Addressing Disparities in Health and Health Care: Issues for Reform

Abstract

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee on Health, thank you for the opportunity to testify on the issue of racial disparities in health and health care. I am Marsha Lillie-Blanton, Senior Advisor on Race, Ethnicity, and Health Care at the Kaiser Family Foundation, and also an Associate Research Professor in the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. Today, 1 in 3 Americans self-identify as either Hispanic/Latino, African American/Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian American, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander. By 2050, half of the U.S. population will be a person of color (Figure 1). This demographic shift in the population suggests that there are economic as well as health consequences of our failure to eliminate longstanding disparities in health status and in access to health care.