How do Latino and Hispanic consumers and Black consumers experience healthcare in the United States? Special guest, Tiera Carlock, shares her research.

Takeaways

Featuring a special guest

• This week, The No Normal Show features Content Strategist and fellow Reviver, Tiera Carlock, as she reviews her research findings on Hispanic/Latino consumers and Black consumers.
• At Revive, Tiera jumps in on all things content strategy, social strategy, and writing. Her years of healthcare experience have made her a champion for some of the unsung heroes in healthcare like nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners.

Understanding Hispanic/Latino consumers

• Tiera started her research by looking into Hispanic/Latino communities – who are they, what do they like, and how do they navigate both their home and work lives?
• From these questions, Tiera found that Hispanics/Latinos are young, multicultural, and family-oriented, representing one in six people in the United States.
• This group is not a race, as they are a diverse group of people who can track their origins from across Latin, Central, and South American countries, the Carribean, Spain, and Portugal.
• Tiera’s findings suggest that Hispanics/Latinos value close relationships and shared cultural experiences and tend to live in larger households that offer those shared experiences. Family takes up a lot of time for these consumers, limiting opportunities to engage in external communities.
• It is common to find various citizenship statuses and multiple generations living in the same household. This unique living experience creates linguistic and cultural barriers as they navigate American systems and shapes how they see themselves as part of the American fabric.
• Hispanic and Latin Americans often identify as two hundred percenters – 100% Latino and 100% American – with a strong desire to preserve their cultural roots while also integrating into American society. 
• Tiera cites an article about an Afro-Cuban woman whose parents never taught her Spanish to simplify her assimilation experience. This woman feels it was a missed opportunity to maintain a connection with her history and culture.
• Household makeup can impact healthcare decisions for Hispanic/Latino consumers. For example, parents who may have an undocumented citizenship status are not eligible for Medicare, which may limit their children’s access to healthcare due to fear around citizenship status exposure within American institutions.
• Hispanic/Latino people commonly prefer to take a self-sufficient approach to healthcare while avoiding traditional healthcare settings.
• While this group has a general mistrust of medical professionals, they are more likely to engage with a doctor in a doctor’s office than in a retail center or via telehealth.

Understanding Black consumers

• From HeLa Cell research to the Tuskegee Experiment and beyond, the Black community has a centuries-long history of medical maltreatment and racism in the United States. 
• In response to this maltreatment, Black individuals have learned to distrust healthcare institutions and are more likely to turn to internal groups and communities where they feel the safest and the most respected.
• While Black Americans have been routinely neglected and taken advantage of by the U.S. healthcare system, many want to be proven wrong in their distrust. 
• Black consumers receive 26% less funding from healthcare initiatives than White, non-Hispanic people but spend 19% more on hospital services and 13% more on emergency services than White, non-Hispanic people. 
• These statistics speak to the limited availability of primary and lower-acuity care for Black Americans, forcing Black Americans to become dependent on costly higher-acuity services.
• Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is not just important from a humanitarian perspective; it’s also crucial from a business perspective as Black Americans have tremendous spending power and influence on widespread consumer behavior, yet it’s common for organizations to treat DEI as a charitable endeavor. 
• Brands in the healthcare space that correct this lens to encompass social responsibility and business opportunity will be the brands that lead the way in health.