Visiting Faculty Monica Garcia-Perez, PhD, is the Guest Editor of the May 2024 special health equity edition of the American Journal of Health Economics. The issue was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic and the disparities that affect access to health care, quality of care, and final health outcomes.
The issue features five papers that focus on race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability topics in health economics. One of the papers, “Access to Gender-Affirming Care and Transgender Mental Health: Evidence from Medicaid Coverage,” found a positive correlation between gender-affirmation coverage and the mental health of low-income transgender people. Another paper, “Gender Identity, Race, and Ethnicity-Based Discrimination in Access to Mental Health Care: Evidence from an Audit Correspondence Field Experiment,” identifies a pattern of discrimination by mental health providers against patients with Black or Latino-sounding names.
The special edition fills several gaps in health equity scholarship and aligns itself with the discipline’s commitment to addressing the upstream influences of detrimental socioeconomic conditions and giving all people a fair opportunity to reach their health potential.
Access the full edition here.
