The AP (6/26, Bose ) says, “Racial and ethnic inequities in health care are found in every state in the U.S. despite the passage of legislation intended to improve health outcomes for minorities and increased awareness of health care disparities over the past two decades, according to a new national report released Wednesday.” The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report “detailed how structural racism and people’s surroundings have contributed to worse health outcomes for minorities,” and offered “recommendationsand solutions to health care organizations and the federal government, like a more diverse workforce and adjusting payment systems to make health care more affordable.”
The Hill (6/26, Daniels) says, “The report found that racial and ethnic minorities are significantly less likely to have primary care,” and “during emergency room visits, minorities experience longer wait times and are assigned less acute triage severity scores.” Meanwhile, “long-term care facilities serving minority residents offer fewer clinical services and have lower staffing levels.” In order to address the issue, “one action is to report data on the inequities. The report calls on the Office of Management and Budget to aggressively enforce requirements for routine collection of race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation and language data by all federal health care agencies and research programs.” Additionally, the report “urges the National Institutes of Health and other research funders to expand funding for research aimed at addressing health care inequities, structural racism and health-related social needs.”
Related Links:
— “Health care needs to diversify its workforce to get rid of racial inequalities, a new report says,”Devna Bose, AP, June 26, 2024