Change rules to battle health racism, group says

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Unconscious racism is so entrenched
in U.S. medical system that the only way to eliminate
disparities is to change the rules, according to a new report
released on Tuesday.

But allowing communities to take control of their own
health care helped in many cases, and also seemed to encourage
healthy behavior above and beyond getting check-ups and taking
the right medicine, the report found.

“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 in Seattle who was lead author of the
report.

“Racism within the health system is literally making people
of color sick.”

Several studies released this year have supported this
claim.

In March, studies published in the journal Circulation
showed that blacks tend to get older heart drugs, are less
likely to have surgery and got less effective treatment for
heart problems overall than whites.

Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher found that
more than 80,000 black Americans die every year because of
continuing disparities in health care.

In 2002, the Institute of Medicine, an independent group,
reported that members of racial and ethnic minorities are given
lower quality health care than whites even when they make as
much money and carry the same insurance.

In January, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention reported that blacks are far more likely than whites
to die from strokes, diabetes and other diseases.

“I think in most situations it isn’t conscious — ‘I prefer
to serve white people rather than black people’ or ‘I don’t
believe this person deserves good health care,”‘ said Rinku
Sen, a spokeswoman for the Applied Research Center, which also
helped write the report.

HOLDING PROVIDERS ACCOUNTABLE

“It’s not just that we need policies, but that policies
need to be implemented to address individual behavior. The
combination of the lack of enforcement and unequal funding
means that we can’t hold health care providers accountable for
discriminatory treatment,” Sen added in an interview.

The report highlights some successful attempts to overcome
the disparities. St. Thomas Health Services in New Orleans,
Louisiana, is one example.

“Located in a predominantly African American neighborhood,
St. Thomas offers patients a full range of primary care
services in an environment that is welcoming and respectful,”
the report reads.

Tohono O’odham Community Action in Sells, Arizona, an
Indian reservation with the lowest per capita income in the
United States, fights the community’s 50 percent diabetes rate
by encouraging people to eat traditional foods such as beans
and cactus instead of processed foods.

“Elders notice younger people dying ahead of us,” tribal
elder Danny Lopez is quoted in the report as saying. “There
must be something wrong and part of that is the way we are
living.”

Last September, the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the
Health Workforce found that while blacks, Hispanics and Native
Americans make up more than 25 percent of the U.S. population,
they represent only 9 percent of the nation’s nurses, 6 percent
of doctors and 5 percent of dentists.