White middle class medical people and the lower class:
Many poor people are very mistrustful of anyone in the medical field. I've heard comments from lower class people expressing a fear of eugenics (using a needed appendectomy to perform an unwanted abortion) to withholding care because the person was poor (my father-in-law unsure whether his wife was receiving proper care). The specific cases may have been unwarranted, but there are solid grounds for the general mistrust;
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/us/north-carolina-sterilization-payments
http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jul/tuskegee/
But I'd like to suggest another reason: the poorly hidden contempt that many middle class whites have for the poor. I have many acquaintances in the medical field, doctors, nurses, etc. All too often, I hear an anecdote (often apocryphal) illustrating the stupidity of the poor. The classic example of such an anecdote is the one claiming that the mother was going to name the child "placenta" after hearing the term used during delivery. I heard one doctor drop a series of such comments over the course of an evening, only to wonder at one point why her African American patients were so reluctant to accept her advice. Consider also the term "frequent fliers" applied to those who make frequent use of emergency rooms. Often, the problem is the failure of the system to address underlying problems of mental illness, homelessness, lack of education and poverty, but somehow the blame is placed on the victim.
Not every medical person is guilty, of course, and many object to this attitude. I'm guessing some would claim there is no contempt, only harsh humor in reaction to the stress of working in the medical field. Such humor was once a feature of anatomy labs, and has been driven out by efforts to restore respect for the people whose bodies are used to educate doctors.
https://www.aamc.org/newsroom/reporter/october2012/308520/donor.html
It's well past time for all medical people to accord such respect to the living, as well.
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And hold two B.A.s in B.S. 
But I have started to distrust the medical field. From ignoring my ankylosing spondylitis and shoving me into the women's health ghetto of 'fibromyalgia' when I NEVER had that - to dealing with fertility issues . . . there's no trust there. I also distrust the testing of just about everything (pharma). Nothing gets tested on multi-race women. Nothing. They throw things at us that they really have no clue if it hurts or helps (example enbrel).
I get more healing and whole health from the Cherokee Medicine Man as well as my Chinese Medicine Doctor (who is also an M.D. in WESTERN Medicine) than I ever did from straight Western Medicine Physicians.
And Western Medicine says - let's throw that pill at that black woman of European and Native American heritage - without taking into account the repurcussions of those ethnicities/races that you can't see.
So - is it a 'poor' problem - or cannot it potentially also be a minority problem of all levels of the socio economic ladder?
