Health Care Disparities — Science, Politics, and Race

Abstract

Do members of disadvantaged minority groups receive poorer health care than whites? Overwhelming evidence shows that they do.1 Among national policymakers, there is bipartisan acknowledgment of this bitter truth. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Secretary Tommy Thompson has said that health disparities are a national priority, and congressional Democrats and Republicans are advocating competing remedies.2,3 So why did the DHHS issue a report last year, just days before Christmas, dismissing the “implication” that racial differences in care “result in adverse health outcomes” or “imply moral error . . . in any way”?4 And why did top officials . . .