Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
Through
Health Centers
August 2004
Health centers act as the family doctor and medical home for more than 14
million people, 9 million of whom are people of racial and ethnic minority
populations. For almost 40 years, health centers have provided
high-quality, cost-effective, primary and preventive health care to the
medically vulnerable, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay.
Research shows that American minorities receive poorer health care than
non-minorities, even when income, insurance status and medical conditions are
considered. This inequality contributes to higher minority morbidity and
mortality rates than those of non-minorities. Health centers play a major
role in eliminating and reducing health disparities. Examples include:
Lower infant mortality rates by 10 to 40 percent.
Pap tests among Health Center women remain higher than women below 200
percent of the Federal Level of Poverty in the Nation.
Minorities with hypertension at health centers are three times as likely to
report blood pressure under control.
Health center Medicaid patients are 22 percent less likely to be
hospitalized, reducing Medicaid costs by 30 percent.
Nationally, racial and ethnic minorities are projected to grow to 40 percent
by 2030, a significant rise from 28 percent of the U.S. population in 1998.
Source: National Association of Community Health Centers,
2003.
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