Category: Disparities

Community With High Medical Debt Questions Its Hospitals’ Charity Spending

Pueblo, Colorado, residents have higher-than-average medical debt, while the city’s two tax-exempt hospitals provide relatively low levels of charity care.

Doctors Hesitate to Ask About Patients’ Immigration Status Despite New Florida Law

Florida’s new immigration law requires hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status at admission and in emergency rooms, and report that information plus the cost of care for residents without legal status. Doctors and nurses who oppose the policy seem reluctant to criticize lawmakers for fear of political retribution.

Doctors Created a Primary Care Clinic as Their Former Hospital Struggled

With the community’s help, former co-workers came together to fill gaps in care left by the loss of doctors and departments at a Gallup, New Mexico, hospital.

Idaho Drops Panel Investigating Pregnancy-Related Deaths as US Maternal Mortality Surges

Amid a years-long rise in maternal mortality rates in the United States, Idaho lawmakers decided to disband a committee created to investigate pregnancy-related deaths.

New Charleston Museum Nods to Historical Roots of US Health Disparities

The $120 million International African American Museum that opened this week in Charleston, South Carolina, allows visitors to step back in history at Gadsden’s Wharf, where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans arrived in America, the genesis of generations of health disparities.

New Charleston Museum Nods to Historical Roots of US Health Disparities

The $120 million International African American Museum that opened this week in Charleston, South Carolina, allows visitors to step back in history at Gadsden’s Wharf, where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans arrived in America, the genesis of generations of health disparities.

Chronic Lifeguard Shortage Serves as Springboard to Address Racial Inequities

Cities and towns are again in deep waters this summer trying to hire enough lifeguards to open their public pools. Many are proceeding with sensitivity to issues of race and ethnicity.

Cardiovascular Disease Is Primed to Kill More Older Adults, Especially Blacks and Hispanics

Cardiovascular disease is the biggest killer of older Americans, with Black and Hispanic people at higher risk. Despite medical advances, researchers say, disparities are expected to worsen in the coming decades.

Study Reveals Staggering Toll of Being Black in America: 1.6M Excess Deaths Over 22 Years

The profound and painful loss — 80 million years of life, compared with the white population — is a call to action to improve the health of Black Americans, especially infants, mothers, and seniors, researchers say.

‘A System in Crisis’: Dysfunctional Federal Disability Programs Force the Poor to Pass Up Money

With little or no income, disability applicants are seeking Social Security early retirement benefits even though it could cost them tens of thousands of dollars in future income, lawyers say.