Health Care Disparities
Health care reform is emerging as a key issue in the 2008 presidential campaign, and over two dozen state legislatures and governors are examining proposals to significantly expand health insurance coverage. These health care reform discussions are being triggered by concerns about rapidly escalating health care costs, rising ranks of the uninsured, and the uneven quality of health care. But few of these discussions have focused on the problem of health care disparities, that is, differences in access to and the quality of health care, relative to more advantaged groups, experienced by racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, those who are not proficient in English, and others.
The following reports provide information on health care disparities in the U.S. with regards to both the equitable quality of patient care and the supply of physicians in the U.S. workforce.