Senate, and we really need to see that bill move forward and pass so that we can ensure that LGBTQ people have protections in many aspects of life, looking at employment, housing, and public accommodations, for example.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Right. And on the, what can we do side, I know that you and I have talked about for a while there has been lots of research. There's enough data to inform decisions. On one hand, we have seen the rise of telehealth. It has long been deemed a fixer for many of these problems. But on the flip side, you also have barriers to good internet connection. What do we really need to do? What needs to be done in order to not reinvent the wheel on this issue and actually push health equity forward?

ONI BLACKSTOCK: Yeah, well there's a lot that needs to be done. We know for people who are LGBTQ, about 50% report having experienced discrimination by a health care provider, and about 75% of people who are trans or non-gender conforming non-binary have experienced discrimination in the health care setting. So we need to make sure that health care settings are-- that there's training, that they are resourced, and that they are able to provide culturally competent as well as structurally competent care to LGBTQ patients.

We're also seeing, for instance, there's a company called Included Health that works with different employers to provide health care and connect LGBTQ employees to culturally competent, structurally competent providers. And so we're seeing businesses like that start to enter the market and really help employers with connecting their employees to the care that they need.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Well definitely a step in the right direction and looking for more of that to come. Dr. Oni Blackstock, executive director and founder of Health Justice. Thank you so much for joining us today. Kristin, back to you.

KRISTIN MYERS: And Anjalee, thanks so much for bringing us that interview with Dr. Blackstock.