Tim Kaine: “communities of color and those living in rural and underserved areas face significant barriers to healthcare, including…”

“communities of color and those living in rural and underserved areas face significant barriers to healthcare, including physician shortages that have only been exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unfortunately, in many communities of color and rural areas, there are few pathways to enter the medical profession. While medical school enrollment is up by 30 percent, the number of students from rural areas entering medical school declined by 28 percent between 2002 and 2017, with only 4.3 percent of all incoming medical students coming from rural areas in 2017. Similarly, Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American students face several barriers to matriculate and graduate from medical school, and there is significant underrepresentation of these students at all U.S. medical schools with the exception of historically Black medical schools. These medical schools represent 2.6 percent of all medical schools but 15 percent of Black medical students, indicating the important role that these institutions play in increasing the diversity of the physician workforce. Health outcomes for patients of color improve when they receive care from doctors of their own racial or ethnic background, and the shortage of providers of color exacerbates the barriers to care that these communities experience.…”