Racial Equity and Health Policy Program

The current health reform debate in this country focuses heavily on providing access to affordable health coverage for the millions of people who are uninsured. Any effort to expand coverage, alter current public programs, and/or create new public programs will have important consequences for the health of communities of color,…

On Wednesday, November 4, at 1 p.m. ET, this Today’s Topics In Health Disparities live webcast examined how ready the health care system is for the influx of newly covered individuals that health reform aims to deliver. In the health care proposals being considered by Congress, changes to Medicaid alone…

A Profile of American Indians and Alaska Natives and Their Health Coverage This brief examines the health coverage, access to care and health status of American Indians and Alaska Natives across the country. Although the U.S. government has an established responsibility through tribal agreements to provide health care services to…

This issue brief examines some of the challenges associated with employment, daily life and access to health care among racial minorities, who tend to be disproportionately affected by many of the consequences of economic hard times. High unemployment rates, coupled with vast differences in savings and wealth, have left many…

A decade after U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher called for the elimination of racial disparities in health, women of color in every state continue to fare worse than white women on a variety of measures of health and health care access. The Foundation has created a package of resources, including…

This Kaiser Family Foundation report documents the persistence of disparities between white women and women of color across the country. It provides a rare and comprehensive state-level look at disparities among women of different races and ethnicities on a broad range of indicators of health and well-being, including rates of diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, AIDS and cancer, and access to health insurance and health screenings.

This video provides a snapshot of the Arlington (Va.) Free Clinic where, four times a month, medical personnel provide care and screenings exclusively to women. The video explores the hurdles that uninsured women face in accessing health care and the social issues, including work and family responsibilities, that create challenges…

This updated fact sheet shows variations across states and racial and ethnic groups for six key health and health care indicators. It provides a quick glance at disparities in rates of infant mortality and diabetes-related mortality and AIDS cases in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well…

The Kaiser Family Foundation presents a series of live, interactive webcasts devoted to addressing a range of issues relating to health and health care disparities in the United States. Each discussion will feature a panel of experts tackling current issues in health disparities and answering questions from webcast viewers. 2011…

Transcript (.pdf) On Wednesday, March 25, the Kaiser Family Foundation held a live, interactive webcast to examine the economic downturn’s impact on health care in communities of color as part of its Today’s Topics In Health Disparities series. Rising unemployment has left many families uninsured and increasingly strained family finances…