Coverage, Access and Quality | White House Emphasizes Need To Reduce Health Care Costs, Improve Access to Care Among Blacks

BY KAISER HEALTH DISPARITIES REPORT: A WEEKLY LOOK AT RACE,
ETHNICITY AND HEALTH

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During a White House teleconference last week, Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office on Health Reform said that reducing health care costs is "particularly important for the [black] community because on average, they spend a higher percentage of their income on health care costs, compared to their white counterparts," the Washington Informer reports.

Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the office, at a press conference last week said that reducing health care costs is "particularly important for the [black] community because on average, they spend a higher percentage of their income on health care costs, compared to their white counterparts." She added that blacks spend about 16.5% of their income on health care, while whites spend about 12%. In addition, blacks "continue to face disparities in terms of the (quality of care) they get," DeParle said. According to DeParle, blacks tend to visit hospitals that "provide lower-quality care." She added that higher health care costs are "especially troubling" to the black community because blacks "suffer from higher percentages of chronic diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease and diabetes, that are due in part to a lack of access to quality care."

According to the Informer, $1 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package that President Obama signed in February will be allocated to prevention efforts and public health campaigns (Michaels, Washington Informer, 5/21).


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3.23 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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