Access to Healthcare in the USA: the case of trans people of colour

Abstract

Transgender people all around the world still face discrimination, threat and violence. Despite the efforts of many states in the United States of America to address these issues, previous studies revealed that, particularly transgender people of colour, face discrimination and disrespect when in contact with their health care provider. This is a reflective dissertation that unveils people’s first-hand experience by means of interviews, academic literature, and reports from Human Rights Watch, Center for American Progress and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights amongst others. Intersectionality is used to support analyses on how transgender people of colour in United States (US) perceive healthcare access and the contact with their medical providers. The study is based on semi-structured interviews with eleven transgender persons of colour from all over the US. Interviews’ transcripts were analysed by means of thematic analysis method which allowed the generation of three main themes: perceived discrimination, lack of knowledge on transgender health care needs, and limited health insurance coverage. Furthermore, results indicated that the majority of transgender people of colour who participated in the study felt they were being discriminated against for being transgender. Despite the recent changes that aim to improve accessibility to health care for transgender people, the reports suggest there is still work to be done, especially for transgender people of colour.