• Government
• Profession
• Business
• Opinion
• Health

• Health reform
• H1N1
• P4P
• EMRs
• Medicare
• Liability
• AMA House
• » More

• Book Excerpt
• Business Pitch
• Meetings
• » More

• Contract Language
• Ethics Forum
• In the Courts
• Practice Management
• Technically Speaking
• » More

• Issue dates
• Regions
• Health plans
• Sections
• News briefs
• Columns
• Editorials
• Letters
• Writers
• Other years

• Search tips
• E-mail alert
• Radio
• RSS
• Mobile
• Subscribe
• Institutions
• Staff directory
• Advertising
• Permissions
• Reprints
• News media
• Site guide
• Useful links
• About
• Premium
• Contact

Ending health care disparities: Equal access to quality care

A newly created Commission to End Health Care Disparities is taking on the pressing and persistent problem of unequal treatment rooted in race and ethnicity.

Editorial. Feb. 28, 2005.

• PRINT|
• E-MAIL|
• RESPOND|
• REPRINTS|
• SHARE

In 2002, the Institute of Medicine released a groundbreaking report, "Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care."

The report bottom-lined a problem plaguing the American health care system -- that racial and ethnic minorities tend to receive lower-quality health care than whites, even when insurance status, income, age and severity of conditions are comparable.

The evidence the report laid out was both compelling and disturbing. For example, minorities were less likely to be given appropriate cardiac medications or to undergo bypass surgery, and were less likely to receive kidney dialysis or transplants. There also were significant differences in who receives appropriate cancer diagnostic tests as well as sophisticated treatments for HIV infection.

The American Medical Association reacted quickly, calling the report a wake-up call for the profession. Since then, armed with its long-standing policies of zero tolerance toward racially or culturally biased health care, the House of Medicine further has turned up the volume on the need for corrective action -- pledging to use the art, science and skill of medicine to ensure that everyone has equal access to high-quality care.

This response only makes sense. Access to medical care for all people is a cornerstone of the AMA's Principles of Medical Ethics. Additionally, the Association has long encouraged physicians to examine their own practices to ensure equality in medical care and has worked with other medical groups to increase the number of minority physicians so the profession better reflects the face of America.