Health Affairs
October 2011; Volume 30, Issue 10

Agenda For Fighting Disparities
http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/current

From The Editor-in-Chief
A Nation At Risk For Wider Health Disparities
Susan Dentzer
Health Aff October 2011 30:1818; doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2011.1091

Extract
Among the well-documented deficiencies of US health care is its pronounced lack of equity—not just in access, but also in the quality of care provided whites versus ethnic and racial minorities. We shouldn’t be surprised, because our society is inequitable, a fact that gives rise to inequities in health.

This month’s issue of Health Affairs, produced with the support of the Aetna Foundation, provides a progress report on where we are as a nation in addressing these health and health care disparities. It also underscores that a “change” agenda will have to tackle the very fundamentals of existence that characterize the lives of millions of people in twenty-first-century America…