By AFRO Staff
Between 2003 and 2006, minorities faced $229.4 billion of excess costs due to health inequities. (Courtesy Photo)
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(Oct. 11, 2009) - Minimizing inequities in health care access and outcomes is not only good for the public’s health but also the nation’s fiscal health, area researchers have found.
In a recent report entitled, “The Economic Burden of Health Inequalities in the United States,” researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland concluded that minority Americans experience “poorer than average” health outcomes and have shorter life spans, which exact a disproportionate toll on those communities.
Between 2003 and 2006, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans faced $229.4 billion of excess costs due to health inequities. When indirect costs from lost productivity, lost wages, absenteeism, family leave, and premature death are totaled, the amount leaped to $1.24 trillion.
According to Congressman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., without racial health disparity, there would have been 83,500 fewer Black deaths overall in the year 2000.
“There are two perfect examples of the role disparities play in these deaths: Infant mortality is more than twice as high for African-American infants as it is for White, non-Hispanic infants. AIDS case rates for African Americans are nearly 10 times that of Whites,” Cummings said. “African Americans with HIV are less likely to receive combination drug therapy, the accepted standard of care for the disease.”
More than 80 percent of African Americans live in working families, but only 53 percent are covered by employer-sponsored health insurance, compared to 73 percent of Whites, which Cummings said has resulted in Black and Latino adults being less likely to rely on private physicians for their medical care than White adults.
“The billions of dollars wasted because of health disparities would be of tremendous use to the people who need them the most: at-risk populations,” Cummings said. “Because people would have insurance, they would visit doctors, rather than heading to emergency rooms for treatment. Those same people would likely have the chance to get treatment before an injury or illness was so bad that it became fatal.”
Willarda Edwards, president of the National Medical Association, said the racial disparity in health care has been a problem for centuries, but with President Obama’s reform plan, she foresees a decrease in excess costs that will create a more efficient use of money to fund the health care system.
“If we really look at health care reform and then focus solely on just eliminating health disparities, we could pay for everybody’s health insurance and improve health care for the minority community,” Edwards said.
But the elimination of health care disparities does not just deal with creating equal access to health care, she said. Cultural competence is another facet of the disparity that must be discussed in order to ensure minority patients are treated with compassionate care for their unique needs. Indicating the Census Bureau’s estimation that half of United States residents will be people of color by 2042, Edwards said that cultural competence is more important now than ever.
“Not enough minority physicians are health care physicians,” she said. “We’re only less than 10 percent of the physician population. I think that’s where cultural competence is absolutely needed. You can make a whole lot more people well and that will invariable decrease the cost of health care.”
10/13/09 Update: On the eve of a critical vote regarding health care reform legislation in the Senate Finance Committee, the group AHIP - America's Health Insurance Plans issued a report on how they believe reform would affect the private insurance industry.
Highlights:
- Health reform could have a significant impact on the cost of private health insurance coverage.
- There are four provisions included in the Senate Finance Committee proposal that could
increase private health insurance premiums above the levels projected under current law:
- Insurance market reforms coupled with a weak coverage requirement,
- A new tax on high-cost health care plans,
- Cost-shifting as a result of cuts to Medicare, and
- New taxes on several health care sectors.
- The overall impact of these provisions will be to increase the cost of private insurance
coverage for individuals, families, and businesses above what these costs would be in
the absence of reform.
- On average, the cost of private health insurance coverage will increase:
- 26 percent between 2009 and 2013 under the current system and by 40 percent during this same period if these four provisions are implemented.
- 50 percent between 2009 and 2016 under the current system and by 73 percent
during this same period if these four provisions are implemented.
- 79 percent between 2009 and 2019 under the current system and by 111 percent
during this same period if these four provisions are implemented.
Read the entire document here