Expert highlights health disparities
Chidi Achebe DMS ’96 discussed health care disparities in a lecture on Tuesday.
By Joy Chen
Published on Wednesday, November 4, 2009
The United States must take steps to address health care disparities between white and minority groups, Chidi Achebe DMS ’96, the president and CEO of the Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center in Boston, said in a lecture in Chilcott Auditorium on Tuesday.
While minority groups have made significant progress since the civil rights movement in the 1960s, many members of these groups still do not receive the same level of health care as non-Hispanic white Americans, Achebe said.
Black males die more frequently of diseases that do not comparably affect the white population, Achebe said.
“We are looking at third world pathologies that shouldn’t have made their way to the first world countries,” Achebe said.
Achebe said that approximately 49 out of every 100,000 black men die of prostate cancer annually. The rate is much lower for non-Hispanic white males, he said.
HIV is more prevalent among people of color, Achebe said. While one in 46 African Americans has AIDS, only one in 346 non-Hispanic whites is infected with the virus.
Members of minority groups are also more likely to suffer from obesity-related diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, cancer and heart disease.
The government must implement health care reforms, including the establishment of universal health care, to remedy these disparities, Achebe said.
Achebe also linked health care to education, arguing that uneducated individuals often do not obtain the health care benefits to which they are entitled.
“Low educational attainment continues to provide barriers to the health care system and skills for maneuvering within the system,” he said.
Achebe said that these health care disparities can be addressed by having more minority students enter the health care profession.
“Studies show that those minorities go back to the most under-served areas,” Achebe said.
Housing improvements are also necessary, Achebe said, explaining that poor housing conditions and racially segregated housing has been associated with decreased life expectancy.
Achebe said that state and national health care organizations must coordinate their efforts to address these health-related issues, which he said are too difficult for a single organization to overcome. Coordinated efforts must expand affordable employer-based health insurance and public health insurance eligibility, and ensure that insurance companies reimburse health care costs fairly and equitably.