Prognosis Grim for Poor
Minorities (continued from Previous Page)
By Tom Maccabe (reprinted
with permission from The Medical Herald, Vol.13, No.2, March 2001)
Dramatic new surges in both legal and
illegal immigration, combined with the long-standing health crises of minority
populations, are being ignored while Washington appears ready to favor such
popular issues as prescription drug benefits for the elderly and a patients
bill of rights.
The
consequences for minorities are so grave that even the minimal progress made
during the last few decades by long-time African-American, Native American and
Latino residents threatens to be reversed.
That
is the gloomy prognosis gathered by The Medical Herald in interviews
with scores of health care experts about their work monitoring the pending
initiatives of both the Bush administration and the Congress.
Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was not available
for comment, but sources said that while Bush is strongly supportive of
prescription drug benefits for the elderly and a patients bill of rights, he
has yet to fully make up his mind about what he will do for minorities.
The radical changes in Medicaid proposed by the National
Governors’ Association last month could exacerbate these problems.
The governors proposed that millions of additional people be made
eligible for Medicaid, but that benefits be cut.
The proposal is expected to be hotly debated in Congress.
Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-Brooklyn) a long-time champion of
healthcare benefits for minorities, described the situation as “alarming”
and called on Bush and the other new leaders in Washington to convene a
special meeting of minority healthcare experts to address the issues.
One expert, Rodney Hood, M.D., president of the National
Medical Association, which represents many of the nations’ African American
physicians, told The Herald that he could not give a passing grade to
the health of African-Americans among the urban poor.
“I think the rate of healthcare in urban areas, when you
compare it with the majority population, is appalling,” he said.
The NMA has identified at least a dozen major problems, such
as cancer, HIV, hepatitis C, diabetes and hypertension.
They are especially angry over the lack of minorities in key
decision-making positions in government and the private sector, which they
believe contribute largely to the overall problem, due to a lack of
sensitivity or racism.
Towns said he was particularly interested in why the death
rate from coronary heart disease is 40 percent higher for African Americans
that it is for whites.
He said that understanding such racially based inequalities
in health care is important in moving towards a healthier America.
In line with that focus, the University of
Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH) will use a federal grant of
$1.85 million to study differences in health and self-care among chronically
ill elderly blacks and whites in western Pennsylvania, and the effects of
these differences (To
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