This past week, two Kaiser Health Disparities Reports documented the effects of language and cultural barriers on medical outreach and diagnosis. The first report, on HIV/AIDS in the Texas Hispanic community, referenced a Dallas Morning News story which documented that HIV is being detected later in Texas Hispanics than in other ethnic groups. This increases the risk of spreading the virus and decreases possibilities for treatment. While 24% of the state's HIV-positive blacks and whites are diagnosed with AIDS within a month of testing positive for HIV, this number is 8% higher for Hispanics. Language barriers, limited access to health care, legal issues, and cultural differences are noted among the challenges at the root of this disparity.
- This past week, two Kaiser Health Disparities Reports documented the effects of language and cultural barriers on medical outreach and diagnosis. The first report, on HIV/AIDS in the Texas Hispanic community, referenced a Dallas Morning News story which documented that HIV is being detected later in Texas Hispanics than in other ethnic groups. This increases the risk of spreading the virus and decreases possibilities for treatment. While 24% of the state's HIV-positive blacks and whites are diagnosed with AIDS within a month of testing positive for HIV, this number is 8% higher for Hispanics. Language barriers, limited access to health care, legal issues, and cultural differences are noted among the challenges at the root of this disparity. The second report points to language and cultural barriers as a reason many elderly Hispanics with Alzheimer's disease remain undiagnosed and untreated. According to the Alzheimer's Association, an estimated 200,000 Hispanics in the U.S have the disease, a figure expected to grow to 1.3 million by 2050. Experts point to a perception in the Hispanic community that symptoms of Alzheimer's are normal signs of aging, as well as a lack of health insurance and access to care as important factors in late diagnosis of the disease in Hispanics. Solutions include earlier screening, improved access, and "targeted awareness and treatment efforts."
- The Health Care Blog reports that Howard County, Maryland will launch the "most ambitious local effort at universal coverage" since San Francisco in April 2007. The plan, known as the Healthy Howard Plan, will offer primary, specialty, and hospital care as well as prescription drugs to 2,200 of the county's 20,000 uninsured residents beginning next month, all for $85 or less a month. According to its designers, Healthy Howard is "built on the philosophy that health care is a right and a responsibility." This language of a human right to healthcare is echoed in the Opportunity Agenda's policy brief, Healthcare, Opportunity and Human Rights at Home. Each enrollee will have to complete a health assessment and work with an assigned health coach to reach specified goals. While the financing for the program, much of which comes from charity care from the local hospital, is not sustainable, the program will offer unprecedented insight into what does and doesn't work, valuable information for future health reformers. An initial evaluation of the program will be available within 6 months to a year.
- An opinion piece in The New York Times evaluated the probability of universal health care reform in the upcoming years. It listed three hurdles to reform: the swing of political power in the upcoming election, the public's fear of change, and a loss of focus on the health care given such issues as a weak economy and foreign policy crises in the spotlight.
- The Washington Post reported that health care costs are expected to rise 10% in 2009. Despite being the smallest increase in six years, the increase will make quality health care even more difficult to access. Particularly hard hit will be poor communities in the U.S. already struggling to pay steep premiums.