Sebelius Sez: There are Health Disparities

Secretary of Health and Human Services and former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius announced the release of a new report this week about overall health disparities in the United States.

"A Case for Closing the Gap highlights some of the glaring disparities that exist in the current health system. Under the status quo:

• Forty-eight percent of all African Americans adults suffer from a chronic disease compared to 39 percent of the general population.
• Eight percent of white Americans develop diabetes while 15 percent of African Americans, 14 percent of Hispanics, and 18 percent of American Indians develop diabetes.
• Hispanics were one-third less likely to be counseled on obesity than were whites -- only 44 percent of Hispanics received counseling.
• African Americans are 15 percent more likely to be obese than whites."

What the report doesn't mention is the staggering number of young people who are dropped from their parents' insurance or don't have it once they age out of the Children's Health Insurance Program. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation research (PDF), young adults age 19-29 have the highest uninsured rate of any age group - nearly one-third. Approximately 1.7 million college youth, 18-23 didn't have health insurance in 2006, according to the Roosevelt Institute's report on youth and health care.

HHS Says:

"The disparities in health care highlighted in this report demonstrate the need for reform. Meaningful reform must invest in prevention and wellness and ensure that all Americans have access to high-quality, affordable care. We can no longer afford to tolerate disparities in health."

I would also call on a need for reform in the way we handle young people and their health. In Febuary, the New York Times did a piece calling youth the Invincible Generation claiming that we didn't think we needed health insurance. Mike Connery responded in a piece saying Invincible? Try Broke...

Health care is expensive, and entry level jobs in combination with over $22,000 in average student loan debt in addition to the $4,000 in credit card debt from predatory lenders on campus, it isn't that young people don't want health care, its honestly that they can't pay for it. Additionally, the unemployment rate for you is more than double the national average, so many youth aren't in jobs that provide it, and the ones that are in jobs are sometimes in positions that don't provide it because they don't have the seniority. Its an impossible vicious circle, and, I believe, one of the greatest misunderstood about youth and health care.

I plug our 80 Million Strong conference frequently on here, but we've recently invited Secretary Sebelius to attend our health care discussion to address some of these important issues in addition to the unacceptable disparity gap between people of color and low income groups.