Health Care

Maternal deaths across the U.S. more than doubled over the course of two decades, and the tragedy unfolded unequally. Black mothers died at the nation's highest rates, while the largest increases in deaths were found in American Indian and Native Alaskan mothers. And some states…

Pregnant Black patients were drug tested more often than white patients before delivery, a JAMA Health Forum analysis of patients in a large Pennsylvania health system from March 2018 to June 2021 found. Black patients were no more likely to test positive for using substances while…

Racial and ethnic disparities in health care are known to reflect access to care and other issues that arise from differing socioeconomic conditions. There is, however, increasing evidence that even after such differences are accounted for, race and ethnicity remain significant predictors of the…

Medicaid is the largest health insurer in the United States, at over 80 million enrollees.2 Its numerous benefits to enrollees include greater likelihood of completing school, higher wages, better health outcomes, and less medical debt compared to those who are uninsured, as well as services that…

The COVID-19 pandemic has illuminated and amplified the harsh reality of health inequities experienced by racial and ethnic  minority groups in the United States. Members of these groups have disproportionately been infected and died from COVID-19, yet they still lack equitable access to…

Considerations for state-based, multi-stakeholder approaches to collect, validate, and share REL data with the ultimate goal of advancing equity through clinical quality and social driver interventions that can improve the health and well-being of historically marginalized communities.…

A report of key findings, voices that informed those findings, and powerful wtories shared by Boston’s Black community.  The report reflects community research to learn more about what works to improve the health care, health, resilience, and wellbeing of Boston’s Black…

In this talk, Dr. Carter cites findings that at least 90% of Black adults and youth report experiencing at least one incident of racial discrimination in the past year. She also presents research indicating that African Americans live sicker and die younger than other racial and ethnic…

From the author: MPHA’s newly revised Health Equity Policy Framework, which guides our staff, Board, and Policy Council and helps us keep health equity and dismantling structural racism at the core of our policy work. Although many nonprofit organizations are committed to the…

From the article: Disproportionately high rates of Conduct Disorder are diagnosed in African American and Latino youth of color. Diagnostic bias contributes to overdiagnosis of Conduct Disorder in these adolescents of color. Following a diagnosis of Conduct Disorder, adolescents of color face…

This Roadmap builds on an earlier report, Federal Action Is Needed to Improve Race and Ethnicity Data in Health Programs, in three critical respects. First, it expands on that report’s summary of the current state of race and ethnicity data in health care programs, offering more detail…

Housing quality is a primary determinant of asthma disparities by race and social class in the US. We sought to assess how housing code enforcement systems in Boston, Massachusetts, address tenants’ reports of asthma triggers. After adjustment for income and other neighborhood characteristics,…

A new report from the National Consumer Law Center that examines the intersection between the racial health gap and the racial wealth gap and the harms of aggressive medical debt collection. The report comes on the heels of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) report finding an estimated…

From the article: Positive SARS-CoV-2 tests are highly correlated with race and poverty. Black and lower income patients tested positive more than double the proportion of White and higher-income patients. Patients in zip codes with higher proportions of service sector workers had more than…

From the article: "Unfortunately, my story isn’t uncommon for most Native Americans. As a collective, American Indians and Alaska Natives live more challenging and shorter lives. These are statistics I’m acutely aware of as researcher in clinical psychology. Understanding…

Black American women have disproportionate HIV infection rates – in part because of systemic and structural racism in the health care system.  In late 2020, the American Medical Association declared structural racism a public health threat and emphasized the urgent need to…

This paper looks at  the extent of perceptions of unfair treatment or judgment due to race and ethnicity across five domains during the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the introduction to the report: Black and Hispanic/Latinx adults report experiencing discrimination when seeking health care at higher rates than white adults, which raises the question: How might these reported experiences adversely affect health care? The Urban Institute’s…

From the introduction to this Issue Brief: Women of color confront systemic discrimination–on the basis of race, gender, and other characteristics like sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration or disability status–throughout their lives. It is important to understand that…

This Data Brief examines coverage/access inequities for Black and Latinx/Hispanic adults, with a focus on effects of Medicaid expansion on equity at the state level.  

This report begins with an overview of the disproportionate harm that COVID-19 has caused in communities of color, and then outlines actionable recommendations to advance health equity.

The American health care system in beset with inequalities that have a disproportionate impact on people of color and other marginalized groups. These inequalities contribute to gaps in health insurance coverage, uneven access to services, and poorer health outcomes among certain populations.…