Healthcare disparities
This article entitled; Racial and ethnic disparities in health care, updated 2010, written by American College of Physicians, presents the reality of the racial and ethnic disparities in health care and made some recommendations to reduce this gaps. Although improvements have been seen in health care quality and some disparities have been reduced or eliminated, differences persist in health care quality among members of various racial and ethnic minority groups.
Irrefutable evidence indicates that racial and ethnic minorities are subject to quality care less healthy than white Americans, even when factors such as insurance status are controlled. Since the population continues to grow and diversify the health care system must change and adapt to meet the needs of a patient more and more multicultural. In 2003, the American College of Physicians, which is now the greatest medical specialty society in the United States with physicians and medical student members, published racial and ethnic disparities paper Healthcare (www. acponline.org / ppvl / policies / e000904.pdf). The document provides some recommendations on how the gap between patients’s racial and ethnic minorities and their white counterparts can be reduced. Unfortunately, even though progress has been achieved in some areas the question of the racial and ethnic disparities remains a difficult and complex problem to tackle.
This update of the 2003 document adopts recommendations that still need attention to solve this problem - like improving access to health insurance among minorities - and also notes that progress has been made. Sources of racial and ethnic disparities are rooted not only in the nation's dysfunctional health care system, but also in a number of company-determinants that are discussed in this paper. Environment of an individual, income, education level and other factors all affect the health or reflect the health of a person. If racial and ethnic disparities should be treated with success, the nation must make a concerted effort to improve existing stressors both within and outside the health care system itself. Disparities are also present in aspects of Medicare. African Americans are less likely than whites to purchase supplemental Medicare coverage. Further, more minority Medicare beneficiaries than white beneficiaries are considered dual-eligible, receiving coverage from both the Medicare and Medicaid programs, leaving them particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in federal and state spending and policy decisions. In addition to the ongoing support of the College for a number of the recommendations contained in the 2003 document.
In the light of this document, we recommend: Providing all legal residents with affordable health insurance is an essential part of eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Improvements in preventive care, chronic care, and access to care have led to the elimination of disparities for some priority populations in areas such as mammograms, smoking cessation counseling, and appropriate timing of antibiotics.
The present article was very helpful in this sense that it showed us that even in the Medicare there is a disparity. While many racial and ethnic minorities are enrolled in the Medicaid and
CHIP programs, many more are eligible for such coverage but are not enrolled, either because they are unaware of their eligibility or face other barriers, such as limited English proficiency and enrollment process complexities. For instance, more than 80% of uninsured African-American children and 70% of uninsured Latino children are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP coverage. Streamlined enrollment processes coupled with aggressive outreach efforts to increase participation among eligible minority groups are essential so more of the uninsured can get health insurance coverage. Such efforts should be sensitive to the linguistic and cultural needs of the targeted populations.

References
American College of Physicians; 2010: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, Updated
2010. Philadelphia: (Available from American College of Physicians, 190 N. Independence Mall West, Philadelphia, PA 19106.)