Overcrowded clinics in Chicago neighborhoods and area hospitals that refuse to give emergency contraception to rape victims are just some of the examples of health care disparity facing women and minorities, according to a panel that spoke last night at Harold Washington College.

Dr. Nike Mourkies, a member of the Chicago-based Physicians for a National Health Program, said minorities are affected most by health care disparities because of language barriers, education, income and by the neighborhoods they live in.

About 1.5 million Hispanics live in Chicago, and Mourkies said many who seek emergency room care leave without being treated because there are too few interpreters.

“It’s very, very disturbing because, in a lot of ways, it’s getting worse,” Mourkies said, noting that many people, such as undocumented immigrants, don’t have health insurance, even though, in some cases, they can apply for coverage.

But, she said, minorities in Chicago benefit from a number of local clinics.

“In many ways, Chicago is lucky because we have community health centers,” Mourkies said. But they are often overcrowded, and there is little access to specialists.

Many problems exist for women, who often are the primary caregivers at home and seek treatment more than men, said Jill Murray, a professor of social work at DePaul University.

“Women aren’t even a minority, but women are a minority in the health care system in the way the get treated,” Murray said.
 
She said the current health care system mistreats women by supporting insurance policies that are employer-based, leaving many women to depend on their partners, and by laws that treat women differently.

“Women have to visit a doctor for any type of contraceptive,” she said. “Men have to go to the corner Walgreen’s.”

She said some hospitals in Chicago treat women using a moral, rather than a medical, standard.

“Many hospitals in Chicago don’t offer emergency contraception for rape victims,” she said. “It’ really hard to talk about women and health care, and separate that from sexism.”

Eugene Cherry, a former Army medic and a student at Harold Washington, told the crowd of about 25 that health care disparity exists in the military, too. Enlisted soldiers get treatment that is inferior to officers, he said.

Cherry said the influx of young veterans seeking treatment in the VA system will strain the system for years.

“Many of these guys are going to need lifelong medical services,” he said. “When you look at the legacy, it’s going to cost upwards of hundreds of millions.”

The speakers said they support a plan to create a single-payer health insurance system, covering everyone living in the United States. A bill introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) would create a national health care system, giving minorities, women and others better access to treatment and more favorable health care options.

The push for nationalized health care  has close ties to Chicago, with the Physicians for a National Health Care program based in downtown. The activist group has more than 16,000 members across the country.