With an overhaul of the nation鈥檚 health care system dominating the Washington聽agenda, the time is now to tackle ethnic, economic and gender disparities in health care, according to two of the聽Obama adminstration鈥檚 top聽health officials.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and White House Health Czar Nancy Ann DeParle held a forum Tuesday with two dozen stakeholders to hear ideas on how America should reform glaring disparities in the health care of聽minorities in America.
鈥淲e know that this is a health issue, and it鈥檚 also a civil rights issue,鈥� DeParle said.聽
础苍听, also released Tuesday,聽says that health care disparities persist as low-income Americans and racial and ethnic minorities continue to have higher incidences of disease, fewer treatment options and less access to care. According to Sebelius, the study found that聽40 percent of low-income Americans don鈥檛 have health insurance and that one-third of the uninsured have a chronic disease. In addition,聽minorities suffer more 鈥� for instance, 48 percent of black Americans suffer from a chronic illness compared to 39 percent of all Americans, she said, quoting the study.
Some minority lawmakers聽warned this week that a reform bill that doesn鈥檛 address disparities would face a fight from them, reports. DeParle said Tuesday afternoon that President Obama is committed to reform health care this year that would include eliminating those disparities, though she wasn鈥檛 specific on how that would be done.
The challenge in health reform lies not just in reshaping the system but also in shining a spotlight on what鈥檚 happening across America to make sure minorities get improved delivery of care, Sebelius said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 unsustainable, unacceptable and unaffordable,鈥� she said. Solving the disparity question is one of 鈥渓ots of building blocks of a health system that needs transformation.鈥�
Among the ideas bandied about from the two dozen stakeholder groups, ranging from the National Hispanic Medical Association and the NAACP to the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Coalition, were improving access to specialty care for minorities and making sure that doctors understand the patients they鈥檙e dealing with culturally, economically and gender-specifically.