This year marks three decades since former HHS Secretary Margaret Heckler commissioned the "Heckler Report" on health disparities among minorities.
"The Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black and Minority Health" released in August 1985 showed health disparities cause 60,000 unnecessary deaths each year from cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, homicide and other causes.
Here are six challenges and gains the U.S. has made in closing the gap in disparities in health and healthcare, as presented by the American Heart Association blog.
- Infant mortality rates have dropped nationwide, but African-American babies are still two times more likely to die than white babies.
- Fifty-four percent of African-American women are obese, compared to 33 percent of white women.
- Deaths related to heart disease in African-Americans decreased by about 50 percent between 1980 and 2010, but African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American, American Indian and Alaska Native populations continue to suffer higher mortality rates due to heart disease than other populations.
- More than 40 percent of African-American men and 43 percent of African-American women received a high blood pressure diagnosis between 2007 and 2012, compared to 30 percent of white men and 28 percent of white women.
- Hispanics are 1.7 percent more likely than whites to have diabetes, and American Indians are 2.5 percent more likely than whites to have diabetes.
- Since the first open enrollment period, 16.4 million uninsured people have gained health insurance coverage, which includes 4.2 million Hispanics and 2.3 million African-Americans.
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