Originally published July 30 2005
Race makes a difference in quality of health care received
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
In a national report issued Tuesday, scientists have stated that a person's race influences the quality of the health care they receive, even if their income and status is high.
A person's skin color makes a significant difference in the type of health care they receive, even if their socioeconomic background equals that of whites, health experts said in a national report released Tuesday.
"The health care system as a whole provides vastly unequal access and treatment based on race, language and ethnicity," said Will Pittz, an organizer at the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations and lead author of the report.
The report, "Closing the Gap: Solutions to Race-Based Health Disparities," focuses on the "rarely discussed crisis that afflicts a racially stratified U.S. society."
While the report covers racial disparities in health care, its primary focus is to offer solutions.
"We're a lot closer than it seems," said Makani Themba-Nixon, executive director for the Praxis Project, a nonprofit, community- centered health policy organization.
Besides offering solutions, the report moves to debunk two common myths -- genetics and socioeconomics -- that are often used to explain racial health care disparities.
First, human genome research shows that humans carry 99.9 percent of the same genetic material, making race a sociopolitical and psychological matter -- not a biological one.
The second myth is that health disparities are attributable to socioeconomics.
Physicians could help close the health care gap tomorrow if they began offering similar treatment for patients with the same symptoms, said Themba, who serves on the advisory committee for the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations, a policy, research and development support center for grassroots organizations in Washington, Oregon, Montana and Idaho.
"The question is not so much, 'How far do communities of color have to go?'" said Themba.
While health in the United States has improved overall, people of color still suffer higher rates of mortality and illness from asthma, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and a range of other diseases compared with white Americans.
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