Dr. Kay Eddie is a retired educator, writer, and community-based researcher at the Southern Rural Black Women Initiative and Human Rights Watch. She is a community organizer and advocate and supporter of women’s health and broadband access.
Baker County is located on the southwest corner of Georgia. It is an agricultural community rich in peanut production, with a mix of fertile fields and rich tall oak trees. However, in this county, 18% of residents under the age of 65 are not covered by health insurance, immersed in everything that nature offers. The county is a medically underserved area with few low-income primary care providers.
For the past year and a half, I have been one of 148 community-based researchers, mainly to black women aged 18-82 who live in three regional counties in Georgia (Baker, Coffee, Wilcox). We interviewed about the barriers to saving lives. Prevention and treatment of cervical cancer.
As part of January’s Cervical Cancer Awareness Month, the Economic and Social Justice Initiative (SRBWI) and Human Rights Watch for Southern Rural Black Women reported the results of this study.
Nationally, black women are more than 1.5 times more likely to die of cervical cancer than white women. From 2014 to 2018, Georgia data show that the overall incidence of cervical cancer in both groups is about the same, but the mortality rate of cervical cancer in black women is about 1.5 in white women. It was double. These disparities increase as women grow older, and black women over the age of 70 are almost three times more likely to die.
But that’s not the complete story. After all, where you live is important. The farther away you are from the city center, the higher the incidence and even mortality of cervical cancer. Rural women in Georgia face extraordinary barriers to health care. Our research shows that women are needed due to a combination of inconsistent insurance coverage, insolvency of reproductive care, information gaps, lack of gynecological care, and significant challenges in transportation access. Access to medical care has become very difficult. For black women in rural Georgia, historical and systematic racism and distrust in the medical field can exacerbate these barriers.
These barriers became known to me when I made friends with a resident of this county, whom I affectionately call Tee. Tee and I spent countless hours talking about growth together and realized that while we have some things in common, there are many differences in our lives.
She graduated from high school but did not pursue higher education. She has done a lot of work, but never paid enough to get health insurance. Preventive medicine was not a priority because she “always felt good and had no reason to go to the doctor.” And one day it all changed and she was forced to go to a local clinic for care. She found that the clinic was overwhelmed by people and there weren’t enough doctors to take care of them all. Tee admitted that he had little money and resigned from using the sliding payscale. One cool afternoon sitting on the balcony, the clinic, nurse and doctor made her uncomfortable and told me she refused to return.
Two barriers emerged during this conversation: lack of insurance and distrust of doctors and health care workers. But she also sheds light on the lack of transportation, broadband access, and local specialists that make this even more difficult.
These barriers need to be removed.
A small change is coming. More federal funding is being invested in the region for broadband expansion, which could enable telemedicine visits from patients to doctors through home comfort.
However, the most important change that can be made to ensure access to care is that Georgia will eventually expand Medicaid. Georgia is one of the 12 states that have not yet expanded, despite the opportunity to expand Medicaid’s coverage since 2010.
This expansion is essential for women in southwestern Georgia. This means consistent access to program-funded transportation, more resources to attract and retain health care professionals, and insurance coverage.
Georgia needs to take a bold step to expand Medicaid so that people like my friend’s T-shirt have access to medical care.
