What Is A “Race Calculator”? And Why Should You Care?

Does your doctor or hospital use a so-called “race calculator” to determine who gets medical care? It’s a question every patient needs to ask. These blatantly discriminatory policies are the direct result of divisive anti-racist ideology and they’re rapidly spreading across healthcare.

A “race calculator” is exactly what it sounds like: A tool that takes a patient’s race into account when determining whether he or she gets medical treatment. If you are a patient of a certain race, you are more likely to receive the care you need, whereas if you’re a member of other races, you are less likely. Race calculators are steeped in identity politics and antithetical to providing personalized care to individual patients, which is what healthcare is supposed to do.

Race calculators are more and more common. Consider SSM Health, a hospital chain in four midwestern states. It used this discriminatory practice to determine which patients would receive COVID-19 therapeutics. Fortunately, it backed off after being called out by a local Wisconsin advocacy group.

State health departments are pushing the same kind of policies at a statewide level. Minnesota and Utah both rescinded their policies after justified public pressure, but states like New York are pushing ahead. The American Medical Association has thrown its weight behind New York’s race calculator, even though it’s incompatible with physicians’ oath to “do no harm.”

These policies are set to become more common, not less. One reason is that the federal government is bribing physicians to develop “anti-racism” plans, which could include implementing race calculators. Every patient should ask if their healthcare provider is engaged in such blatant discrimination, and if so, demand an end to it and the return of fairness and equal healthcare access for all.