This is an interesting article; I don't know if the findings have statistical significance, but they point to whites in urban settings having worse healthcare than blacks and hispanics and other interesting findings.

Food for thought, I guess.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11842861/

Quote :

"U.S. health care mediocre across the board Rich or poor, black or white, Americans get equally shoddy treatment BOSTON - Startling research from the biggest study ever of U.S. health care quality suggests that Americans — rich, poor, black, white — get roughly equal treatment, but it’s woefully mediocre for all. “This study shows that health care has equal-opportunity defects,” said Dr. Donald Berwick, who runs the nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass. The survey of nearly 7,000 patients, reported Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine, considered only urban-area dwellers who sought treatment, but it still challenged some stereotypes: These blacks and Hispanics actually got slightly better medical treatment than whites. While the researchers acknowledged separate evidence that minorities fare worse in some areas of expensive care and suffer more from some conditions than whites, their study found that once in treatment, minorities’ overall care appears similar to that of whites. “It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter whether you’re rich or poor, white or black, insured or uninsured,” said chief author Dr. Steven Asch, at the Rand Health research institute, in Santa Monica, Calif. “We all get equally mediocre care.” The researchers, who included U.S. Veterans Affairs personnel, first published their findings for the general population in June 2003. They reported the breakdown by racial, income, and other social groups on Thursday. continued at link..."

It's an AP article, so I couldn't really find any additional reports. Everyone seems to just be running the AP.





[Edited on March 16, 2006 at 11:38 PM. Reason : moo]

3/16/2006 11:37:07 PM

LOL it might help if I could spell... Oh well, it's late. My appologies.

3/16/2006 11:45:39 PM

What defines the "highest standard treatment"?

3/16/2006 11:49:20 PM

^I guess for this study it was the following from the above link:

Quote :

"The survey examined whether people got the highest standard of treatment for 439 measures ranging across common chronic and acute conditions and disease prevention. It looked at whether they got the right tests, drugs and treatments. Overall, patients received only 55 percent of recommended steps for top-quality care — and no group did much better or worse than that."

[Edited on March 16, 2006 at 11:53 PM. Reason : carrot]

3/16/2006 11:52:59 PM

i just read the blurb. receiving and paying for are the same in this article? i dont doubt most ppl can get quality care, it is paying for it that is generally the political issue.

3/17/2006 9:00:23 AM

why do we spend so much money on it if it's all the same?

3/17/2006 9:22:02 AM

hahahaa

i like how "Correct" is now synonymous with "Highest Quality"

3/17/2006 9:41:05 AM