The Relationship Between Health Care Discrimination and Disabled People's Emergency Department Utilization

ABSTRACT Disabled people, including those with chronic illnesses, visit the emergency room significantly more often than nondisabled people. Research indicates a correlation between access to health care and emergency department utilization. The inequitable care disabled people receive contributes to their unmet health care needs. The aim of this exploratory study was to examine the relationship between disability discrimination in health care and disabled people's emergency department utilization. To do so, we analyzed data from a national survey we conducted with 2042 disabled people in 2023. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and hierarchical logistic regression models. In our study, 39% of disabled adults visited the emergency department at least once in the previous year. When disabled people experienced differential health care because of disability, they were up to 2.83 times more likely to visit the emergency department, even when disability type, chronic conditions, health insurance, and other sociodemographic factors were controlled. It is time for a reckoning in health care where not only the high rates of discrimination among health care professionals are recognized but so too is the real harm they can do to disabled people; only then can we begin to address inequities in health care.