Report: Poor Health Care Hurting Blacks

- Study: Disparities in care kill 80,000 Blacks
Blacks' higher death rates blamed on racial Segregation
The cost of segregation: This 5-part Detroit News series examined the steep prices Metro Detroit blacks and whites pay for their segregated living patterns. African-Americans die at sharply higher rates than whites, a gap caused largely by deep racial segregation and other social factors, studies released Wednesday show. The studies, published together, are the latest to trace racial disparities in health. Their findings have particular resonance in Metro Detroit, which is the nation's most segregated metropolitan area. One of the studies found middle-age black men are dying at nearly twice the rate of white men, primarily because of differences in socio-economic status and access to medical care. The other, by researchers at the University of Michigan and Indiana University, showed segregation is partly to blame. In that study, the researchers tracked changes in black and white deaths from six conditions -- cancer, heart disease, homicide, flu, pneumonia and suicide -- over a 50-year period. "Economics and access to health care do indeed play a large part," said Iris Pita, a retired nurse at Detroit Receiving Hospital. "I've seen places where people didn't even have running water or lights." [more]
- Health Disparities Called A 'National Embarrassment' [more]